Peer Coaching

Coaching in Practice (Self Study): Overview

What is the focus of Session 6? What successes and challenges have you faced in coaching?

In our previous session, you:

• Used the Learning Activity Checklist to identify ways to improve your lesson.
• Practiced coaching skills while collaborating on lesson improvement.

In Session 6, you will:

• Identify resources that match the curriculum focus of staff and post the resources to your online Coaching Portfolio.
• Write at least one new goal or refine an existing goal for collaborating teachers and yourself.
• Plan for coaching by completing a timeline for helping staff implement planned technology integration lessons/activities.
• Use active listening, paraphrasing, and questioning skills to reflect on the results of a coach and teacher collaboration.
• Use a problem analysis protocol to analyse a coaching roadblock.
• Communicate about coaching roadblocks and possible solutions using the Discussion Board.

Session Agenda

• Welcome and Overview
• Reflect on Roles and Trust
• Wows and Wonders Coaching Protocol
• Coaching Roadblocks
• Explore Coaching Tools
• Session 6 Closing

Reflecting on Our Experience

Coaching Cycle

1. Read the brief review of the first Session below.
2. After your read the first of these summaries, have a conversation with your close peers and share your recollections and reflections about the activities.
3. Complete this process for each of the five Sessions.
    
   • Getting Started
     You discovered what it meant to be a coach, learned what roles coaches might play, and started to create your coaching plan with your principal.
   • Coaching First Steps
     You practiced communication skills, created a presentation to share with staff members, and began to use your portfolio to keep track of resources.
   • Exploring Learning Activities
     You looked at communication skills, read research about instructional design, and reviewed resources for coaching. You then developed a plan for a lesson to practice collaboration and the use of instructional design principles.
   • Preparing Learning Activities
     You selected a partner and a lesson to improve, began to revise the lesson, paused to reflect on the process and use of coaching skills, and then completed the lesson revision process. You published the lesson to a searchable database.
   • Coaching Next Steps
     You presented your improved lessons to peers and defended how the Learning Activity Checklist and lesson improvement steps were addressed. You practised coaching skills while providing each other feedback about the improved lessons, then completed lesson revisions and planned coaching next steps.
   • Coaching in Practice
     You reviewed how your programme was taking shape discussed successes and challenges.
   • Effective Professional Development
     You learnt about effective professional development and utilising that model in your schools.You analysed the impact coaching had on a learning activity you collaborated on with another teacher.
   • Connections
     You reflected on your coaching experience, connecting to the larger community of learners.

The Coaching Cycle and the Peer Coaching Programme Sessions

You can now see how the Peer Coaching Programme Sessions are aligned with the stages of coaching. Did you notice the overlap?

• Have you experienced any of the stages in your own coaching?
• Have you gone through the entire cycle with a collaborating teacher? If so, was your path linear or non-linear? If not, have you experienced any of the stages?

When coaching teachers, it is important to remember to go through all the stages of the coaching cycle (unless you are playing another role, as coaches often do, such as technical support, facilitating or consulting).

Related Scenarios

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» Showcase Your Work