Friday, March 22, 2013

Chap 4-Instructional Coaches Leading Intensive Learning Teams and Workshops

         As stated earlier, without instructional coaches, professional learning will have little impact on how our teachers teach.  These coaches can ensure that workshops and learning teams are successful and move toward helping the target (students). There are four areas in which coaches can improve their skills of leading these teams and workshops.

  • Leading effectively:  Coaches are the perfect people to lead because it helps them to be seen as the go-to people.  Leading also helps the coach synthesize their learning and then communicate that learning to others.  Anyone who has prepared for presenting understands how much planning goes into it.  Coaches can deepen and sharpen their skills while preparing for these workshops.  Coaches who are presenters need to be a part of professional learning networks and be in contact with others who present.  Jim Knight offers a website for coaches to join together in understanding how to present and practice their skills.  (www.instructionalcoaching.com )
  • Providing support during sessions:  If a coach is not presenting, they can still lead small group discussions during workshops.  They can also be used to answer questions and provide valuable insight during the presentation.  Bottom line...use a coach in some capacity during the workshop if they are not the presenter.
  • Conduct interviews prior to presenting:  Conducting interviews prior to workshops or team meetings will help the coach gain great insight into a teacher's point of view.  This will allow the coach to address any prior issues before or during the presentation.  Teachers will appreciate the time given by the coach to seek out their thoughts. 
  • Provide follow-up to meetings:  Providing follow-up is essential to the success of any presentation or team meeting.  These follow-up meetings need to schedule prior to the workshop or team meetings.  This will let the participants know the importance of what is being done.  On page 104 in the book, Jim Knight list some great follow-up questions a coach can ask during a teacher interview. 
        Stock (2010) suggest having a mentor for the instructional coach.  In his article entitled, Mentoring As A Professional Development Strategy For Instructional Coaches: Who Mentors the Mentors?, he found that 58% of instructional coaches never had a mentor but 90% thought it was important.  I had never really thought about instructional coaches having a mentor but it really is a great idea!  Instructional coaches are just like teachers, they do not automatically understand how to coach effectively.  Having a seasoned coach to model and reflect with could only lead to better instructional coaching!  I found a website out of Pennsylvania that supports instructional coaching and mentoring http://piic.pacoaching.org/index.php/piic-home

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