This week we learned the value of using shared language to help define the role of an IC, a few ways coaches can support newly-virtual teachers, how one school shifted their culture to become a model PLC school, a framework for lesson planning that empowers students, and more. Enjoy! 😀

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Defining Coaching: Busting the "Unicorn" Myth

Joseph Kanke is back with our feature this week! Read his case for using shared language to both define the coaching role and support coach growth at the organization level.

" As educators, we should all be engaged in continuous improvement. To make coaching workable and sustainable, there needs to be a shared definition of coaching which everyone can reference. . . . A practice profile is not intended to be used in an evaluative manner for individual coaches, but rather to inform a comprehensive coaching system that supports individual coaches. It is a way to operationalize coaching in the field, making sure it is teachable, learnable, and doable. As a result, the tool lends itself to informing coaching practice, selecting, training, and coaching coaches."

Parents as Partners for Student Success

Steve Barkley overviews the five levels of the "Parent Engagement Curve" and how it's valuable for not only for parents but teachers, admins, and ICs too.

"Understanding is critical for both the teacher and the parent to provide the best support for learning. The parents understanding the teacher’s expectation, especially as it applies to their child, helps guide questions they should ask and information they should share. . . . Through the understanding by parent and teacher a plan or strategy of learner support might emerge."

3 Coaching Tips to Support Newly-Virtual Teachers

Adam Geller expresses why ICs must help teachers first determine what success looks like before providing high-quality PD.

"As the frontline coach and support system, coaches should think about what teachers need to be a well-started beginner at distanced teaching, meaning what core training or background do they need to be successful. Focusing on this takes distanced teaching from a potentially ambiguous problem to something manageable for teachers and coaches to tackle."

Supporting New Teachers

Angela Adams believes that this year, when given the right level of support, teachers can acquire tools and skills that normally take years to develop.

"Imagine all the nervousness of being a first-year teacher combined with all the nervousness of being a teacher during COVID-19. There is potential for this year to be doubly hard for this crop of educators, at a time when retaining teachers is already a crisis in many places. . . . The difference between this year making or breaking these young teachers will be the support they receive."

Becoming a Model PLC School

Brig Leane shares eight key turning points that shifted his school's culture from a negative to positive one.

"We developed collective commitments as part of our staff handbook, and at the beginning of each year, new and experienced teachers sat in groups of four to review those commitments. This time of review with mixed groups focused everyone. Overarching all of these key turning points was the consistency of our school to simply get better at the same PLC process, year in and year out."

Distance Learning Lesson Design

Katherine Goyette provides a framework for lesson planning, built around collaboration, that can empower students.

"Educators are entering new classrooms – virtual classrooms. They are called to connect with students in a new way, devoid of physical proximity. The environment has changed, the content standards remain, but our planning must change. Distance is different than proximity. Our preparation must be altered to meet this new context."

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