MY FIRST YEAR of COACHING - SUPPORT STRATEGIES and creations
SUPPORT THROUGH CONVERSATIONS, COLLABORATION AND CREATIONS
Moving to a new state and getting accustomed to new initiatives and very importantly finding ways to support teachers especially as a first year coach has certainly been a very thrilling experience thus far! I wanted to learn and do everything possible and by December 2017, I had created many items below. My drive is my passion for education and the thankfulness that I felt for being given the opportunity to serve in this role! I am extremely thankful to Austin ISD and Mendez Middle school for giving me this opportunity and I expressed this feeling in a poem.
ASSESSMENTS, ANSWER KEYS AND SCANTRON DOCUMENTS
By the end of November 2017, I had created 43 end of unit assessments, answer keys and scantron documents to go along with these. In order to guide this work, I had to create an At-A-Glance TEKS document by Unit to quickly identify the TEKS.
CLASSROOM WALKTHROUGHS AND FEEDBACK
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PLC
At the start of the year, we had Math PLCs where we meet to plan and focus on the individual needs of our students. I created a Google Doc to document our meeting minutes which we confirmed at the end of the meetings. This document not only provided a record of our discussion to refer to when needed, but a space for everyone to have a voice and suggest and share ideas. However, since the structure of PLC was changed and a new form was designed to take meeting notes, I did not continue with this. It is my desire to implement this structure again some time during my coaching career and I am confident that it will happen.
LESSON PLANNING STEPS/GUIDELINES
I created this lesson planning steps and guidelines after observation and receiving feedback from teachers who indicated that they needed a more detailed explanation for planning lessons and tasks.
LESSON PLANNING AT- A-GLANCE
The 8th grade team wanted a more collaborative tool, so they asked me to create this for them. I took all of their ideas and designed this At-A-Glance template 8th grade teachers to collaborate and document their daily agenda, activities and strategies.
LITERACY FOCUS
When I joined the staff, the INFER elements to the left were being used across the campus for ELA, However, I wanted to create steps that were more aligned to reading in Math and blended what I used in Iowa with what Math teachers used the previous year. This was the final product that I created into posters for all classrooms. I also created the mini charts on the right for teachers to have students use when solving word problems!
I created this Math Literacy graphic to highlight the many elements to focus on when incorporating literacy strategies in the math classroom. I gained these strategies while pursuing my Masters in Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Development.
SOLVING WORD PROBLEMS EXAMPLES
I created these Solving Word Problem examples for all teachers to put up on their classroom walls to support students when they solve word problems. Students can look at exemplar work and better understand the steps that go along with our Math INFER strategies.
DIFFERENTIATION and student choice
student talk and ENGAGEMENT
After having conversations with one of our Math teachers and my mentee about student talk, I created this graphic to help guide student talk.
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TEACHER APPRECIATION YEAR
I personalized this note pad to write notes during walkthroughs to inform teachers of the strategies that resonated with me, and to let them know that they are valued and appreciated as I believe that this makes a huge difference building teacher morale and inspiring them to work harder.
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Getting school supplies ready for teachers to start off the year. Thanks to my wife for her help and unwavering support!
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Happy Easter!
A note and candy for teachers.
A note and candy for teachers.
DATA TALK
SHORT CYCLE AND END OF UNIT ASSESSMENT DATA
I created this data tracker that I currently use to enter scores after mid and end of unit tests, and also use to record and determine the TEKS that I need to focus on when creating re-loop Warm-Ups. To maintain the confidentiality of scores, I removed the numbers on this tracker.
MAVmathics digest
During the year that my wife served as a Technology Coordinator at a rural school in Iowa, I watched her create Tech Digest for her teachers. The design and content were extremely captivating. I promised myself that when I got an Instructional Coaching job that I will do the same for my teachers. Also, while pursuing my Instructional Coaching Certificate, my professor introduced me to the great work of Dr. Jim Knight and the many articles that he and his collaborators wrote about coaching. It was in one of these articles, I also saw the powerful effect of newsletters, and again I promised to create these for teachers. So far, I have created 4 issues in Volume 1 and will be creating 2-3 issues in Volume 2.
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STUDENT TRACKING FOLDERS
With the support of my wife, I created tracking folders for students. This is a technique that I used in NC that helped my students take ownership of their learning.
WARM-UPs
I create Warm-Ups for teachers relating to TEKS that students need to re-visit. I use a data tracker that I created to track students unit tests scores in which I also identify the TEKS to focus on. Using this information, I create Warm-Ups for teachers to use to re-loop previously taught concepts.
warm-up booklets
Initially, I was creating Warm-Ups for students based on the results from our Short Cycle Assessment, but after discussions with teachers, they wanted to have the Warm-Ups for all units kept together so that students will not lose them. In order to meet teachers's needs I created Warm-Up packets that included all Units for all students in all grade levels. Some teachers wanted folder, some did not, so I met these individual needs as well!
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
In realizing the need for support on classroom management skills, I created this Blendspace lesson for teachers to watch and shared with teachers in the math department as well as a teacher in another department who reached out for support.
https://www.tes.com/lessons/h7nxWR3risxicg/classroom-management-blendspace-created-by-cherry-anne-gildharry
lesson planning
In order to support the 8th grade teachers with the TEKS and lesson planning, I started crating graphic organizers and lessons. Below are some artifacts reflecting At-A- Glance Graphic Organizers that I created.
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I was asked by my Principal, Academic Dean and District Math Specialists to go on a planning rotation with the 8th grade team. Below are some lessons that I created for our students.