This week we learned a few key areas ICs should focus their time on while working remotely, what one IC noticed and experienced her first week back in the building after COVID, how Coaching Choice Boards can help next school year, and more. Enjoy! 😀

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Step Up Your Approach to Virtual Coaching

If working from home has been a tough transition, you're not alone! Kristi Sacha believes there are three major areas that ICs should focus their time on while working remotely—take a look!

"Now is also a perfect time to partner with other coaches in your district and connect with the wider coaching community. . . . Connection is how we form those relationships: while working remotely, be proactive and take the time to email or call teachers to check in and see how they're doing. Be sure to ask if they have questions you can help address, or if they have any personal or health concerns you can assist with."

Coming Back

Fiona Hurtado encourages ICs to focus on "bright spots" with teachers who are running on empty, especially when returning from adversity (COVID-19).

" Things seem more complex for teachers. They are juggling new daily schedules, new duties, holding down a sense of normality while maintaining social distance and keeping masks in place. They are continuing to provide home learning engagements for students who cannot be in the classroom and bringing them in virtually whenever they can. . . . Focusing on the bright spots - be they values, reflections, or the actions of others - might just help us to grow in this next stage of our COVID-19 experience."

Tips for Checking-In with Teachers Remotely

Kelly Batts shares how promoting teacher feedback and communication among all levels of their organization was their district's biggest win while shifting to distance learning.

"In the midst of the crisis, communication between all levels of our organization has been our biggest win. What started out as a strategic way to check in on our teachers has turned into the foundation by which we are guiding our entire curriculum and instruction plans for the district moving forwards. . . . We dug deep into what we were observing during online instruction and shared our own perceptions about the needs of our educational community."

Coaching Choice Board

Kimberly Howard reflects on why Coaching Choice Boards appeal to her and how she might incorporate them into her coaching practice in the fall.

"A recent blog post by Pam Hubler has me thoughtfully considering how I want to provide assistance to my teachers. Pam created a coaching choice board that she uses to collect requests for her 'services' to teachers. . . . Next school year is sure to look different due to how COVID-19 has pushed us into a season of quarantine and remote learning. Many of the teachers I serve are now much farther along in their technology integration competency and confidence than ever before. The focus can't be tools, but how technology integration can be a regular part of their pedagogy."

Decision Fatigue

Vickie Collet highlights how the use of closed questions and suggestions are a supportive coaching move for teachers who are overwhelmed.

"Open-ended questions encourage exploration and contemplation. Asking, 'What are you finding success with during remote learning?' seems like a wonderful reflective question, but for a teacher with decision fatigue, the catalog of options might seem too big to explore. . . . As seemingly simple questions become complicated in today's world, teachers might feel overwhelmed by instructional decision-making. Asking closed questions, making recommendations, and modelling are supportive coaching moves that could be the right fit for teachers suffering from decision fatigue."

Tips for New Instructional Tech Coaches

Dr. Courtney at TechTechTeach offers seven ways ICs can kick-start their productivity in their new tech role.

" You need to be able to speak to your role and the initiative you are supporting. You will need to coast around the learning curve as fast as possible. This means spending time researching your role. Don’t expect everything to be given to you. Lean on your professional learning community. It may seem like you are sipping water from a fire hose on a hot summer day. You have to be systematic and focus on what you need to know and how you will learn it most efficiently. You will have to relearn how to learn. You should identify your best sources of insight."

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