The biggest and most important job we have as instructional coaches is to give feedback to the teachers we work with. While it can be easy to focus on the areas teachers need to improve on, it is always important to provide teachers with positive feedback. There are many ways and reasons to provide positive feedback to teachers and in doing so, you will create stronger relationships with those you work with.
Whether or not you are a teacher, coach, aide, doctor, secretary, or truck driver, I think we all have a common thought. How can we make our job a little easier?? Partnering with the principal is one way to help make life more manageable.
Some of us are born with a natural gift of gab, an ease to every passing moment into a conversation. There are some who fit in the “can’t get a word in edgewise” category. And then there are all the rest of us.
Education, as it’s been known for years on end, is ever changing. Most recently, the change has shifted to include instructional coaches as onsite job-embedded professional development for classroom teachers. We are seeing more and more schools adapting to this quickly spreading idea of bringing in an outside brain for one common goal, the one thing that continues to stay the same in education….student achievement. As with any new idea, there are important strategies to use and to NOT use.
Now that we are wrapping up the end of the year, I like to think about how I can improve my coaching for the next school year. One of the questions I start with…
Who am I coaching for? Am I coaching for Me? Teachers? Students? Community?
This question is more than just a quick reflection for current coaches. If you just snagged your first coaching gig “Congrats!” and this is the question you definitely need to get answered…
With summer quickly approaching, we are all hustling and bustling to get everything wrapped up before the end of the year. Before you hit that “end” button, make sure you take time to do one of the most important jobs in education: reflect.
During my training as a teacher, I learned instructional strategies to teach lessons and deal with my students in the classroom. When I transitioned to being a coach, I soon realized that coaching was similar to teaching, my teachers became my students and I had to figure out strategies to best support them.
As an Instructional Coach, many times I work with new teachers and teachers who are struggling with classroom management. Of course, I do a full baseline observation, tier my teachers and start coaching cycles. But sometimes that just takes too long.
It takes a long time to earn someone’s trust, and it can be lost in an instant. As an instructional coach, earning that trust can take even longer. Even as a teacher or administrator, earning your colleagues trust takes time, and unfortunately can be crushed with one mistake.
Feedback can be intimidating to some, so I’ve put together some helpful tips to make the most out of those meetings that we may not always be looking forward to having! Keep this in mind: the purpose of a feedback meeting is to positively influence student learning!
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