I Finally Found a Coaching Cycle that I Actually LIKE!

 I have never considered myself an individual that has enough knowledge to “coach” another teacher or professional. I am aware that I have a lot of knowledge, experience, and skills to offer, but have never been confident enough to say, “let me help you with that.” 

 I have, however, been a soccer coach for some time, and felt that I did have enough experience and knowledge to help guide and direct players in the game. This is what I think of when I consider coaching. I have had to shift my thinking to consider the classroom as the “field”, students as the “players” and the teacher as the “coach”, therefore I am coaching the coach. 
I feel that this is a better and more accurate representation of what an instructional or technology coach is asked to accomplish. 


While in the classroom, I often despised when an instructional coach would come in to observe. I felt like they were trying to “catch” me doing something incorrectly and run back to report it to my administrator. As a student academic success coach now, I see that teachers (especially high school dual enrollment instructors) are thankful that they have someone else checking in on these students and helping to guide their learning.
In my coaching partnership cycle, I first met with the teacher to discuss our backgrounds and their struggles within the classroom. While he stated that he had been teaching for sometime, this year he had ELL students and students with other accommodations in the same first period class. He stated that he would like to learn how to incorporate more technology into his teaching, particularly when it came to the ELL students and students needing accommodations. I do have previous experience with teaching ELL students and do know how difficult of a task it is. 
After doing some research on coaching, I came across an article by Ashley McBride. Although this article focused on technology coaching and the need for it, I was able to glean some coaching information from it as well. One piece of the article I really resonated with was the “EdTech Coaching Cycle” (McBride, 2023). 

Looking closely at this particular cycle, I realized that this was the approach that I had begun to take with my current coaching partnership. I have already initiated coaching and plan to begin observing. We will then meet and discuss feedback and reflect upon the lesson and what was observed. We will make a plan to implement some of the pieces that we have discussed and go from there. I like that this cycle is an actual “cycle”. Many times throughout my career, I have been coached for the sake of instructional improvement, but I believe that this coaching cycle that my partner teacher and I have embarked upon is for the true benefit of becoming a better teacher.


References:

McBride, A. (2023). Got an Edtech COACH? If we really want technology-rich learning

environments, our teachers need more personalized support. Educational Leadership, 80(9), 36–41.


Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 27, 2023 at 10:27 AM

    I really like the parallel that you made between coaching in the classroom and coaching in a sport. Putting the topic into words that are familiar to most like referring to the classroom as the field, the students as players, and the teacher as the coach I believe would help those unfamiliar with a classroom setting understand what you are trying to convey. I also like that you pointed out often times it feels as if an instructional coach was there to catch you doing something. I have often felt like this myself. I do agree with you that this coaching cycle we are in is very different from my prior experiences and I believe accomplished what the true purpose of instructional coaching is or should be.

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