Coaching can feel scattered and superficial at times and this feeling makes the coaches I work with feel nervous. They aren’t sure there will be any noticeable outcomes from their work with teachers and this leads them to worry about issues around their own efficacy. A wonderful group of coaches in St. Joseph, MO coined the term “drive-by coaching” to describe the crazed coaching they were finding themselves doing most of the time.
To address this concern, we worked together to implement coaching cycles which I describe as:
- In-depth work with a teacher or pair of teachers, lasting approximately 6-9 weeks
- The focus of a cycle is determined by the learner (the teacher) rather than the coach
- The focus of the cycle comes from examining either formal or informal data and is ideally student-centered rather than teacher centered
- Coaching cycles include regular planning sessions, such as a 30-50 minute planning session per week and 1-3 times per week in the classroom for co-teaching, modeling instruction, or observing the teacher
- Coaching cycles are not predetermined by a school leader or coach, this fails to allow the teacher to engage in the cycle and it encourages the attitude that the coach is there to “fix” teachers
- Coaching cycles are a portion of a coach’s work. In addition to cycles, coaches facilitate small and large group learning for teachers, gather resources for teachers, informally plan with teachers, etc.
If you are a full-time coach, you can most likely take on no more than 3-5 cycles at a time, this leaves you lots of time to manage your other duties and also continue with some informal coaching conversations. If you are a part-time coach, than that number may have to be scaled back.
In future postings, we’ll discuss how to get teachers to participate in a coaching cycle.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Coaching Cycles vs. Drive-By Coaching
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2 comments:
Ironically, we were just talking about "drive-by coaching" at our district coaches' meeting (on Friday). Your suggestion to cycle makes perfect sense and is very well-described. One concern is that the cycle's transparency could cause a lack of trust on the part of the teacher...might the teachers still sense a "fly by" coaching experience? Might they sense the coach is only a crutch...some temporary help that might go away and leave them vulnerable? Thanks for this blog (and your insightful writing).
You are so right that trust is the foundation of the work we do and there is no doubt that coaching in cycles requires a climate and culture that sets the expectation that teachers are learners.
In my experience, a cycle does provide the depth that teachers need to move forward independtly, especially since the coaching is directly focused on the students and what they need. As a result, they feel supported and less vulnerable.
Thoughts?
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