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While instructional coaching has been a part of education for a while now, I believe the role of an instructional coach needs to be valued more in so many ways. I have served unofficially and officially in this role for a few years and I feel very moved to share my story, my experience and my voice in advocating for valuing the role of an instructional coach. I am a strengths-based, personalizing learning and growth mindset coach and a lifelong learner, so I am always open to alternate and contradicting thoughts and ideas, which I also gain from research, articles, and others through collaboration discussions and networks. Instructional Coaching Job Description It is extremely important that the role of an instructional coach is properly defined. HR in connection with other leaders must ensure that they are defining and outlining the true role of a coach, if the job is being classified and advertised as an instructional coach, and being funded accordingly. Many times instructional coaching jobs are classified as an instructional coach, but the description aligns to that of an interventionist or purely a full time teacher. Do not get me wrong, I have the greatest respect for teachers, interventionists, and others who are in the classroom facilitating learning fulltime. I believe they are the most important people who provide our students with an education, and we need to do everything we can to support them; I was a teacher for 24 years. However, the role of an instructional coach entails different responsibilities and skillsets and as such should be outlined in ways that the coach will be supporting teachers. Some of these are co-planning lessons, co-teaching when needed, providing feedback, engaging in coaching cycles, engaging in coaching conversations, providing professional development, developing and supporting teacher's goals, using one's content knowledge and instructional coaching skillset to profoundly impact teaching and learning, and so much more. If a district/organization/school is in need of a teacher (teaching and coaching students), co-teacher, interventionist, then advertise accordingly. When we advertise for an instructional coach, but need another role, we minimize the role of a coach and we set this role up to be an "other duties as assigned" role. When the role of an administrator, director, supervisor, or others in higher roles in education are advertised, these are correctly outlined to honor the great duties that they serve, as they should. Why not do the same for instructional coaches? Also, do not advertise for a specific instructional coaching role and then unofficially change the job duties, responsibilities and conditions when the person accepts the job; this is not professional and is no longer aligned to the grant funding. We also need to think about whether "other duties as assigned" should be in an instructional coaching job description as this gives poor leaders the opportunity to dishonor the role of an instructional coach even more. Hiring an Instructional Coach It is very important to hire an instructional coach who is qualified for this role. Do not just fill this role with a friend, someone who is "easy" to get along with, someone who has been working at the district/school/organization for many years and wants to move up but doesn't have the skillsets and basic coaching philosophies, someone who wants to just get out of the classroom, someone who is related to you and/or someone famous, someone who has an outstanding resume, but you know does not have the artifacts to match, or any other person who will not truly perform the duties and responsibilities of this role. In hiring an instructional coach, you want to look at this person's portfolio of artifacts in regards to talent with content knowledge and designs, planning, student artifacts, feedback samples, collaboration with teachers, coaching philosophies especially in regards to adult learning principles, and more. Very importantly, you must also be able to read the great skills that this expert has for seeing teachers' strengths. This information will provide authenticity in alignment to this role. It is stated that instructional coaches need not be content experts in order to be an effective coach (a Math Coach can confidently coach other subject areas; instructional strategies are the same for any content area), which I agree with to a large degree. However, instructional coaches are experts and should be experts of the content they taught as well as pedagogical experts. I believe this expertise is a critical asset in coaching teachers and leaders who have goals relating to curriculum designs. Note that being an expert means you are very knowledgeable in certain areas, however, it does not mean you know it all, have all the answers and you do not have room for growth. Experts are lifelong and curious learners who are not afraid to make mistakes and learn from them. Along with a person's portfolio of artifacts, you must be able to assess the confidence this person has in their abilities to make a difference and be a true team player; they MUST have self-confidence (do not confuse extensive genuine self-confidence with arrogance). Very often, when instructional coaches lack confidence in their abilities, they disrupt all great strategies implemented by other coaches who are confident in their abilities, by suppressing great work. If there is a poor leadership culture where coaches are allowed to tattle on other coaches and stifle their work, coaches will constantly tattle on their colleagues because of their feeling of inadequacy and insecurities. On the other hand, when coaches have self-confidence, they respect and honor the work of other coaches and the grant funded roles and responsibilities, as well as engage in genuine and meaningful teamwork practices. Interview