Jessica Stoneham’s Top Ten Literacy Coaching Beliefs

#1 MAKE YOUR PRESENTS KNOW IN THE BUILDING AND YOU JOB DESCRIPTION CLEAR TO ALL You want to make sure everyone knows that you are a part of the team and that you have a certain set of responsibilities within the school that will aide them in doing their jobs better.

#2 WORK WITH ALL MEMBERS OF THE SCHOOL Make sure that your co-workers understand that you are there to assist in improving instruction for all students and not there to evaluate teachers and their work.

#3 ESTABLISH TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR COWORKERS Let teachers and administrators know that you value their thoughts and opinions and that you will maintain confidentiality of student and teacher information. Keep judgment out of the conversation.

#4 RECOGNIZE YOUR BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES ABOUT TEACHING AND LEARNING AND BE OPEN MINDED TO BELIEFS OF OTHERS ’ Coaches must be flexible in their teaching and adjust their materials and what they do, depending on needs, interests and personalities of teachers they are working with.

#5 BE A LEARNER AND EMBRACE ON- GOING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING As a team we build our knowledge. There is always something new to learn and you have to be willing to learn it and reflect upon it in order to grow as an individual, professional and as a team.

#6 DO NOT ACT LIKE THE EXPERT, BE SUPPORTIVE OF INSTRUCTIONAL NEEDS BUT DO NOT EVALUATE YOUR TEACHERS You must establish yourself as an equal member of the team and as a colleague who is working with teachers to find solutions to the educational problems in your building or classrooms.

#7 BE ORGANIZED AND DOCUMENT ALL OF YOUR WORK AND USE YOUR RESOURCES. There is not much empirical evidence as to the effectiveness of coaching therefore is is important to reflect upon what you as a coach have done. This insight will guide future coaching work with teachers.

#8 DO NOT EXPECT IMMEDIATE CHANGE You are not going to be able to change a school or classroom overnight, you have to celebrate the small steps forward that you as a coach are making and take it one day at a time. Don’t expect to work miracles.

#9 BE PRESENT BUT NOT FORCEFULLY INVOLVED IN YOUR TEACHERS CLASSROOMS If you are new to a building, allow the teachers to get to know you by offering your services to all and letting them come to you for help at first instead of pushing you services onto them and making them feel inadequate in their teaching.

#10 DON’T AVOID THE TOUGH ISSUES Coaching a teacher to teacher a certain way can be challenging but you can’t avoid the things in life that are uncomfortable to talk about or they will continue to get worse and the students will suffer.