field work reflection 1

8/16/2019 Field Work Reflection 1

1/30

Background

Initial Attempts

A Working Model

Action Steps

Implementation

First Launch Meeting

Second Launch Meeting

Weekly Meetings

Reflections and Next Steps

Successes

Room For Growth and Next Steps

Citations

Appendix 1 - Meeting Agendas For First Two Launch Meetings

Appendix 2 - Collegial Coaching Survey and Gallery Walk

Appendix 3 - Staff Responses from Collegial Coaching Meeting Number 1

Appendix 4- Responses Around Possible Areas to Focus On In Coaching

Appendix 5 - Co-coaching Script

Appendix 6 - Smart Goal Planner

Appendix 7 - A Menu Of Opportunities

Appendix 8 - Key Takeaways From Discussion of the New Yorker Article

Appendix 9: All Staff Email to Help Direct Informal Coaching Meetings

1


2/30

Fieldwork Reflection #1 Bryan Harms

Appendix 10 - Exit Survey

2


3/30


Fieldwork Reflection #1: Collegial Coaching

Standard 2 – Student Learning & Professional Growth

Advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to

student learning and staff professional growth.

Background

Many professional development opportunities for teachers do not result in long term

changes in teachers’ behavior or attitudes. This is not because the ideas and approaches aren’t

valuable but rather because there are the natural limitations of short term training and

demonstrations. Coaching, has shown the potential to fill this gap in professional development

( Tschannen-Moran, 2010). Becker (2000) describes peer or collegial coaching as a process

where two professional colleagues work together for a specified period time with a

predetermined purpose to improve their teaching practice. Becker goes on to say that the goals

and purpose of the work together can be broad. Observations, reflecting on practice, and building

new skills are all work that can take place within a coaching relationship. But one characteristic

of peer coaching persists in most successful coaching relationships - the nature of the

relationship is non-judgmental and non-evaluative (Boaler, 2000).

Initial Attempts

Several years ago we implemented a critical friends program at our school site. Teachers

paired off as ‘critical friends’. They met on a semi-regular basis to discuss teaching practices and

to support one another's growth. While participants were initially excited about having critical

friends, the outcome of the program did not live up to initial expectations.

From my recollection,individual meetings did not have specific goals set up before hand,

and was there no protocol in place to help scaffold the shared time. Additionally, the end goal of

the coaching relationship was never specifically established, or if it was, it was not done in a way

that was sticky. Additionally, we did not reflect on what went well during the process or what

could be improved. At the same time, teachers believed that such a program could be useful, but

were not sure how to make that happen.

3


4/30


5/30


There were two reasons I suggested pairing up with the elementary. First, the majority of

the elementary staff were new this year and it offered the possibility of creating meaningful

relationships across the schools. Secondly, familiarity can sometimes hinder accountability. By

setting up times to meet with people we were less familiar with, the probability of making it

those meetings might increase.

Although I suggested this idea in my initial email it did not come up in our face to face

meetings. I should have pursued clarification. Melissa might not have brought it up because she

thought it was impractical or because she simply didn’t remember that I had suggested it. But

either way my approach was to wait for her to bring it up and when she didn’t I did not take the

initiative to address it.

The other idea that have not yet tried was making the program voluntary. In my

experience with coaching, success required active and committed participation. If the program

was voluntary the overall number of participants might have been smaller but the quality of

participation might have been higher. Additionally, in my professional experience I have often

seen good ideas fail when the were implemented to widely to quickly. My hope was to grow a

core group of coaching participants who could provide anecdotal and inspirational evidence of

the value of coaching.

In my initial email to Melissa, she described this idea as interesting but said that she

wanted to talk more about it. Once again I waited for Melissa to to address it and when she didn’t

I did not pursue it. Here, again, I think I behaved too passively. I did not need to push my

agenda, but I could have pursued clarification. This fieldwork activity has helped me become

more aware of this behavior in and in future fieldwork reflections I will continue to examine it.

Implementation

Melissa, Edrick and I had two planning meetings before launching the co-coaching

program at our site. During these meetings we established general goals for the program. These

goals included:

● To create a structure where teachers would have the opportunity to engage in meaningful

conversations around pedagogy and practice.

5


6/30


● To have participants set goals that were meaningful to their practice.

● To use coaches to help create positive accountability for those goals.

● To pair teachers by common areas of growth rather than experience.

Our first Launch meeting took place on September 23rd and we plan to wrap up our first cycle of

the program right before Thanksgiving Break. We estimated that during our first our first cycle,

coaches would have about 8 weeks of coaching time together.

