While reading this chapter I began to fully understand and appreciate the job and responsibilities of not only a Literacy Coach but of the job of the teachers within a school as part of an ongoing always progressing literacy team. Now that our Literacy Coach is being cut:(( due to the budget), it will become essential to as Regie did, to coach each other and build the trust needed to progress and grow in literacy. I know it is important to be open and trusting to positive and negative feedback/ suggestions from colleagues. This sometimes can be extremely hard for me ( I am a softy), especially if that trust and/ or respect is lacking and how the feedback is worded. I definitely agree with Regie by starting with the positive, then ask the teacher what she thinks she could have done differently and go from there. This is much more conducive and welcoming in my opinion. I also like the idea of taking the time to self reflect and self evaluate. A lot of times, I feel so rushed that I sometimes don't do this after every lesson but is something I would like to improve upon.
I think that the Looking at Your Teaching chart will be extremely helpful for me to use to evaluate my personal teaching, to build my confidence and help me to better reflect, so that I can make the appropriate adjustments where needed. In the end I like what Regie says, " While a school-wide coaching partnership is a challenge to implement,the payoff is huge: increased collaboration, more effective teaching, higher student achievement. These benefits help lessen the pressure of being observed and remind teachers and administrators of the larger purpose: celebrating successes, getting new ideas, refining teaching and assessing and keeping a focus on students." I am looking forward to all of this, the increase in my confidence and the success of my students and school:)!
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I love what you're saying about collaborative coaching since we're loosing our literacy coach :(( This will be my first year teaching ELA to my 5th graders (I've always taught math/science), and I am learning as much as I can about how to set this up! I know my team will be tremendously helpful with planning, but this collaborative coaching is like the final piece to the puzzle. It makes so much sense to plan with the same person who then observes you teach the lesson! And I never thought about having the observer co-teach the lesson. I've always gotten so much out of observing other teachers, but this process would give much more meaningful information since I could see someone teach a lesson to my students that I planned with them. The reflective conversations will be so rich!
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree - the checklists on p. 118 (self-evaluation) and p. 121 (coaching/being coached) are very helpful. It's so nice to have a list already in my hand!
I also agree with Wendy and Jennifer about the chart on page 118. I think this will be a great help this year for me as well. I hope that anyone who observes me will be honest about my successes and failures so that I can make the improvements I need to help the children. I think it is hard for us sometimes to remember to do the "we do it" when we are working with adults. Most of us don't want to come across as know-it-alls and step on anyones toes. We have to remember that we need to grow as teachers as we grow our students. I also liked in chapter 8 how Regie talked about taking care of ourselves and enjoying life outside of school. She said, "Life is hard. We need to make teaching less stressful and more fun." I agree.. I just wish everyone else did.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! I think it would be nice (since this is the first time- in a long time that I have taught ELA) to pair up with a teacher either in the grade level above or below me to plan some lessons. Our planning would have to be afterschool, but with different planning times during the day we would have the opportunities to be in each other’s classrooms to observe, co-teach, or whatever support we need.
ReplyDeleteI think school-wide coaching is possible if the administration gets on board to make it a priority. Our school is trying to accomplish this through summer reading and book clubs. Last summer, we read Debbie Miller's Teaching with Intention and made time for book talks the very first day teachers return in August. It really made me concentrate on teaching intentionally throughout the year because I could go and talk to anyone since everyone had read Debbie Miller. Throughout the school year, our principal and assistant principal invited the whole staff to participate in a book study, where we read Discipline with Dignity. The book study was so supportive for me because it let me know that I was not alone with my student behavior problems. This summer, we've planned to read Danny Brassell's A Baker's Dozen of Lessons Learned in the Teaching Trenches and read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller for this year's book study. I've found these shared experiences to be very powerful and inspiring. It's a wonderful experience where the administration staff and interventionists get to expand their role beyond evaluator and expert. I agree with what Regie states about how it's not enough to have all this knowledge and not orchestrate it into a plan for gains in student achievement. Our Literacy Coach always keeps our focus on the vision, goals, and plans necessary to ensure that our school, staff, parents, and community provide bright and successful futures for the students we serve. This is the second year that I have traveled to Perry, GA for a reading and writing conference with about 10 school colleagues. The principal, assistant principal, and literacy coach go each year. One teacher from each grade is also invited to go including, related arts and interventionists. We also present on the first day that teachers return in August. We each talk about one presenter that we really connected with and inspire the staff to come talk to us if they would like to know more about our topic. This year we have also asked our principal to allow 30 minutes of our time during Tuesday staff meetings to meet with each other as grade level teams where interventionists can also visit to talk about student progress and goal sheets.
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