My effective coaching project is underway!

As you may have read in earlier posts I have decided to do my project through a mooc.  This week was week one of “Coaching Teachers. Promoting Changes that Stick” and I am happy to report that I am throughly enjoying the learning so far.

This week the focus of my learning was on the introductory section.  This section included videos, readings, and discussion boards to present information and because the mooc is promoting changes that stick I am going to tell you what stuck with me this week.

The first thing in the course that stuck with me this week was a description of the purpose of effective coaching.

The class began this week with a role play video of an instructional coach and a new to the profession teacher.  Although the video showed a positive relationship between the two participants it was easy to pick out what was ineffective about their interactions.  The instructional coach (Mr. Goodcoach) was consistently positive and open to sharing with the new teacher (Miss Rookie) but offered little in the way of suggestions and opportunity to practice for improvement.  The interactions made Miss Rookie feel supported and positive about her work but it did little to offer an actual coaching for improvement opportunity.  I quite enjoyed watching the role plays this week as it gave me some visual examples of what to look for as effective and ineffective coaching as the course continued or the week.

The second thing that stuck with me this week were the elements of effective coaching.

The course included four elements of effective coaching; highly intensive, sustained, individualized, as well as high teacher buy-in.  They explained them a bit and moved on but I was left unsatisfied with this section and so I will explore this area more on my own.

The third this that stuck with me this week was The Coaching Formula.

It does look a bit strange to me using a formula to describe teacher coaching but I guess the visual helps us to put into perspective the steps we must have in place for effective coaching to take place.  I’m sure I will be able to describe each section in detail as the weeks go on but here is the quick overview I was provided with in the course this week.

Clarity of Instructional Vision

• shared idea of the optimal classroom
• “student facing” articulates what students are doing, saying, thinking
• agreed upon by both the coach and teacher

Quality of Feedback

• structure of feedback
• components of feedback

Fixed Mindset Tax

• change occurs depending on mindset tax

I did do a bit more exploring on my own this week into the topic of feedback and came across this Ted Talk Video about the need for real feedback by Bill Gates and even though it is based on education in the states I liked the message.

As a bonus I came across Silvia’s blog when searching for additional resources and ideas.  Silvia took the same mooc as I am and completed it earlier this year.  I love her use of Sketchnotes  to summarize each week so wanted to link to her blog as I feel like this is something I want to try a version of next week!

http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/05/10/my-first-mooc-coaching-teachers-promoting-changes-that-stick/