First Launch Meeting

Our first launch meeting took place during a morning meeting slot and approximately

thirty minutes were allotted for the meeting. We had several goals for this meeting. We hoped to

share the ideas for coaching that came out of our initial planning meetings. We wanted to ground

our approach to collegial coaching in our own experiences with coaching. We wanted to get

feedback from staff about what they hope to get out of a coaching program. We sought to

provide teachers an opportunity with share their strengths, goals and challenges with each other

to help them make choices about who they might like to co-coach with. Finally, we wanted staff

to select preferred coaching partners.

Gallery walk. We used a written reflection followed by a gallery walk help faculty share

their areas of strength and growth. There were a wide variety of responses. The data is

summarized into broad categories the following table:

Classroom Management Teaching

Strategies/Assessment

Strategies

Excellency Culture and Equity

becoming more organized

curating work

managing classroom

materials

classroom structures

setting and keeping

project deadlines

workflow in project work

strategies to teach reading

structures to capture

student growth

lesson planning

integrating academic

standards into projects

dynamic and engaging

activities and lessons

creating discussion

analysis around fiction

having meaningful

discussions with students

maintaining high

expectations

student mindset

changing perceptions of

what math is and what it

means to understand math

creating safe spaces for kids

creating comfortable

physical spaces

fostering good relationships

with students

differentiationequitable group structures

communicating with parents

6


7/30


There were no themes that seemed to emerge more than others, but many of the topics were

indirectly or directly related to school culture and equity. This was encouraging because it shows

that these topics are on our minds. It also suggests that teachers see co-coaching as possible

avenue to address some of these issues.

We used the data to help teachers self select each other as partners but did not actively

integrate the data into other aspects of the coaching planning. There might be a broader use for

this data such as providing suggested structures to help participants achieve growth in their

selected areas within the coaching time frame.

Two key issue that teachers addressed in the survey were that they wanted a well defined

structure to their coaching meeting times, and they wanted time to be set aside on a regular basis

for the coaching meetings. The feedback we received informed several decisions including:

● Providing a script (appendix 5) that coaches could use to structure their meetings.

It was designed to be efficient and focus on goal setting.

● Providing a smart goal setting template( appendix 6) to help coaches structure

their time during the 8 week session.

● Provide a list of menu options that particip ( appendix 7 )

● Encouraging coaches to week regularly on Wednesday mornings even when we

did not meet as an entire staff.

The feedback we received from staff about the launch was unanimously positive. Staff enjoyed

the gallery walk of colleagues strengths and goals, they felt the meeting and the plan for

co-coaching was well structured and they were generally appreciative and excited about next

steps. Teachers also generated a lot of ideas about how they would like the spend the

co-coaching time. Getting ideas from colleagues about what they’d like from coaching was a

first step at creating a shared vision for the coaching program. Aguilar (2013) encourages

coaches to establish a vision for their coaching program, and even suggests creating a vision

statement for the program. You can find all the documents related to the launch in Appendices 2,

3 and 4 .

7


8/30


Second Launch Meeting

For our second pre launch meeting we also had several goals. But our primary goal was

to begin to build a relationship of trust between coaches. Elena Aguilar (2013), establishes trust

as a necessary condition of a coaching relationship - without it successful coaching will not take

place. Coaches took part in a trust exercise and had a chance to talk about what they were

hoping to get out of the coaching relationship.

Additionally we wanted to continue to frame thinking around co-coaching. To this end,

Melissa brought an article from the New Yorker on the benefits coaching and we took some time

to share reflections and takeaways. Finally, we looked at a structure for defining smart goals.

This meeting also felt successful. In conversations I had with staff members after the meeting,

staff I spoke with expressed excitement about the people they would be coaching with and had a

good sense of what they needed to do between now and the next time the met with their coaches.

Weekly Meetings

In order to build momentum and maintain a focus on goals set a goal for coaches to meet

with each other weekly. Some of these meetings would occur during all staff meetings but some

would occur informally. After our second launch meeting we had one week where we could not

meet as an entire staff. I sent out an email to all staff the night before the informal meeting to

help guide folks in their first coaching meeting ( appendix 9 ). I did this to remind staff that we

had a scheduled time to meet and to help provide them with structure during that meeting - these

were two deeds identified from our first launch meeting. I met with my co-coach the next day as

well. We reviewed each other's goals and set used the script to create weekly goals for ourselves.

I did not follow up with staff to see who had met that day or how those meetings went.

The next week we met as an entire staff. Edrick began with a meditation to ground us all.

Then I gave an overview of the script that coaches could use to guide their meetings (appendix

5 ). The script was not a required tool and I emphasized that while reviewing it. There was a

sense amongst Edrick, Melissa and I that our role was to provide tools and ideas that might be

meaningful and we would see what was working as time went on.

