Have Laptop, Will Travel…

I must apologize for the fact that I have not written for this blog for a few weeks, but the demands of work and life in general have kept me very busy!

My fellow ICs–Vickie, Shannon, Lezlie and I– have just returned from the Instructional Coaches Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, and I must say, it was an eye-opening experience. 

 Attending the Institute were ICs, Supervisors, and even a few Superintendents of Schools, from all over the world.  Our West Virginia contingent particularly bonded with some educators from a GIANT school district in Atlanta, (Hi, Steve and company!) and a pleasantly determined IC from Shanghai, China. (Hi, Huguette!)

The Presenter for the Conference was Jim Knight, a researcher affiliated with the University of Kansas Coaching Project, and a gentleman whose writings I had read previous to becoming an IC myself.  Mr. Knight was a casual, easy communicator, and much of the wisdom he imparted from his years as an Instructional Coach we found illuminating, for it gave sense to some of the “whys” and “wherefores” of our own coaching experiences. 

However, the most valuable part of the conference for us was the ability to network with our counterparts at other educational institutions.

 Nice to know that many of the issues faced by educators these days are international in scope! We are not alone in facing problems such as student apathy, lack of finances, and demands both for rigor, and for no child to be left behind!

However it also became evident to us that , while many of the problems facing educators are similar, we each have our own specific issues with which to wrestle. 

Our friends from Atlanta were charged to work with over 6,000 students for whom English is not their first language.  There are FIVE  of them.

Our friend from Shanghai PAID HER OWN WAY to attend the conference, when her school district could not do so.

On the other hand, several school districts had the funding to place an Instructional Coach in every school, and gave very encouraging data supporting that practice.

As my colleagues and I listened to all the varied and diverse experiences of educators at the Conference,  one thing became evident to us–Cabell County, WV is on the right track! We already have in place some of the initiatives that other areas of the country and the world are just beginning. 

It also became evident that we have a long way to go! 

The process of educating our children is a dynamic one.  Here’s hoping that we remain encouraged, diligent, and ever moving forward.  Ours is an important job.

That said, it is time for me to pack up the old laptop and hit the trail………………

Workin’ out

I recently got a humorous forward on my email from my friend and colleague, Brenda.  She knows that I am in a constant battle to stay in shape, and how tough it is to fit workouts into my schedule.  The gist of the forwarded story was that you begin a fitness regimen enthusiastically, and then become more and more resentful of the time and effort that it takes.  The story was funny, but it made me realize something about human nature:  we prioritize the things that are valuable to us.  If you see some quick results from your workouts, you are more likely to continue them.

As I often do, I found a parallel between my workouts and my job.  I expend the most time and effort doing the things that I think are valuable, but I get the most satisfaction when I see results from my efforts. 

From the beginning of this school year, I have had the opportunity to work with some wonderful, dedicated teachers, who have invited me into their classrooms.  These teachers have included brand-spanking new teachers just out of college, who are looking for a focus for all their enthusiasm; long-term subs who have the tough job of teaching out-of field; and seasoned teachers who are constantly on the lookout for ways to reinvigorate their already good teaching practices.

I have been so impressed with these people.  They are certainly NOT status-quo types, but are excited and motivated by the very process of teaching.  They are working to build up their “teaching muscles” , and are very much aware of the old adage, “use it or lose it!”

Educators take so much flak in today’s society–some of it deserved, some not–but I am here to say that there are still many teachers out there who are working hard to stay educationally fit.  I know, because I am working alongside many of them.

The good news is that, ultimately, our students are the ones who benefit.

Lesson Planning

Teachers have a love/hate relationship with lesson planning.  We all know that you cannot go into a class of 30 students without knowing how you are going to present your subject matter, so lesson plans are an absolute necessity.

Interestingly enough, however, the longer a person teaches, the less he or she seems to want to do formal lesson plans.  This is partly because after teaching the same material for several years, lesson planning becomes second nature, and many teachers feel as if they are writing lesson plans as an accountability piece for an administrator, or as fail-safe plan for a substitute in the event of an unexpected absence. 

If you have read my profile, you noticed that I left teaching for several years to work in another field.  Even during that time, I would sometimes substitute teach evening classes, and I began to notice something odd about myself–I sorta got a kick out of lesson planning when it was not mandatory.

