The Coaching Cycle

This Peer Coaching program, sponsored by Microsoft, emphasizes building learning communities. This is just as important as the technology projects that will be implemented through process.

We started the training by looking at the Coaching Cycle. When using the coaching cycle, you may jump in at any point. It is a tool to help enhance communication and collaboration. The tool helps to keep projects relevant and on track to meet goals.

Peer Coaching Plan

This program requires the peer coach, the participating teachers (PTs) and the school administrator to develop a Peer Coaching Plan. We need to consider the structure of this program. Will we meet together (coach and PTs) or in pairs? What will our projects look like? We can align our purchases with our projects. This gives us something to hang our learning on? I will need feedback about this. We can do this in so many ways and I wish the PTs could be here at this training.

The Peer Coaching Plan is a living document and we will be updating it during the first month that we work together.

Coaching Roles

A coach plays a variety of roles. This short article of the roles and responsibilities of a peer coach.

Coaching For Change

In the article, "Coaching Isn't Just For Athletes" Ellen Guiney states, "This is not work for the faint-hearted. To do it well requires a calm disposition and the trust-building skills of a mediator combined with the steely determination and perseverance of an innovator. Add to this mix the ability to know when to push and when to stand back and regroup in the long-term process of adopting new approaches to galvanize a school to function differently. To succeed, a coach must be a leader who is willing not to be recognized as such and, at the same time, who is able to foster leadership among teachers who rarely regard themselves as leaders."