During this meeting we tried to integrate another project into the co-coaching project. As

a staff we had begun an Improvement Science project in the beginning of the year. Many of the

8

https://drive.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/file/d/0B3Ucj_97XWqRTTFlMHZESGdZLWM/view


9/30


goals of the program paralleled what was happening in the co-coaching program and we thought

offering suggestions on how to integrate the two might minimize the effort required for the two

projects. I did not get a good sense from staff relating to how wele they felt the two projects

would integrate. The next day I helped to facilitate an Improvement Science meeting with Stacey

Caillier and demonstrated how Improvement Research goals could be worked into co-coaching

goals and how the co-coaching process could be used to help accomplish the IR process. I did

not collect any data about the effectiveness of this integration.

Two weeks later we were scheduled to meet as entire staff again. I put together an agenda

for this meeting and consulted with Edrick and Melissa about whether or not we should meet. It

had been a particularly busy we had just completed Student Led Conferences and had also had

visitor from an important working partner. We decided to go ahead with the meeting and I sent

out the agenda. The next morning, I decided to cancel the meeting, I got to the room where we

we had planned to meet. No one arrived at our scheduled meeting time and after waiting 5

minutes on two staff had arrived. In lieu of the meeting I found every teacher I could and let

them know that we would be meeting with our co-coaches independently.

All additional meetings between coaches have taken place on their own time. Right

before Thanksgiving Break I sent out a survey to staff to get an idea of how they felt their first

round of coaching went. Overall, staff is still interested and excited about the potential of

co-coaching but almost all staff responded that they wanted more time to be set aside to meet. I

also asked if people would be willing to meet on Friday mornings - typically team meeting time.

Most of the respondents responded that they would but a couple were not. Most people met with

their coaches less than once per week and a few only met once or twice. I met with my coach

every week and we both valued the time we spend together. The process of meeting my coach

has given me an understanding of some of the issues that might need to be addressed in

additional rounds of coaching, I will discuss these issues and next steps in the following section.

Reflections and Next Steps

For our organization, the collegial coaching launch and implementation has had some

clear successes and there are also some areas that can still clearly be improved. For me, taking

on the challenge of helping to introduce and facilitate a program like this with staff has been

9


10/30


rewarding and has highlighted leadership strengths. It has also revealed areas where I want to

grow as a leader.

Successes

In our first planning meeting we mapped our goals for the program, they were:

● To create a structure where teachers would have the opportunity to engage in

meaningful conversations around pedagogy and practice.

● To have participants set goals that were meaningful to their practice.

● To use coaches to help create positive accountability for those goals.

● To pair teachers by common areas of growth rather than experience.

In the last week before break I sent out a survey to gauge how well the first round of co-coaching

went. The survey suggests that we met or approached several of our initial goals. 87%

respondents reported that getting to know each other better and engaging in reflective

conversations was something that co coaching helped them do. 75% responded that goal setting

was also something they engaged in during the coaching sessions. These were two of the goals

we identified in the planning stages.

Another goal we had set was to pair coaches by areas of need rather than experience. We

did this and, in the exit survey from our launch, staff reported that they appreciated the process

we used to make those pairings. These non-hierarchical pairings are an important component in

creating a relationship where the coaches are meeting as equals who are both equipped to support

each other.

The gallery walk we used during the launch meeting has created a clear picture of the

areas that we want to improve on as an entire staff. Issues of equity and culture come up

frequently and issues of equity were explicit components in at least two of the coaches 8 week

goal plans.

Overall I believe we have developed a sense of trust amongst participants and are

beginning to build trust in the program. Lipton (1993) points out that trust between coaches is

important but participants must also trust in the organizational environment.

Personally, the challenge of helping to develop and facilitate a coaching program has

been rewarding. I choose a leadership task that was both something that I was personally

10


11/30


passionate about and also something our organization expressed a desire for. I helped plan and

implement several professional development meeting and received positive feedback from

participants. I feel more confident about my ability to be useful to my colleagues and confident

that my ideas can be valuable across our school.

Room For Growth and Next Steps

The most glaring issue facing the program is that we still are not getting together regularly. Only

50% of the respondents to the exit survey met more than 3 times outside of our two scheduled

meetings. There were six weeks where staff had the opportunity to meet. Every person who

responded to the survey identified that they wanted the coaching meetings to be part of a

scheduled meeting where all staff come together. Edrick, Melissa and I did not set a specific

number of time that we hoped to meet as a team but outside of the launch we only scheduled two

meetings and we only actually met for one of them.