When I returned to teaching, I gave some real thought to what it was that made the difference in my attitude toward what some teachers consider the most tedious part of teaching. After some self-evaluation, I came to the conclusion that I have a very short attention-span, and I pretty quickly get bored with repetition.  When I was not teaching as my main occupation, figuring out cool ways to present lesson material was a diversion, and not so much of a chore.

This led me to my next epiphany:  If repetitive lesson presentation became boring to ME, could I be communicating that to my students?? 

It is no secret to any educator that the most important part of a good unit is the planning.  But in education, as in any other 21st Century profession, same-old/same-old is no longer acceptable.  It is really disturbing to think that kids today are surrounded by constant visual, auditory, and even emotional stimulation, but see the classroom as a place to “power down.” 

Our county’s Instructional Coaches have been undergoing intensive training to become familiar with the vast amount of resource material available to teachers today.  The wealth of information out there for lesson planning alone is mind-boggling, but it is also encouraging  because it is so readily accessible to anyone who knows how to Google!

Creative teachers are constatnly seeking sources of inspiration for effective lessons and units, to the great benefit of our children.  However, wise teachers also know that there is no need to “re-invent the wheel.” 

Making use of online resources, professional development, and instructional coaching can make lesson planning much less of a burden, and maybe, just maybe–veteran teachers will regain that creative edge that  makes teaching a truly satisfying job. 

For information on creative lesson planning, or for suggestions/instruction on resources available to teachers In Cabell County, please comment on this blog and one of our county’s Instructional Coaches will contact you ASAP.

Sooo…What is an Instructional Coach?

Last week, the Cabell County Instructional Coaches were busy doing beginning of the year staff development, which was a great opportunity to meet a lot of nice people employed in the school system.  While many people were familiar with the concept, I was asked more than once, “…exactly what IS an Instructional Coach?”

Let me begin my answer with a quote from another educator: “Quick fixes never last, and teachers resent them. They resent going to inservices where someone is going to tell them what to do but not help them follow up. Teachers want someone who’s going to be there, who’s going to help them for the duration, not a fly-by-night program that’s here today, gone tomorrow.” – Lynne Barnes, Pathways to Success instructional coach

I don’t think that any teacher would disagree with that statement.  I certainly don’t.  That is why I was so pleased to discover that Cabell County was following the example of other successful school districts by instituting ICs.  This is not a new program, but a tried and true initiative designed to provide support to classroom teachers who are interested in using particular strategies that they were introduced to in staff development. 

A problem with workshops in general is that they are usually short, information-packed, and there is not time for a lot of Q and A.  Instructional Coaches are trained in numerous strategies, and then are able to act as resource people for classroom teachers, at the teacher’s discretion.  This helps to alleviate the problem of “hit-or-miss” follow-up to professional development, and ensures that a greater number of students will benefit from best practice teaching. ICs are particularly helpful to new teachers, or teachers who are new to a county mandated initiative.

Instructional Coaches meet with departments or teams, and/or meet with individual teachers, to work on real content.  They may actually design lessons or units, provide resource materials, and may also model or co-teach the use of particular strategies right in the classroom.  Instructional Coaches can also provide school-wide or individual professional development on strategies which the school wishes to emphasize.

The idea is to give teachers some breathing room, because they know that there is a partner there to support them in implementing state and county initiatives.  This makes for more efficient use of the classroom teacher’s time, and ensures that students get the very best in research-supported instructional strategies.

Cabell County has ICs dedicated to both elementary and secondary schools, each with particular areas of expertise, and all who are excited at the prospect of working with the talented teachers in our schools.

If you would like more information, or would like to talk one-on-one with an Instructional Coach, leave a comment on this blog, and I will make sure that you will be contacted.

Change–change–change-(musings of an Instructional Coach)

We have been hearing a lot about change, lately.  That word is falling from the lips of our presidential candidates with greater and greater frequency.  The general concensus seems to be that we are all pretty frustrated with the state of our country right now, so change is not only good–it is crucial.

