Caroline Hardeman

EDEL590/Spring 2017
Technology Mentoring Project
Google Classroom with Jennifer
Part I: Selecting a Mentee
Jennifer Johnston is a 14 year teacher who I have known since college, nearly
20 years.

She taught in a Special Education classroom for 12 years before returning to

general education this school year as a member of the staff at Hollow Hills
Fundamental, where I have worked for the past 8 years.

With regard to SAMR and TPACK, Jennifer is an educator who is in the process
of transformation. She understands the Pedagogy and Content, but needs
assistance incorporating the technology components into her lessons.

Jennifer is perfect mentoring candidate because she is enthusiastic about

incorporating technology into her classroom lessons and
is willing to try new things and adapt as needed.
Initial Reflection
I was beyond enthusiastic at the prospect of
working with someone as technologically savvy
as Caroline because I knew I needed support and
direction to infuse these new tools (i.e. the
classroom set of Chromebooks) into our daily
learning environment. I wanted the Chromebooks
to truly amplify student learning and give them a
method to showcase their learning that was
previously unavailable. I did NOT want them to
be something students only used to play games
and therefore viewed as toys. My hope was that I
would find a way, with help from Caroline, to put
the technology to work in the classroom in a
manner that promoted student learning, build
independent work habits, and allow me the
flexibility and freedom to respond to student
needs and interests.
- Jennifer
Jennifer was really excited about discovering
new ways to bring technology into her
classroom in a meaningful way. She is
adventurous when it comes to technology, is
willing to put in extra time and effort to make the
learning experience more accessible for all her
students, and has a desire to expose both
herself and her students to any opportunity that
will make them all more successful. Google
Classroom is the path we decided would be her
entryway into exposing her students to an online
learning platform. We mapped out our plan of
attack and began immediately.
- Caroline
Google Classroom at Hollow Hills
The Hollow Hills Fundamental community is unique for our district. We are a magnet
school with high parent involvement and high expectations of parent/teacher
communication, especially with regard to the use of technology in the classroom. This
is in opposition to the school Jennifer transferred from.

This being the case, as well as the fact that we went 1:1 with Chromebooks this year, made
the use of Google Classroom a great starting point for Jennifer.

Jennifer is familiar with Google Classroom because our Principal began using it this year
as a means of communication with the staff. Our weekly updates and other important
messages from him are relayed to teachers via the Hollow Hills Staff Classroom he set
up earlier in the year.

We decided that meeting each day to debrief would be a good start.

Weekly meetings on Fridays would allow us to start each week

with new implementations in Jennifers class.
Objectives & Implementation Schedule
Objectives:
Increase communication between
school and home.
Increase student independence and
promote accountability.
Improve communication between
teacher and students (even when
either are not present in the
classroom)
Increase student fluency with
technology to facilitate work
completion and be prepared for the
state test.
Schedule:
Week 1: Setup classroom(s) and enroll
students and parents. This will be
done via modeling, tutorials, and
working together to lesson plan next
steps.
Weeks 2/3: Daily mini-lessons for
students to familiarize them with
Classroom and to set routines for
specific weekly assignments (i.e.
Studies Weekly, Paragraph of the
Week, etc.)
Weeks 4/5: Revision of assignment
postings/planning ahead
Reflecting on Google Classroom at Hollow
Hills
Using Google Classroom has been Initially, we decided Jennifer would create a classroom for
incredible. I have thoroughly enjoyed the
focused time Caroline and I spent
together sitting side by side, discussing
successes, questions, problems, and
possibilities each week. Also
tremendously helpful were the impromptu
daily download sessions when I hit a
roadblock (collaborative Google Slides)
either before or after school. After every
meeting, I felt I had learned something
valuable, and, more importantly, I saw
something positive had transpired for my
students.
- Jennifer
her homeroom students, 26 third graders. We sat side-by-
side and created our respective classes, so she could see it
as it was done, much like a live tutorial. Our first sessions
went well and implementation was easy. We met each
afternoon so I could guide her through the addition of
assignments and links. We also discussed what worked
each day as well as any assignments that were a challenge.
Google slides is something I teach my own students, and
collaborative slides are a struggle with 6th graders, but Jen
wanted to give it a shot, so I supported her endeavor and
helped her reimagine the lesson when it went awry. I was
also able to pop into her classroom during the day if needed
so I could assist while students were logging in.
-Caroline
Reflection on Progress
Week 1: Setting up a Google Classroom is
so easy! Getting students enrolled takes
approximately two minutes. I was so
excited about the potential benefits I
convinced my team to create a Classroom
for our grade level. Connecting with
families at home is also almost effortless.
Week 2 & 3: Posting assignment directions
in Google Classroom was profoundly
simple. I no longer had to repeat
directions but could send students to a
particular assignment number and let
them work. Then I was free to circulate
and monitor understanding instead of
being a parrot. Including a digital copy of
the assignment was also incredibly
helpful. -Jennifer
The initial lessons were a great success.
Jennifer is a quick learner, unafraid to ask
for clarification, whether in our daily
debrief sessions or in a quick email during
the school day. Once her students joined
the classroom she was eager to get
assignments posted and have students
interacting with her as well as classmates
online. Parents were enthusiastic about
the changes as well. By our second
week of meeting, Jennifer was receiving
positive results and shared them with her
grade level team. She even created a
grade level classroom for communication
with her team, where they could share
documents and information to ensure
parents were receiving consistent
communication.
-Caroline
Reflection on Progress, Part II
Week 4 & 5: My hopes and expectations
were high from previous success when I
assigned a collaborative Google Slides
project. It turned out to be absolute
chaos. Fortunately, Caroline had some
great suggestions, and they worked.
Concluding Thoughts: This experience has
been so incredible! Initially, I wasnt sure I
would be able to meaningfully incorporate
technology into the learning environment.
Caroline was an amazing mentor and
coach every step of the way. She was
always quick to listen, able to find a
success to celebrate, and, when
difficulties arise, she has suggestions and
alternate strategies because she is so
fluent with the technology. I cannot wait
to see what we do next!
-Jennifer
By the fourth week, Jennifer and I really
did not need daily meetings. We did,
however, touch base each day to share
upcoming activity in the Classroom. She
was hopeful about a collaborative slide
and tried it, with little success. I
encouraged her to try again, but provide
students with individual slides which she
could combine later if she so desired.
This was much more successful. We plan
to continue meeting weekly through the
end of the school year and are talking
about planning cross-grade level activities
in the Classroom next year.
-Caroline
Final Reflection
The mentoring process was something I had participated in previously, but never to this
extent with such focus. Working with Jennifer to set up and maintain her Google Classroom
not only gave me the opportunity to share my knowledge with another teacher, it also
allowed me to expand what I understood. This was because as we worked through
challenges, I tried to not only find solutions, but stay a step ahead, planning and
troubleshooting what Jennifer and other teachers might encounter as they integrated Google
Classroom into their own daily routines. This experience made me a better classroom
teacher as well, because in the role of mentor, I was willing to take chances and try new
things with my students. The research I have done in earlier classes all
pointed to the fact that teachers are more willing to introduce technology in their classrooms
when they feel adequately trained and confident in their own ability. This is definitely
what I am witnessing firsthand as I work with teachers on my own staff.