One way to address the lack of face to face meetings in the next round would be to

increase the number of formal all staff meetings. It is possible that we asked coaches to meet

independently before they became comfortable with the process and built up the necessary

buy-in to make the coaching meetings happen independently. My critical friend, Gabe, suggested

that we make the formal meeting times be right after lunch on half day Wednesdays. Twice a

month might not be ideal but it is more regularly than most people seem to be meeting right now.

From my own experience with coaching, having achievable and meaningful outcomes

along with a script or protocol to make that made coaching meetings fast and effective were the

keys to success. I did not collect data on whether staff were using the script, whether they knew

how to use it or whether their goals continued to feel meaningful over the cycle. This needs to be

addressed at the beginning of our next cycle.

Gabe also suggested that we collect data at the end of each coaching session, both on the

effectiveness of the session and the continuing success of the program. Developing a quick

feedback survey that we can give staff in 2-3 minutes will be a priority item to complete before

our next meeting as well.

I need to confirm that Edrick and Melissa are still inclined to continue with the program.

I sent each of them an email a few weeks ago to see if they want to get together to talk about

11


12/30


continued planning and I haven't heard back. Additionally neither one of them filled out the exit

survey. Everyone has been very busy and just need to follow up again. This dovetails with an

area of personal growth that this experience has helped me identify and that I am determined to

address. In this reflection, I’ve identified several times where I could and should have been more

persistent about pushing for clarification around colleagues thinking. The next step for me with

this regard is to email my planning partners again. The step after that is to make improving this

goal and explicit goal of the work I do with my on site critical friend.

12


13/30


Citations

Aguilar, E. (2013). The art of coaching: Effective strategies for school transformation. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Becker, J. (2000). Peer coaching for teacher improvement and learning.

http://teachersnetwork.org/tnli/research/growth/becker.htm.

Lipton, L. (April 1993). “Transforming Information Into Knowledge: Structured Reflection in

Administrative Practice.” Paper presented at AERA, Atlanta, Ga.

Tschannen-Moran, B. & E. (2010). Evocative coaching: Transforming schools one conversation

at a time. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

13

http://teachersnetwork.org/tnli/research/growth/becker.htm


14/30


Appendix 1 - Meeting Agendas For First Two Launch Meetings

Launch Agenda for 9/23: - bring computers, pen

1. Framing Collegial Coaching Why Collegial Coaching? why us? (5 min) - MD, EM, BH

2. Journal Using - 8 min

3. gallery walk - 10 min

a. focus question: who might be a good fit as my collegial coach?

4. google form - 5 min

Meeting #2 ~ Sept 30 ~ Agenda

1. share partnerships

2. get to know you / team builder (8:00-8:10) -edrick

3. discuss article (810-8:20) - melissa

a. pair/share with CC - what struck you?

b. whole group share out: what take-aways will inform our work as collegial

SMART goals (5-mins) (8:20-8:30)

c. define the goal

d. divide into weekly chunks

● Next steps (informal meeting 10/7) - note feedback from survey that people wanted time

carved out to meet regularly

○ Create SMART goal

○ Bring / Be ready to talk evidence of your steps to move towards your goal

○ Next steps...explore the Menu of Opportunities...

14


15/30


Meeting #3 ~ Oct 14th ~ Agenda

● Edrick to lead staff in a group meditation (5 minutes)

● Overview of the coaching script (5 minutes)

● Co-coaching time (20 minutes)

● Integrating co-coaching with Improvement Research (10 minutes)

Meeting #4 ~ Oct 28th ~ Agenda ( this meeting did not occur)

● Edrick to lead staff in a group meditation (5 minutes)

● Co-coaching time (20 minutes)

● Debrief and Reflection (5-10 Minutes)

15


16/30


Appendix 2 - Collegial Coaching Survey and Gallery Walk

Collegial Coaching Survey Gallery Walk

Name: ________________________________________

STRENGTHS

1.) Describe your strengths as an

educator. What are you particularly

proud of in your practice?

HOPES3.) What are your hopes for our collegial

coaching structure? What would you like

to get out of it?

GROWTH

2. ) In what areas would you like to grow?

What are you working on?

ACTIVITIES4.) What are some specific activities that

you’d like to do with a collegial coach?

16


17/30


Appendix 3 - Staff Responses from Collegial Coaching Meeting Number 1

OPTIONAL: What ideas do you have for our collegial coaching

structure this year?

OPTIONAL: List any warm or cool

feedback you have about today's launch of

collegial coaching.

Smart goal setting

Fast and frequent and structured checkins

Celebrations

Reflections

Observations

I loved seeing everyone's reflections, the

gallery walk helped me feel close to my

community of colleagues.

it would be nice to figure out a way to carve out more time during the

day when individuals or the pair can spend more time reflecting and

taking some action around their teaching practice. It seems doing

some of this work during morning meetings is good and during prep

but I think we need more time....so some type of extra period or

coordination with teaching partner.

short answer- more time to devote to this work.

