Janice Creneti Project Coordinator Florida SPDG SIM crenetij@pcsborg Coaching Your Coaches: Using data to inform and design professional development for your coaches Janice Creneti Project Coordinator Florida SPDG SIM crenetij@pcsborg

Why is teaching challenging? Students have different needs Students have different strengths Students bring different experiences to the table Students are people () so their experiences affect their perceptions and actions

So how do we meet our students where they are so we can teach them? The best teachers are prepared to: Figure out where students are starting (assessment) Build relationships no matter what Differentiate learning opportunities

We need to do some Myth Busting… Myth #1: If you can work with children, you will find it easy to work with adults. Reality: Not all adults are comfortable working with their peers in a formal capacity like coaching…

We need to do some Myth Busting… Myth #2: If you are a good teacher (or counselor or administrator), you will automatically be good at coaching someone in the same role. Reality: Coaching is a different skill set. While some skills cross over, new coaches may need support developing necessary skills…

We need to do some Myth Busting… Myth #3: All coaches are skilled in “systems thinking” and can easily transition to looking at issues from a wider lens. Reality: “Systems thinking,” being able to look at problem from multiple angles representing all stakeholders, is a skill that your coaches may need support developing…

We need to do some Myth Busting… Myth #4: Adult learners don’t need the same types of support that younger students need… Reality: Adult learners need a lot of the same things younger students need like being met where they are, positive support, and differentiation of learning opportunities, approaches (IN ADDITION TO the other adult-specific things)…

Meeting our coaches where they are… The Florida SPDG SIM project has used 30+ different professional developer/coaches to provide implementation coaching to teachers. Those coaches come from a variety of backgrounds: Instructional Coaches Classroom Teachers Resource Teachers School Administrators

So we developed “Think Tanks”… Think Tank allowed us to bring all of our different professional developer/coaches together to: Get to know about the grant and our ways of work Plan together to get on the same page with us and each other in terms of language, philosophy, etc. Network with each other so they would have a support system larger than the 2 SPDG SIM staff

Year 1 – Focus on PD Started with experienced professional developers Focused on teaching them about the grant, building some common ways of work

Assessments – knowing where our coaches were Coaching Self-Assessment Teacher assessment of the coaching experience Anecdotal evidence

Year 2 - Time to plan Based on data and feedback, focused on planning time to get a more consistent message Build familiarity with our LMS so coaches could gather data before coaching teachers

Year 3 – response to data We were bringing on more new/newer professional developer/coaches Data from existing and new professional developer/coaches indicated a wide range in comfort levels across a number of areas We had added a new project management tool to our office and wanted to use it with our coaches

Year 3 – response to data So… we needed a longer session and more PD We split into 2 different Think Tank sessions to deal with the 2 different arms of the tools we coach We added more to the schedule (1.5 days to 2.5 days) With our group that has a more content specific focus, we provided time to plan by subject area as well as time to plan by session team

Year 3 – response to data We planned for new instruction for everyone on our project management tool and a review of our other tech tools We also added PD on specific topics identified from our data sources: Using technology to support formative assessment “Generational Learning” (Abrahams) Positive Team Dynamics

Year 3 – response to data Formative assessment also indicated the need for smaller group discussions. We held those around topics such as: MTSS or how to have “systems level” discussion Lesson Study as a coaching model Working with reluctant ADULT learners

Lessons Learned Our people still need more support. We are continuing to offer differentiated support throughout the year with: Webinars A new Coaching Summit

Lessons Learned – Looking at Year 4 Changes include: Adding more time – up to 4 full days Attendance is required More emphasis on team skills Formative assessment during the session to ensure all walk away with the most critical skills

Final Thoughts Skilled coaches are critical for positive change and... Because we are trying to impact hundreds of teachers, we need a lot of coaches to reach them all. So we can’t just use the folks who are fully ready, we need to use some “almost ready” folks and get them up to speed.

Final Thoughts Skilled coaches are critical for positive change so... Providing this much support may seem “expensive” from a resource perspective but we are finding it worth the investment from an impact and sustainability standpoint.

Pair-Share Questions What skills do your coaches need that you assume they have? How accurate have your assumptions proven to be? What are the “big rocks” - critical skills, philosophies, and/or strategies your coaches need to have to do their work well? How are you currently ensuring that your coaches have them? How might you assess where they really are? How might you provide more differentiated learning opportunities around your “big rocks”?