Collaborative Coaches

Have you ever had a lesson go differently than you had planned?  Almost every teacher I know would answer, “YES” to that question.  Having an occasional lesson that flops isn’t a bad thing.  It can provide opportunity for reflection, feedback, and new learning.  Just ask Katie Schafer, first grade teacher at Linn-Grove Elementary. 

Katie had a successful implementation with Seesaw in the spring of last year, so in the fall she contacted both Jessica Zimmerman (Technology Integration Coach) and Tiffany Kinzenbaw (Instructional Coach) to implement iPads during reading rotations. With continued coaching interactions, Jessica and Tiffany were able to support the integration of more technology into Katie’s everyday routines.  Rather than work in isolation, the three professionals collaborated together during their coaching cycles, capitalizing on collective intelligence.  They truly were stronger together. 

Katie was eager to learn about more technology, so she attended a TQSA class for coding and robots, taught by Jessica, which is where she learned about Bee-Bot. She was able to explore Bee-Bot in the class and then proceeded to further explore Bee-Bot on her own time.  When searching for curriculum connections, she realized it would be a great tool to enhance her next writing lesson.  What she found was that Bee-Bot was a catalyst to many things:

“What started out as an experiment in programming has resulted in a springboard/explosion for the students’ enthusiasm and engagement during writing.  Every single student in my class was engaged in writing, revising, and sharing a sequential story that involved Bee-Bot. Their enthusiasm for writing has amazed me and I am more than excited for my near daily collaborating mini-sessions with my Instructional Coach about the next steps in guiding their learning.”

Another key piece to the successful coaching conversations was the impact on teacher reflection, teacher practice, and student learning.  Katie was eager to receive feedback from students, which flowed over into students accepting feedback from their peers in regards to their writing and how they could make it better.  




Giving constructive and timely feedback takes time.  Once teachers make small tweaks to direct instruction and daily practice the payoff can be tenfold.  In this case, Katie’s increased reflection impacted the learning environment for all students in her classroom.

 "The students are willing to let their classmates make mistakes without pointing them out. I can then guide them to give and receive appropriate and helpful feedback." 

 

The above quote is a great connection to the work Linn-Grove has also been doing with Growth Mindset.  Getting feedback and using it in a positive way is a healthy way for students to continue learning even with mistakes, or bumps in the road.

Throughout this entire process, Katie has been open to the coaching cycles while being reflective on her own learning. “After teaming with my Instruction Coach and Technology Integration Coach for an extended amount of time I find myself trying to coach myself through my lesson planning. They both have a direct but helpful way of questioning what the purpose of each aspect of the lesson or plan is."

The bottom line for educators here is that Coaching really can impact everything we do with and for students.  We often hold the answers we need to be more successful in our classrooms.  Coaching helped Katie be a self-directed learner, build her efficacy, and be more mindful of what work makes the greatest impact on students.