Also, some type of product we can have at end of the year in terms of

learning and takeaways.

Great! nothing but love!

I'd love to do some co-planning and co-teaching. I learned so much

from co-teaching when I was in England. I'd really love our time to

be concrete and productive - we're looking at a specific thing we're

working on, trying strategies, checking in...

I loved the structure of this! It made our

partnering feel really authentic. I want to use

this in my classroom.

I'd like to have time carved out to read texts or watch clips related to

the teaching of reading (or any new skill) and the kind of relationship

with my partner where we can be working on different things but

thoughtfully reflecting with each other and keeping each other on

target with our personal goals. It is not as crucial to me to be touring

other people's classrooms. I've done a lot of that in 18 years. I'd

rather have time to build my own structures for teaching reading.

I appreciated being able to read what others are

hoping to build in their practice, to see if our

goals are in alignment. It was easier to see that

I have shared goals with certain teachers... and

that even though people might be very dear

friends of mine, we may not be in the same

exact place in our practice and so maybe aren't

the ideal partners to work with each other forthis specific purpose.

I think the most helpful thing would be to meet more often, weekly,

if possible. And to meet in a structured setting.

I always appreciate a time to sit and reflect on

my teaching practices and would welcome

even more of an opportunity to do so. I found

Bryan and Edrick's pitch inspiring and I am

excited to get to work with a colleague!

I would love to see a different partnership leading each of our CC

morning meetings! It would be cool to see a different set of teachers

sharing their observations, giving us helpful readings & tools to use.

I'm excited about these structures! They feel

authentic and more productive than our Critical

Friend pairings have been in the past. Thanks

guys!

It would be interesting to work on a strategy that would work in bothclasses and then debrief how it actually went once we ran it through

with out kids - I'd love to hear the different scenarios that can arise

with different personalities.

I love this idea! As a newbie I really wouldappreciate having someone to give me advice

and support.

Mirrored structures as an activity and compare results I love the concept and there are so many

aspects I would love to get coaching on but I

feel that the three things I really am trying to

sort out and push myself in for this years 6th

graders: structures, engagement, management,

17


18/30


organization (within myself and for the kiddos

as well), and a blend of sizzle and steak for

content and centers in my classroom.

consistency, encouraging each other, helping each other with specific

plans to achieve goals,

Sounds great! THanks for this. I loved the

journaling and gallery walk- I want to do this

with my students! I thought it was insightful

and helpful to read what others want to work

on and the strengths of everyone. Thanks for a

great start to the morning!

I would really appreciate meeting times carved out in the morning...at

least every other week.

It could also be cool to have like a relationship-building activity a

couple of times throughout the year. Like a Newlyweds type game,

or a trust game. Might be fun to solidify a great relationship, in

addition to the work we are doing to improve our practices.

I thought this was thoughtfully and efficiently

planned. I'm excited to improve this process

and form a new, mutually beneficial

relationship with a beloved colleague!

I would love for us to use a couple of our Wednesday PD days to

work on learning and practicing collegial coaching strategies

(specifically the ones that Bryan and I learned yesterday). I think it isalso important for us to set aside one of our morning meetings to

solely dedicated it for CC.

Great launch!

I really like when we have the opportunity to visit

classrooms/schools together, which gives us the opportunity to have

some really rich discussions about our practice together.

The only reason I think this hasn't picked up

steam in the past is the limited amount of time

we meet, so it gets put on the back burner. If

we are going to do this we need to make sure

we have frequent dedicated time to meet with

our partners.

Setting aside time to meet. At first I was a little bit nervous about listing

my strengths and areas for growth for others to

read, but it was really reassuring to see that we

all have things that we're working on. Thankyou for making this happen!

I love the idea of structured reflection/discussion time with our

partner. Some type of structure that's open enough for us to both

reflect on our practice. I'd like to plan observations of each other.

I feel like this morning's meeting was

particularly relevant- I connected especially to

what Bryan shared. I have been feeling like I

need support lately. I love my students this

year and things are off to a great start. I think

I'm building a love of math with my kiddos but

I'm need some structures to maintain the

progress that I've made.

Goal- Make time for classroom observations.

Set short goals each time we meet hold each other accountable for

making sure we meet these goals. If goal wasn't met, reflect on why.

18


19/30


Appendix 4- Responses Around Possible Areas to Focus On In Coaching

GROWTH AREAS

I want to work on creating an environment where students feel safe sharing what is and what is not working

for them in their learning. I want to facilitate this through individual and group conversations. I want to work on

being contextually vulnerable- open to the idea that students can/should help shape my practice.

