How can I use the Instructional Coach?

I know that the position of the Instructional Coach is unfamiliar this year.  So for this month's post, I wanted to list some ways that I can support you in your classroom instruction and professional development.

• Classroom Observations:  We can get together and plan for you to observe in someone else's classroom.  I will ask you what you hope to see and we will construct a sheet with specific look-fors.  You will have the chance to observe a colleague teaching, and I will teach your class while you are gone.  After your observation, we will meet to discuss the things you saw and reflect on ways that your observation can help you in your class.
• Observing you in the classroom: An Instructional Coach can serve as an extra set of eyes in your classroom.  Maybe you want to focus on the level of student engagement in your classroom?  I can come in and track the number of students who are engaged at set time intervals.  We can then meet and discuss my observations.
• Cycles of Teaching: Is there a new instructional strategy or technique that you would like to try?  We can meet and plan a lesson together.  One idea is that I could teach, while you watch or record me, reflect and then discuss.  We would follow this by you teaching another lesson, while I observe, and then we reflect and discuss.
• Planning or Pacing: Are you having a hard time with planning out a lesson, or pacing a series of lessons?  I would love to sit down with you and collaboratively plan an upcoming unit, or lesson.  I can also assist your team with this as well.
• Recording Other Teachers: Is there a teacher you would love to watch, but don't feel comfortable leaving your class?  I can be your eyes, and record another teacher's lesson for you.  You then watch the videos, reflect on your own, then we can reflect together with the other teacher.
• Data analysis: In April, we will take our next round of benchmark tests.  I can meet with you to discuss your data results, and reflect on what those results are showing us.  We can then plan on how to meet the needs of the students in your classroom.
• Collaboration: I can support your efforts to collaborate and co-plan with other teachers.  I can create a planning worksheet for you, and work with a group to plan units or lessons that are aligned with the Curriculum Framework.
• Looking at SOL released tests: Would you like to know about released tests from the last three years?  I know you don't have time to spend analyzing those tests, but I already have.  I would love to meet with you and share what I found.

These are just some of the ways that you can use me, as your Instructional Coach, to support you in the classroom.  There are many, many more ways as well.  Please call on me for help or support in any area!

The Power of the Video

As I am traveling throughout many classrooms, I find myself thinking, "I wish I could show other teachers this lesson, or strategy".  There are so many great things that happen daily, and I wish more teachers were able to observe other teachers.  However, teachers are very busy people, and are not able to observe colleagues as often as they should.  I have tried to highlight teacher instructional practice in my section of the blog titled "Teachers in Action".  This is great to read about fellow teachers but it is simply not as powerful as watching the lesson live.

Since observing other teachers is not a reality, I am interested in creating a video library of instructional strategies that we have been focused on learning and implementing in our classrooms.   On January 16th, I conducted a training for our faculty about three of the Marzano strategies: identifying similarities and differences, cooperative learning, and non-linguistic representation.  I was able to get a lot of feedback and many people were interested in further training to develop lessons that use these strategies.  This week, I was able to meet with one teacher to plan a lesson that would identify similarities and differences between three scientists: Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison and Michael Faraday.  We planned that she would use a graphic organizer called a comparison matrix to look at the similarities and differences between the scientists.  The lesson would also incorporate technology to research each scientist. 

I asked the teacher if I could videotape the lesson for several reasons.  The first reason is that she was implementing a strategy that would be useful to other teachers.  The video would be powerful because it is a person that the whole staff knows, and the students are reflective of all of our kids at Waterman.  The video would be one of our own, and on our turf.  The second reason to videotape the lesson is that the teacher can view her lesson objectively, and make note of which parts went well and which parts did not go as planned.  It provides the opportunity for me as the instructional coach to work as a partner with the teacher, providing support and feedback on the lesson. 

Although it made the teacher nervous, she graciously allowed me to record the lesson.  She now has the homework of viewing her lesson on video, reflecting on the lesson, and we will meet to follow up next week.  I am so grateful that she is willing to work through the coaching process with me.  And I am excited to continue on in the coaching cycle with this teacher.

I am hopeful that once the teacher and I can share our coaching experience, that more teachers will want to videotape themselves using new instructional strategies.  The power of the video will provide us with on-site professional development that furthers the excellence that I see everyday at Waterman Elementary School.