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How to maintain your sanity while still being a great Instructional Coach

Being an Instructional Coach can be taxing to say the least. We are teachers of teachers. We are data bases. We are advocates for students. We wear so many hats that sometimes the ones that are most important get put on the backburner. It’s important we remember to pull out the “I’m still a person” hat, “mom/dad” hat, or any other hat we previously enjoyed wearing before school started up again. Not getting to wear all the hats you want to can be frustrating, but wearing too many hats can be downright stressful.

Dive on in, the Data’s Fine!

Being an instructional coach is all about helping teachers maximize their time and resources to create engaged students who become life-long learners. The best way to accomplish that is through taking a dive into a nice pool of data!

Vary your Observations

As Instructional Coaches and Leaders, we have busy schedules that keep us on our toes and watching the clock. Because we are so busy, sometimes we forget we should be doing different types of “observations” for our teachers and each one has its own purpose.

Fostering Strong Relationships Through Positive Feedback

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.

Partnering with the Principal

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.

Instructional Coaches… How do you Effectively Communicate with Teachers?

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.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Instructional Coaching

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.

Who are you COACHING for?

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…

End of Year Reflection for Instructional Coaches

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.

10 Coaching Strategies for Instructional Coaches

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.

from the Blog