-Becoming more organized and efficient

-giving timely feedback on student work for revision

-being more organized and clean in my classroom

-setting up structures for efficient and productive student work time

The teaching of reading. I do not know how to teach children phonics or decoding. I need help understanding

how to catch students up who are far below grade level in reading... and how to manage those systems while

running projects.

-Structures that capture student growth- it feels so anecdotal- feedback structures

-Getting the same level of discussion analysis out of fiction- reading logs have not been successful

-hands-on reading activities (like the literacy & engineering)-creating a comfortable physical space- Feng Shui in the classroom

-Student relationships and personal connections with them (it's hard across the whole grade level)

-curating work after performances- beyond my DP

-differentiating for all levels

-running meaningful discussions that get everyone involved

-classroom management practices

Working on:

-maintaining high expectations that are reasonable and consistent academically and behaviorally

-differentiation that is appropriate and meaningful

-management with a new structure

-students as self-starters-equitable groups and structures for a class with a wide range of ability and background knowledge (math)

-literacy

-Consistent structures for classroom management

-Materials management systems

-Planning lessons to teach skills (a lot of what I do with students is hands-on activities and then revision- is

this the west way? Can I do this in a more structured way? sometimes feels chaotic)

-Organization (everything- materials, project sheets, documents, student work, professional goals)

-student voice- choice in organized, productive way

-Maintaining structures within the classroom once project work is underway

-setting firm deadlines/milestones during projects

-I would love to develop activities and student work that is rigorous and engaging

-Build lessons that are dynamic and engaging

-Integrating academic standards into project curriculum in an authentic manner (sizzle & steak)

-Identifying, developing, and exploring strong academic mindsets in the classroom

-Project structures to make more efficient work during projects, collaboration, and support

-organization

-Planning meaningful lessons

-teaching reading

-challenging students

19


20/30


-organizing the flow of learning in project work

-thinking bigger in projects- what else can I do?

My ideas and tasks for math and math projects overwhelm me and even though I might know the direction I

need to go I accomplish so little (planning) because it's hard to sift through all of the resources and just pick.

I'd like my math structures and routines to be more solid and that's what I'm working on right now. My

structures are all over the place.

-Differentiation

-Elements of rigor and how to find a balance

-Develop more of a student-driven learning classroom... student take on tasks, build ideas, develop in their

inquiry and self-motivation

-Classroom management

-Different ways to communicate with parents

-Challenging students with rigorous work

-Change perception of math and math understanding

20


21/30


Appendix 5 - Co-coaching Script

CO-COACHING HELPER

Your Check-In Date:

You can use this sheet to prepare for your check in with your partner. It helps to have this

completed before you meet with your partner.

Which commitments from last week did you keep?

Which commitments from last week were you unable to keep?

What commitments are you making this week to move you towards your 8 week goal?

What are the tools or resources will help you reach your goals this week?

What are you feeling good about in their practice this week?

What are you feeling critical about in their practice this week?

How can you reframe this?

Feedback Notes:

21


22/30


Appendix 6 - Smart Goal Planner

Setting A SMART Goal

Word xplanation

S

SPECIFICDoes your goal clearly and specifically state what you aretrying to achieve?

M

MEASURABLEHow will you know if progress is being made onachieving your goal?

A

ACTION-ORIENTED

Involves specific actions that will result in your reachingthe goal

R

RELEVANT andREALISTIC

Why is achieving this goal important to you?Is the goal realistically achievable in the amount of time

you have?

T

TIMEBOUND When will you reach your goal? If the goal feels too loftyconsider breaking it down into smaller goals

What is your goal in one sentence:

The benefits of achieving this goal will be:

22


23/30


Setting A SMART Goal - Optional

Word xplanation My Goal

S

SPECIFIC

Does your goal clearlyand specifically statewhat you are trying toachieve?

M

MEASURABLE

How will you know ifprogress is beingmade on achieving

your goal?

A

ACTION-ORIENTED

Involves specificactions that will resultin your reaching thegoal

R

RELEVANT andREALISTIC

Why is achieving this

goal important to you?Is the goal realisticallyachievable in theamount of time youhave?

T

TIMEBOUND

When will you reach your goal? If the goalfeels too loftyconsider breaking itdown into smaller

goals

23


24/30


BREAKING IT DOWN

Identifying very specific goals for your 8-week coaching session will yield the greatest

benefits. It is up to you how many goals you want to work towards during the 8 week cycle.

One is definitely enough and more than two is quite a bit to take on.

Even if you don’t complete the SMART goals worksheet, keep smart goals in mind when

completing your goals section below.

