1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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…

5. 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…

6. 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…

7. 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)…

8. 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

9. 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

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

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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”?