INSTRUCTIONAL COACH

As an instructional coach my perspective broadens and my duties become more diversified. To refine my practices I network with instructional coaches throughout the district and beyond. Collaborating with teachers beyond my original subject area and grade level excites a passion to extend the best practices and engaging experiences with which I was familiar to a wider range of students. I work to effect these changes through individual coaching partnerships, cohorts that complete a cognitive coaching cycle, the establishment of a Literacy League PLC to lead the implementation of school wide initiatives, and the development of an annual school wide professional learning program. I serve as a mentor through both the local school Mentoring Program and the TEACH Gwinnett program. These efforts establish my leadership style as a hybrid of direct and indirect practices. When I work with planning groups to develop curricular goals and provide ongoing support and supervision of lessons, I practice a more top down method.  When brainstorming with the Curriculum Council to support their efforts as teacher leaders my role is more laterally focused. I use clear, consistent communication when building relationships with teacher partners and display flexibility in juggling my many roles as instructional coach – reflecting, prioritizing, and managing time and resources to maximize impact.

Mission Statement

I positively impact student achievement by empowering colleagues to employ strategy-based teaching to increase engagement, rigor, and literacy skills across the curriculum.

Task: Support Teacher Instruction and Student Learning

Goal: Increase the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning to positively impact student achievement

Activities:

• Assist teachers with planning lessons and developing materials for general and focused instruction based on assessed needs

• Provide teachers with training, support, and feedback in utilizing the Quality-Plus Teaching Strategies to achieve the AKS instructional objectives

• Observe in classrooms, co-teach lessons, and model instructional strategies

• Analyze student work and measure progress against standards

• Assist teachers in maximizing time on task through classroom management

• Create opportunities for collaboration and cross curricular instruction

• Develop coaching plans and mentoring opportunities

• Maintain a standards based model classroom with material lending library

Task: Serve as a Curriculum Specialist

Goal: Align instruction with curriculum using data analysis to meet the needs of all students

Activities:

• Assist the leadership team in ensuring that student achievement data drive instructional decisions and school change initiatives

• Aid in the disaggregation of student performance data to assess instructional needs of individual students and school training needs

• Help ensure effective implementation of adopted curriculum in accordance with the instructional calendar

• Assist teachers to use formative assessment and data analysis to guide individual, horizontal, and vertical planning

• Integrate reading and writing strategies across all curriculum areas

• Illuminate instructional strategies appropriate to differentiate instruction

• Develop and employ alignment tools to assess the fidelity of curriculum-instruction alignment and the application of training in the classroom

Task: Facilitate Professional Development

Goal: Design collaborative, job-embedded, standards-based professional learning to promote reflective pedagogical practices

Activities:

• Plan, deliver, review, and assess professional development to develop staff content knowledge and instructional expertise

• Assess teacher strengths to determine collaborative opportunities and instructional needs in assigned teaching areas

• Model continuous learning by monitoring advances in educational research

• Promote the use of action research to determine strategies to meet student needs

• Participate in continuous school improvement efforts including Benchmark Assessment Specialist Trainings, coaching academies, book studies, in-service workshops, conferences, and other professional development opportunities

Rationale

Research indicates that teacher quality is the most significant factor affecting student achievement, and that teachers who participate in quality, job-embedded professional learning develop teaching practices which can lead to increased student achievement (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006). Research further indicates that teachers supported by instructional coaches who help connect strategies, standards, curriculum, and research are significantly more likely to implement new learning (University of Kansas, Center for Research on Learning, 2011).