Partnerships

    When I think about coaching, my mind is automatically directed to an instructional coach. In an elementary school setting and instruction coach is a teacher that works directly with teachers by first creating a partnership with the teachers they are working with and then meeting the teachers where they are and helping them grow with the end goal of student impact in mind. It is hard not to compare a coach that many teachers encounter on a daily basis, to a coach who coaches athletes, or a team. According to Marzano and Simms (2013), Inner Game Coaching involves looking at the person's perceptions of their performance, focusing attention on objective details which in turn increase their awareness. Coaches in a school setting and those that coach for teams have several things in common. One thing that stands out to me is that both coaches set the bars high and believes that the goal is attainable. Whether you are coaching a team to a victory, or coaching a team of teachers to tap into their student's hidden talents, both have essentially raised the bar. All players on a team and teachers on a team enjoy being challenged and behind every challenge, there is a coach behind them just cheering them on just like the man in the picture below.

via GIPHY
via GIPHYretrieved from https://giphy.com/gifs/coach-K9PRz6zhxHhqo

   Current research on coaching typically guides the latest trends in coaching. It is a cycle that sometimes repeats itself. What is considered best practices today, will not be what is practiced or considered effective in coming years due to research. In my opinion, effective coaching involves far more than instructing a teacher on how to become more effective. Coaching should include mentoring and lots of modeling and supports. The instructional coach at my should is a shining example of effective coaching. I was able to identify many elements in her coaching model that align with what I read in chapter 2 such as measuring progress, providing resources, and demonstrating lessons.

     Reflecting back on the chapters read and connecting research to practice, Joyce and Showers (as cited in Marzano and Simms, 2013) listed five ways that coaching helped teachers transfer training to the classroom which includes; practicing new strategies frequently, new strategies are used more appropriately, greater knowledge retention, explained new models of teaching to their students, and understood the purpose and use of the new strategies. Research show that when done correctly, coaching will have a high impact on teachers and students. Coaches have not always been around, however, I believe that they are here to stay.

References

Joyce, B., & Showers, B. (2002). Student achievement through staff development (3rd ed.).          Alexandris, VA: Association for Supervision and Curruulum Development. 

Marzono, R.J. & Simms, J.A. (2012). Coaching classroom instruction. Marzono Research
         Laboratory: Bloomington, IN.