Stay Afloat with Google Tools-- Using Google as an instructional coach to communicate, collaborate and stay organized!

As a new TOSA (teacher on special assignment) this year supporting 9 elementary school sites with math instruction and technology integration, the very first objective on my agenda was to figure out the best way to communicate with such a large group of teachers. Luckily, we're a Google (GAFE) district, so deciding what tools to use was a no-brainer. But how to best utilize those tools was the challenge. Will my teachers read a website or blog? Or would they prefer a newsletter? Or do I just stick to emails, or try a Google+ community or Google Group? And how about scheduling appointments and coaching sessions-- organizing meeting times for a couple hundred teachers is tough.

My plan? I decided to try a little bit of everything, and, with a little help from my friends on #TOSAchat and #educoach, I built several communication strategies to experiment with. I requested feedback from my teachers on their favorite means of learning, communicating and collaborating, and tweaked my strategy based on their requests. And in the process, I learned a lot about how to leverage Google tools for communicating, collaborating and organizing my work as an instructional coach.