Instructional Coaching Tips!

Being an instructional coach is always challenging…that’s why I LOVE it! 

You never know what to expect and each day is different from the next.  

I LOVE working with new teachers and watching them grow.  I LOVE supporting veteran teachers when they dig through curriculum or want to try something new.  

I LOVE being able to go into every classroom and see students learning at all different levels.  Working through centers or teacher presenting mini lessons.   

Speaking of curriculum, I LOVE digging into curriculum and creating resources for my teachers and our district!  (Totally soooo much FUN!)  

I can't believe I am saying this but I am starting to LOVE data!  Our time with Istation last year was tough at first but once we got the hang of generating reports it really helped us track our students's growth & our core instruction.  

SO these are just some of my loves.  This year has been different.  The virtual world of teaching has defiantly made it difficult.

I'll admit, this year I feel really detached.  I am part of a school team for sure.  I work closely with my admin team and I have teacher buds at school but as an instructional coach, I am LONE wolf at my school.  You see my team of coaches is spread all over the district.  We work closely with the Curriculum and Instruction team at the county office.  We normally meet on Mondays to build curriculum.  This always started my week off so HAPPY!  

Basically is I what I am trying to say is I MISS PEOPLE!  I Miss PLC for crying out loud!  I know we can meet virtually but it isn't enough!  You can pass a magnifying glass around the room modeling a morning meeting greeting in a virtual meet!  There is no CHOCOLATE to share in a virtual meet! 

With this all being said, and my mini pity party is over, I have GOALS people!  I am determined to recreate the support I give my teachers!  I have a plan.  Let me share some tips that I have found that allows me to coach from afar!

So one of my many hats that I wear as a coach is actually a pom pom!

I am a cheerleader.  I celebrate my teachers!  I am constantly looking for the good, the great and the incredible!  

I know, I know!  Get to the tips! 

 

Tip #1: Organize yourself so you can help other!

I seriously was sweating everyday with the 1,000 tabs that were open on my computer.  I couldn't close them.  They were like book marks but there were a million of them!  If I closed one, I knew I would never find it because it was all new information about virtual learning.  I would never remember the titles!  

After about 2 weeks of this, I took a step back and thought about whaat I would do in the classroom?  What would I do as a teacher?  I created Notebook/Slideshow just like I used in the classroom to organize my day!  Check it out below.  

Tip #2: Find a way to celebrate and cheer your teachers on!  The sticker books finally opened!!!!! So here are our sticker books.  They are super simple!  Each sticker is linked to quick note telling them what WOWed me in their virtual classroom! 

Tip #3 Pay attention to what your teachers need.  Listen and try to do some ground work on lessons or even trouble shoot technology for them. I LOVE to create materials and we spent last week talking about CFAs during PLC. How do we get reliable data to start grouping our kids?  We decided as a school to break our CFAs up and give just a small part each day. 

My first grade team has been working on this and starting to group kids for their IE time and I noticed they needed a resource for counting.  I whipped one up in Google Slides.  You can check it out here!