S.M.A.R.T. goals include the following elements (refer to S.M.A.R.T. goals worksheet)

1. S

pecific 2. M

easurable 3. A

ction Oriented and A

ttainable 4. R

elevant 5. T

ime-bound

My 8 Week Goals:

How am I going to break these 8 week goals into measurable smaller weekly goals?

How am I going to break these 10 week goals into smaller daily goals?

24


25/30


Appendix 7 - A Menu Of Opportunities

Collegial Coaching:

enu of Opportunities

Observations :

❏ Targeted Observation

. What is your colleague working on? What goals doeshe/she have? Observe your colleague’s classroom in an effort to support him/her

in reaching this goal.

❏ Individual Student Observation . Observe a specific student in a colleagues

classroom. Share notes and observations in an effort to generate ideas of how to

better support the student.

❏ Group Work Observation . Observe group work in your colleague’s classroom. Are

structures in place to support equitable participation? How are groups working

together?

❏ “Who’s in the game?” Observation . Who’s engaged in the learning in your

colleague’s classroom? Collect data about student participation to share with

your colleague.

❏ Video Observation . Video a lesson or an aspect of the classroom on which your

partner would like feedback. Debrief with your colleague. What teacher moves

might have enhanced the lesson?

Tunings :

❏ Lesson Plan Tuning . Look over your colleague’s lesson plans. Are their revisions

that could make the lesson stronger? Are there structures that could better

support certain students?

❏ Project Tuning. Informally tune a project together.

Other:

❏ Classroom Visits

. Visit classrooms together and debrief your experience.

❏ Book Club . Is there a text you’ve been wanting to read, but never have the time?

Take time to read a text with your colleague and then discuss.

❏ Walk & Talk . Been in your room all day? Get outside, go for a walk around

campus, and talk about what’s on your mind.

25


26/30


Appendix 8 - Key Takeaways From Discussion of the New Yorker Article

Teacher 1: not telling you what to do, but pointed it out, suggesting it

Teacher 2: coaches observe, guide

Teacher 3: arc of safety

Teacher 4: conscious competence, etc…

Teacher 5: good coaches need to break down performance into components, can we do that?

Teacher 6:: surgeon’s coach comes in often, sees patterns

Teacher 7: coaches aren’t necessarily “better” at the skill they are coaching. rather, they are good

observers, listeners, questioners, etc.

26


27/30


Appendix 9: All Staff Email to Help Direct Informal Coaching Meetings

Hi Folks,

I’d like to share a possible ‘agenda’ for your co-coaching meetings tomorrow. The items in the agenda

shouldn’t take more than 20 minute. Obviously you can take more time if you want but if you’re feeling

rushed this should help you have a productive get together in a short period of time.

Possible Agenda:

First:Take 5 minutes to review each other's goals. (More if needed)

Then: Each partner reports the answers to these question out to their coach:

What commitments are you making this week to move you towards your 8 week goal?

What are the tools or resources that will help you reach your goals this week?

What are you feeling good about in your practice this week?

What are you feeling critical about in your practice this week? How can reframe this critical thought?

What would you like feedback on?

Tip

I find it helpful to take notes on what my partner tells me so that I can be prepared to help them review the

next week. (I’ve got a spreadsheet that I use for this if you want a copy :-) )

Hope this is helpful. Happy coaching!

27


28/30


Appendix 10 - Exit Survey

As a result of

co-coaching did you

engage in any of the

following:

How

many

times did

you meet

What worked well for you

during this coaching

cycle?

Would you

be willing to

consider a

Monday or

Friday

morningcoaching

meeting

time?

What is one thing you

would like to improve

with our co-coaching

program?

What else

would you like

us to know?

trying new teaching

strategies, getting to

know your coach

better, goal setting

and accountability,

reflective

conversations

4-5 I had amazing conversations

with my coaching partner.

We did a good job of setting

up goals and following up on

them.

We made small but

measurable gains in our

practice.

I learned about ways to

communicate effectively with

my students.

I really appreciated penguintime with such a reflective

person.

4 Structured meeting

times for our meetings.

trying new teaching

strategies, getting to

know your coach


and accountability,

reflective

conversations,

Reframing struggles in

a more constructive

way, which was truly

helpful

5-6? I had a fantastic, thoughtful

and motivated partner.

Thanks to his efforts we

were organized and

intentional about goal

setting. I felt comfortable

being honest about my

strengths and failings with

my partner. There was a

high level of support, trust

and mutual respect.

1 I need more time

devoted to actually

working on

implementing

strategies or goals that

are set during the

co-coaching meeting.

