Coaching
“Change Coaches address whole-school, organizational improvement. Content coaches focus more exclusively on improving teachers’ instructional strategies in specific content areas.” That pretty much sums up what the School Support Organizations are attempting to give their schools. A School Management Advisor to support the administration and pay attention to the over-all school organization and three content area specialists to support primarily English, Science and Math while providing support to all teachers in all content areas.
This supports the information about the elements of teacher professional development: grounded in inquiry, reflection and experimentation; collaborative in sharing knowledge and teachers’ communication; sustained, ongoing, intensive and supported by modeling, coaching and problem solving; connected to work with students; engaging teachers; and connected to school change.
When putting the research into action, it is important to consider the stages of development of the administration and staff and the culture of the community in which the school is located. From limited experience in one school and listening to conversation from other schools, coaches must be constantly aware of the people with whom they work. Is the principal interested in and/or willing to give over instructional leadership to the teachers? Is the principal wanting to build a capacity for shared decision-making which minimizes micromanaging? Does the principal understand the use of data and the importance of asking some tough questions which lead to trends shown in the data? It seems that the culture of the community and the mind set of the principal makes it difficult to create a learning community which values teacher leaders.
At our school, I have witnessed wonderful growth in department coordinators and in teachers working in teams. Coordinators are taking on the challenges of successfully guiding teachers in their unit and lesson planning. The difficulty is moving the lesson plans into action in the classroom. Many teachers are still struggling with examining data and turning the knowledge gleaned into defining classroom organization and selecting teaching strategies.
As this school year moves through the second semester, it will be the goal of the content area specialists to assist coordinators and teachers in using data to truly meet the needs of all students without eliminating their plans for covering the required standards in their content areas. For the SMA, it will be to assist the principal in creating a more open communication line so coordinators and teachers feel that their leadership skills are being considered in the over-all success of the school. It will all require coaching and being a guide-on-the-side who leaves some road maps for the school leadership to follow once the SSO teams have left the building. The change will take beyond this school year, but it is very possible and I see much success in the future of this school.
This supports the information about the elements of teacher professional development: grounded in inquiry, reflection and experimentation; collaborative in sharing knowledge and teachers’ communication; sustained, ongoing, intensive and supported by modeling, coaching and problem solving; connected to work with students; engaging teachers; and connected to school change.
When putting the research into action, it is important to consider the stages of development of the administration and staff and the culture of the community in which the school is located. From limited experience in one school and listening to conversation from other schools, coaches must be constantly aware of the people with whom they work. Is the principal interested in and/or willing to give over instructional leadership to the teachers? Is the principal wanting to build a capacity for shared decision-making which minimizes micromanaging? Does the principal understand the use of data and the importance of asking some tough questions which lead to trends shown in the data? It seems that the culture of the community and the mind set of the principal makes it difficult to create a learning community which values teacher leaders.
At our school, I have witnessed wonderful growth in department coordinators and in teachers working in teams. Coordinators are taking on the challenges of successfully guiding teachers in their unit and lesson planning. The difficulty is moving the lesson plans into action in the classroom. Many teachers are still struggling with examining data and turning the knowledge gleaned into defining classroom organization and selecting teaching strategies.
As this school year moves through the second semester, it will be the goal of the content area specialists to assist coordinators and teachers in using data to truly meet the needs of all students without eliminating their plans for covering the required standards in their content areas. For the SMA, it will be to assist the principal in creating a more open communication line so coordinators and teachers feel that their leadership skills are being considered in the over-all success of the school. It will all require coaching and being a guide-on-the-side who leaves some road maps for the school leadership to follow once the SSO teams have left the building. The change will take beyond this school year, but it is very possible and I see much success in the future of this school.
posted by Gari at
1:02 AM
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