questions should include, "How will you support team members and yourself when other ICs are constantly creating and bringing great ideas to the table? What are some creative ideas that you have generated? Have you ever stifled others' ideas or reported a coach that has great ideas because of your feelings of inadequacy? For some, these questions may come across as too direct, but if you want a great instructional coaching work culture, I believe these questions will naturally convey this focus in your organization, and the type of leader you are. Just like teachers and principals get certified in their fields, I believe all instructional coaches should be certified as there are many instructional courses out there now aligned to instructional coaching, and they provide in-depth knowledge and skills of the role of the coach. When you engage in these courses, you realize that instructional coaching is not about evaluating teachers and judging them. Instead, it is about doing whatever it takes to make sure that we empower all teachers and support their goals as we work alongside them to impact the most important people in education, students. It is about strengths-based, personalized and inspirational coaching. I believe requiring coaches to have a coaching certificate or masters courses aligned to coaching will help eradicate the inequity and favoritism in the hiring process, and tremendously impact the depth of coaching. Understanding the Role of a Coach I truly admire the length and depth of certification and experience that great principals, assistant principals and other leaders acquire to serve in their roles, as well as the great values assigned to these roles. In order to understand and value the role of an instructional coach, I believe leaders also need to attend coaching workshops and get frequent updated information about instructional coaching from research and the many gurus out there, if they are not familiar with the role of a coach. However, we must ensure that these resources are not just from one's guru perspective, but from as many as possible as this adds to equity, diversity and inclusion of ideas. Principals I know who have served as instructional coaches have said they transitioned from being a coach into the role of a principal or other leadership roles. Many will also tell you a lot of their duties were doing evaluative observations, creating tests, engaging in accountability tasks and anything else that was required of them. Based on research and coaching information out there, we know that instructional coaching is much more than doing observations, supporting one product, and attending to "other duties as assigned". I believe requiring leaders to attend more updated instructional coaching workshops provided by the many instructional coaching gurus out there will provide information on the depth of coaching and the value of an instructional coach. Additional professional development that will help leaders understand the role of a coach can also take the form of book clubs, videos and monthly meetings that principals and other leaders attend. During these monthly meetings, one of the items on the agenda should be Understanding and Honoring The Role of a Coach and all ideas should be shared with the cohort of leaders to impact authentic reflection and actions in honoring the role of coaches. Feedback from your coaches should be allowed to make your reflection more meaningful. Reflection should be ongoing and extremely honest in order for genuine change to take place. Honor the Grant Funded Coaching Position and Give Coaches a Voice When grants are written and approved for proper instructional coaching roles, extensive time and effort is placed on creating a job description with specific roles and responsibilities. From my understanding, in education, instructional coaches' salaries are paid from state and federal government funds, and coaches are employed to provide the best possible support to impact teaching and learning. Oftentimes, it is seen where people who have worked at a district for a while seem to think that they own the students, the district, the school and can stifle the great work that instructional coaches do. It doesn't matter how long you have been with a district and what position you hold; one should never be allowed to prevent the great work that instructional coaches do that is aligned to a grant funded approved instructional role. When we advertise for an instructional coach job that is specifically grant funded, we see this major responsibility, "comply with policies established by federal and state law, State Board of Education rule and local board policy" as we should. However, I believe that we should add, "all instructional coaches, leaders and employees must comply with policies...". I also believe that there should be steps to ensure that the written grant funded roles and responsibilities are honored by all. These steps and processes should not be monitored at the district level only, but also from higher grant funded levels. Coaches should have a voice in letting the higher levels of the grant funded organization know if they are being or not being allowed to perform the duties for the role that is being funded. I worked with instructional coaches who have said to me many times, I do not know why I was hired and I do not think I am making an impact. These same people prevented the work I did and that they knew truly impacted teaching and learning. This is sad! We all have areas for growth, myself included, but when there is a lack of confidence in what you do, choose to seek to learn more, gain more knowledge, and develop your skillset, instead of suppressing the work of others. Honor the grant funded position, and remember how these employees are being paid. Along with providing instructional coaches with a voice related to grants, I believe