Why is it then, that when the educational voices from “on high” tell us that it is time for some rethinking of our teaching methods, we teachers sometimes react as if that change is the worst thing that could possibly happen? Phrases like “paradigm shift” , “out of our comfort zone” , and “new educational initiative” fill us with a sense of dread.

Part of the reason, I think, is that most teachers have spent years getting their “stuff” together, and just about the time they think they are organized enough to take a breath, some new strategy mandate comes down the pike, and they have to start again. 

There are other reasons–we may be having success teaching as we have been, and don’t see a reason to rock that boat, or we see a strategy as a flash-in-the-pan, and are not quite sure that it is worth our time to re-adjust perfectly good lesson plans.  And let’s face it, sometimes we just are too tired or (GASP!) too lazy to make the effort.

Back in the day when I was a fresh-faced undergrad, I wrote a paper in which I suggested that the best thing that could happen to education would be to trash the whole system and rebuild it from the ground up. I did not realize at the time how logistically impossible that would be.

Well, now I am older, and a little more realistic in my outlook.  I recognize that, having turned the corner into the 21st Century, it is time for us to re-examine how we teach those “digital natives” who just plain learn differently than students of the 20th Century did. There is more and more brain research that indicates that this is a fact. The times they are a-changin’, and we have a responsibility to keep up!

In a workshop that I teach, I cited as an Essential Understanding that “change causes conflict, and conflict causes change.”  That statement holds true in education, as it does in other areas of our lives.  New teaching strategies , new technologies and methodologies DO cause us a certain amount of discomfort.

But, dedicated educators will do as they always have done.  They will examine and use the best of those practices to ensure that, for our students, change is not only beneficial, it is exciting!

 

OH–BTW–if you wonder what inspired these musings–you can blame a comment to this blog from Debbie Underwood! <grin>

A veritable “Buffet” of strategies

The summer has been very hectic, as my colleagues and I have been busy teaching workshops, AND attending workshops.  I feel a little as if I am on “information overload”, but I am also really jazzed about the idea that there is SO much help out there to make us better teachers.

I attended Anita Archer’s Dynamic Vocabulary Instruction workshop today, and I found it very informative.  Archer is an engaging speaker, and you can tell that she loves language and is “addicted to reading.” ( She admits to reading Drano cans in the bathroom).

We all know the importance of vocabulary in every teaching discipline, and the research-based strategies shared in Archer’s workshop seem to be effective ways to  distribute vocabulary practice throughout a lesson or unit.

One thing I noticed was that these strategies lend themselves well to differentiation, which, by-the-way, I believe is the very best way to teach the 21st century student in our classrooms. 

Several teachers have expressed to me a certain amount of apprehension related to the numerous initiatives (DI, LFS, UbD, Project-based Learning, et al) that our school districts have instituted, and for which teachers are being held accountable.  The more I am exposed to these initiatives, the more I realize that there are correlations among many of them.  The idea is not to try to cram every strategy into a unit, but to pick the most applicable from that “buffet” of ideas that exist in educational professional development, and incorporate them into our lessons.

Anyway, I am excited about the prospect of working with classroom teachers to identify which strategies work best for their students.

To quote Anita Archer:  “WOOO!”

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

A few weeks ago, I was on vacation and witnessed an extraordinary sunset!  I have seen some great sunsets over the mountains of WV, but this one on the Gulf was a totally different experience.  As the sun went into the water, the water turned neon green for just a few seconds as the sun disappeared. 

Hello World

This is my first venture into the wide world of educational blog-dom (to coin  a phrase).  I am a freshly -minted Instructional Coach for the Cabell County School System, and I decided that I would share all my deepest and darkest thoughts on education with YOU–a few of my closest friends. 

I hope that you will feel free to comment, question, offer advice, discuss best practices and generally use this blog to share your thoughts on how we as teachers can inspire our 21st Century Learners to not only acquire knowledge, but put it to use in a productive way.

Someone asked me recently why I left the classroom, since I love the interaction with the students.  I guess I have to say, Pollyanna as it may sound, that I hope that I can do something to help a teacher teach and/or a learner learn. 

The way I look at it, if you have this wonderful teaching strategy, and you share it with your classes, maybe a hundred or so kids benefit.  But if you share that strategy with other teachers, thousands may benefit. 

Here’s to sharing…………….