For example, if the

goal I set is to collect

and analyze data, I

need an empty hour or

block of time carved

out consistently in our

weekly meeting

schedule where I can

actually follow through

on that goal. Between

all of the meetings

(including

parent-teacher

meetings and IEPs)

before and after

school... plus the

demands of creating

curriculum, grading

and putting my best

effort into the normal

teaching schedule (and

curating), I haven't yetfound a way to carve

out additional time to

effectively implement

all the new things I'd

like to do with literacy.

I am currently

operating near

overwhelm

capacity. I would

prefer not to add

additional

meetings to the

current schedule.

I appreciated

having coaching

meetings built

into the regular

meeting

schedule. I found

them to be much

more helpful than

past meetings,

including some

action groups.

getting to know your

coach better, goal

setting and

accountability,

reflective

4 I liked having time to visit,

collaborate and talk about

specific wonderings that Ann

and I are struggling with. The

meeting time and direction

5 I think carving out time

during the school day

to visit each other's

classroom and this is

outside our prep time.

28


29/30


conversations,

classroom

observations

allowed us to focus on key

areas of our teaching- my

orchestration of learning

through a lesson and for

Ann, developing lessons.

It would be interesting

to have 2 periods

where we can visit

other classrooms

together and/or see

each other's classroom

and then have follow

up. Not sure how thiscould be structured but

interested in trying.


coach better, reflective

conversations

3 Setting short-term and

long-term goals.

The initial activities, when we

were paired up with our

co-coaches.

5 I know it has been

mentioned before, but I

really would appreciate

time being carved out

for us to all meet

together. I feel horrible

that I really didn't meet

with my co-coach at all.

I missed two of the

scheduled group

meetings due to

conflicts, and then just

had a hard time

gaining momentum. I

failed. =/

I would like

another shot! A

more structured

shot. Haha!

Tiffany probably

wouldn't want me

as a partner

again though

because I was

the worst.

co-planning, getting to

know your coach


and accountability

once The time we had set to meet

together. I found the

meetings really thoughtfully

planned and helpful for my

thinking and focusing on

connecting with Callie/

co-planning.

1 We just need time to

meet without adding an

extra meeting. Is that

possible?

I have a really

hard time making

morning

meetings, but I

would enjoy

meeting for lunch

with Callie once

a week. That's

my goal to keep

our work going.

co-planning, trying

new teaching

strategies, getting toknow your coach


and accountability,

reflective

conversations

um... a

few... I

think...sorry!

I liked having time carved

out to meet with my CC

during a morning meeting.When we had open time to

work during those meetings,

we were able to make goals

and take action. It's also just

nice getting to connect with

my CC because I really

respect her and she

motivates me to be a better

teacher.

4 Full disclosure - my CC

and I haven't taken a

lot of action. There's agenuine desire to do

more together, but it's

hard to find time to

connect. I think the

connection between

our research goals and

CC goals helped us

achieve some things,

though. I feel like we

haven't had a CC

meeting in a while. I'd

like to have them more

regularly - I really enjoy

these meetings.

I really value and

enjoy CC, but I

need a little moretime to make it

feel like a regular

part of my

practice. I like

that it's flexible

and I want it to

maintain the

authenticity that it

has now, but I

also need

morning meeting

time carved out

to make it

happen. It's not

that it isn't a

priority, but thereare so many

things happening

all the time that

sometimes we

forget. I hope this

was helpful, but

I'm happy to talk

more about it in

person, if you'd

like!

29


30/30


co-planning,

co-teaching, trying

new teaching

strategies, goal setting

and accountability,

reflective

conversations,

classroomobservations

Maybe 3 Taking the time to connect

with colleagues. I love

checking and seeing how my

friends are doing.

Sometimes it's nice not to

talk about work...It's nice to

take the time to make sure

our friends are doing okay. Ireally tried my best to check

in with our collegial coaches

when available. But having a

group of 3 was very difficult

due to conflicting schedules.

2 Meeting more often. It

was very difficult to

meet with a group of 3.

I felt it kept our meeting

from being very useful.

It seemed

PDSA's and

collegial

coaching

overlapped with

each other. It felt

the same at

times and it wasvery difficult to

distinguish.


coach better, reflective

conversations

2 the handouts and thinking

time to set goals for

teaching. the SMART goals

format is helpful and the

planning week by week, with

an emphasis on forgiveness

if the goal was not met.

3 i'm not sure how to fix

this, but making sure

that each person truly

wants to meet and

work on the goals.

I am ambivalent

about giving up

Monday and

Friday because I

know we have

IEP or other

meetings that are

sometimes

scheduled and I

wanted to make

more of an effort

to do team and

grade level

meetings. It's so

hard to fit

everything in! I

also wonder how

the coaching

would be

different if we

had been able to

pair up with

others who really

wanted support

in achieving

goals.

field work reflection 1

Documents