they should also have the ability to assess their supervisors and provide feedback on their leadership because it is often that poor supervisors/leaders are the ones encouraging the "block your work" culture, which goes against the funds provided by grants. In the end, our teachers suffer and are leaving the profession because the support they should be getting is blocked by the middle managers. If you decide to give coaches this opportunity to provide feedback about their leaders, do not wait until the end of the academic year to do so, because by this time the damage is done. Instead find ways to ensure that it happens periodically throughout the year, and ensure that even if it is one voice that is stating inequity and unfairness exist, it needs to be given consideration. I would also suggest that it be an anonymous survey, for so many reasons. Your instructional coach is not one that is often placed in a classroom when a teacher is not there, or asked to co-teach with a teacher for months, or asked to facilitate online and face-to-face learning for students for months and not given the opportunity to provide all teachers with coaching support. If this is the case, this goes against the duties stated in the job description and the funding for this role. Instructional coaching is a partnership that supports, highlights and inspires teachers to achieve their goals. Instructional coaches work alongside teachers, they are not substitutes and full-time co-teachers. In addition, you must understand that your instructional coach's personal life is NOT your concern and is not a part of a grant funded position, so you should never get involved or lead with the gossip you hear about your coach from co-workers, other leaders who are a part or not a part of the organization, community members or anyone else. This is unprofessional, unethical and harms the coach's reputation and impact. NO COACH deserves to bear the destructions that are associated with gossip and false subjective accusations! In fact, no employee deserves this type of leadership! Reflective Questions Here are some questions to reflect on during those moments you are alone with your thoughts: Do you truly value all of your instructional coaches or is this just something you say or an image you project? Are others swaying your interactions and the relationship you build with your instructional coach? Are you acting on gossip and preconceived notions? Are you truly giving all instructional coaches the opportunity to share the great ideas you were impressed with during their interview or are you giving some the opportunity to share and limiting the ideas of others? EVERY coach deserves a leader who will treat them with genuine respect and support them in doing the job that they were hired for. Do not let anyone or anything stop you for being that great leader! It takes a strong and genuine leader to make a difference. In your brutally honest self-reflection, would you say that you are the type of leader who is truly making a difference by genuinely valuing all instructional coaches and leading with equity? A Note from the Author: I wrote most of this blog on 06-12-2020, but for some reason I felt I needed more experience with various leadership styles before adding and sharing the final output, which was completed on 01-04-2021. This blog was written to advocate for instructional coaches and support the role of instructional coaching and instructional coaches who are not allowed to do their jobs to impact teaching and learning. In addition, it was written to advocate for those coaches who are not treated in a professional manner and whose great instructional coaching ideas are suppressed by those who are insecure in their abilities. Oftentimes, the struggles that instructional coaches experience are not shared as these are screened and viewed as not being positive. In order to impact change, we must share the realities of our experiences. More and more, we read about people's stories, challenges and negative experiences on LinkedIn, Twitter and other platforms and these are the ones that have an enduring impression. I read somewhere that direct messages create stronger neural connections in the brain for solving problems and impacting change. It is so nice to see that there are school districts and organizations properly advertising for the role of an instructional coach and that leaders honor this role. As an instructional coach, I want to say thank you for valuing instructional coaches and this role, and for honoring the duties that are outlined based on the grant funding and nature of the role. I must also add that as a coach, I worked with some exceptional leaders/supervisors who supported the role of the coach and allowed the coach to coach, which in the end had such a profound impact on teaching and learning. As I venture on volunteered virtual PBL coaching collaborative sessions, I feel fortunate to work for and collaborate with some more great leaders and educators. These are the types of supervisors/leaders who should be in leadership roles. Now that there is even more money being allocated to close the gap in education due to COVID related situations, we must ensure that great and professional leaders are placed in leadership roles to lead and support instructional coaches. Leaders who will respect, value and inspire instructional coaches to grow. Let's continue to advocate for valuing the role of an instructional coach! Comments are closed.
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Cherry-Anne GildharryOn this page, you will find blogs on educational connections and my life's experiences. Ideas, thoughts and views are my own and are not representative of my employers. References/sources used are public articles found on the internet to support my blogs. Archives
April 2024
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