Coaching

One of the fun parts about having a triathlon coach is our weekly Monday Email, which lists the accomplishments of our "team" (all of the athletes that she coaches). I've been listed twice in the last month:

On 7/20:
NYC Tri:                  Robin S    3:42:55  126th AG--BIG AG!!

On 8/3:
Jersey Girl Sprint              Robin        1:22:14  28/54  nice race!!

While not the greatest accomplishments in the world, it still felt good to be recognized.

In addition to being coached, I have really enjoyed getting back into coaching this year.

What? Coaching?

Oh yeah, I forgot you haven't been with me for a while. Last year, I took on the role of Instructional Leader. IL is North Star's way of out-sourcing leadership to make sure that teachers can get observation/planning feedback quite frequently. I supported two teachers by offering feedback on all of their plans, and then observing their classes at least once per week to offer additional feedback. I was also around to answer any questions, especially about science content (I supported other science teachers). It was a very rewarding experience, but also very challenging.

The first time I met with my teachers at the start of last year, I had the whole meeting scripted out. I thought, who would ever let me decide what other teachers need to do to improve? I sort of made it up as I went along. Kind of like teaching, actually. And, as I went along, my feedback was more coherent, sequential, and overall helpful.

This year, I'm excited to start the year with a little more coaching confidence. I am only ILing one teachers this year (science), which will give me more time to spend working with her. Plus, I already have an outbox full of carefully-worded action steps ready to copy-and-paste. (Which, to be honest, were mostly borrowed from emails I've received in the past from my ILs.)

I dove back into coaching at PD on Friday. We had opportunities to practice pieces of our first week's lessons. I had so much fun offering high-leverage, bite-sized feedback to my partners. I also had fun when, satisfied with the feedback they had received, my partners brought some friends over for help with their lessons as well. Seriously, that happened.

Now that we're preparing for 5th Grade Induction tomorrow, I've had the opportunity to do the same for colleagues in my own building. It's fun, and really gratifying to see a teacher make one tiny change that changes their entire teacher appearance.

I'm really looking forward to getting coached and doing coaching this year.