What I have found as I have continued to grow as a coach is that most of the time the teachers in my building are answering other teachers questions while having conversations with me. Each teacher has a skill-set that brings a uniqueness about them to our collective school community. As I have gathered resources, I am the first one to give credit to where I have found it. Most of the time, the resource is from a teacher in our school. When I do not have an answer, I turn to my social media PLN who always pulls through when I need them. Either way, I want teachers to know that they are not alone and that they can always count on me. When sharing where I found their answer, I believe this allows for teachers to see that some of the best resources are already in our school. If not, I want them to see how I learn using social media. Most importantly, I model that we are not supposed to have all of the answers. Education is not a field of perfection but rather an improvement. (Todd Whitaker)
Over the past month, I have observed the teaching process in every classroom and have truly been amazed at what I have seen. These opportunities have helped me grow in my own thinking as well as share with others what I have seen. The downside to this is that for the most part, I am the only one who experiences these lessons. To promote these observations, I write about them in our school blog for others to read. Also, I share them with the other educators in our school. By sharing these tools, I have seen several teachers taking on strategies and activities that they may not have tried before.
We all have PLC's that we are apart of but rarely do they involve the entire school. Due to scheduling, time constraints, and other issues. As a coach, I am constantly looking to find ways to assist others as well as grow myself. One of my next goals is to implement instructional rounds with the staff. So far, I have developed a survey and to no surprise, staff involvement was extremely high. As a group, we will move forward with how WE want this to look and work in our school. Most importantly, this will allow for the entire staff to see the amazing things that are going on in our school. I am excited about the possibilities of this process and look forward to working with the entire staff as we take our lessons one step further with the help of everyone. Below is a video of what instructional rounds are and look like. Stay Tuned for our version! If you have done or are doing instructional rounds, I would love to connect to gain further feedback to help move this process forward even better for my school.
