Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Coaching Plan -- Pre-Scenario

This module is based on a sample scenario.


What is Mr. Park's most important coaching role?
In this scenario, the school is new to coaching (as well as the Mr. Park) and with most teachers, I think it would be best to ease into the role. Using this as a guide, I think the two scenarios Mr. Park should take are:

Classroom Supporter
Mentor

Bust since this is supposed to be a single role, I'll go with Classroom Supporter. I think both roles are important, but of the two, I think coaches should be in classrooms as much as possible, hence, classroom supporter.


Whom should Mr. Park coach?
In this scenario, there are two groups of teachers interested in working with the coach: Group 1 is not experienced, Group 2 is a little more experienced.

This is a hard call to make, but since the coaching program is new, I think the choice would be to work with the more experienced and confident group first. That way, this group could get up and running and be used as a support group for others.

The danger in supporting the less confident group first is that less experienced individuals usually take longer to grasp concepts, which takes valuable time. While it is not the goal to speed through coaching cycles, and it is important to take time with those who need it, I think it is important for the coach to use time wisely.

That's what I thought before I reread each scenario. The school's academic focus is writing across the curriculum. Since the first group is interested in writing, that's where Mr. Park should start. In addition, the two groups don't seem as far apart as they did when I first read the scenarios.




What could Mr. Park do to align his coaching work with the school's focus on writing across the curriculum?
For one, he could work with the first group of teachers who specifically said they want to integrate writing. He could then use those examples to show other staff in the school what they did. I would share the results whether they were successful or not; teachers could learn from both the exemplars and learn what not to do with the examples of failure. 

Mr. Park could also offer workshops and/or roundtable and/or create a book club that talks about how to integrate writing into the curriculum. These could be safe places for teachers to suggest ideas and take a more leadership role. 

I think Mr. Park should also work with the administration to figure out the best strategies to repeat the message of the goal the school is striving toward. This can be in meetings, placing posters strategically around the school, and could include the goal in the teacher evaluation -- anything to keep the message alive and in teachers' minds.


What resources could the school contribute to the coaching teams?
This is an interesting question. I suppose this is to get coaches/potential coaches thinking about what resources they potentially need to ask their administration for -- before starting an initiative.

In this scenario, the administration could supply resources such as books on writing, additional professional development related to writing, and most importantly, could think of ways to make time for teachers to collaborate and work together.


I am left pondering the following questions for my own situation ...
Who will you coach?How will coaching align with your school's academic goals?What kinds of support will your school or district provide?


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