Coaching Retrospective: What impact have we had in five years? A little over five years ago, I sat across the table from seven or eight of our school’s senior leadership team to be interviewed for a newly-created position: Teaching and Learning Coach. “Tell us about a time you helped others be reflective.” “What do you think about when you are planning instruction?” The questions weren’t hard to answer, but I had no idea what they thought of my responses. At the time, I really didn’t have a clear concept of what the role of Teaching & Learning Coach would entail or whether I would be a good fit. I went home thinking I had quite possibly embarrassed myself in front of the whole LLT. I guess I did okay in the interview though, because eventually I was offered the role, and became part of a cross-school team. The team has ebbed and flowed a bit over these five years, but one thing has been very consistent: the group of people I’ve been privileged to work with has been amazing. Th
What do we as K-12 educators often prioritize as a grade level or department team? Making a time table for our units to move students through our curricular goals. Scheduling always comes first, understandably so right? We want all of our learners to have equal access to their grade level and subject area content. But what about those learners who never get a chance to master anything because the class is always moving on? Or those students who already know it? For centuries we have let time be the constant and learning be the variable . Co-founder of the Modern Classroom Project, Robert Barnett, compares this educational phenomenon, one size fitting all, to a group of people going on a bike tour together in this ten minute TedTalk. Check it out A Bike Map for Education's Future | Robert Barnett | TEDxLeysinAmericanSchool Flipping this and making learning the constant , benefits students in so many ways. What is school for anyway? Life skills, like student agency (internal motiva