Coaching & Feedback / Instructional Coaching Posted on:

The Compelling Case for Instructional Coaching

The Compelling Case for Instructional Coaching San Francisco, NAIS Annual Conference 2016 It may have been fortuitous that a few weeks after being given the opportunity to create two new instructional coach positions with our team, I found myself in a breakout session at NAIS called, “The Compelling Case for Instructional Coaching” by Matthew Horvat, Brenda Leaks, Gerald Buhaly, and Jessica Hanson from The Overlake School. The presentation provided key insights from the perspectives of the IC (instructional coach), a teacher and the principal. I hope to get the actual slides, but for now I’ve shared a few slides I […]

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Coaching & Feedback / Instructional Rounds Posted on:

Chatting About Instructional Rounds

Chatting About Instructional Rounds Last week, I was invited to chat (via Google Hangouts) with a group of students at Harvard about instructional rounds. Wow – what an honor! It was fun to share the experiences of my team since we launched the practice of IR at Mount Vernon in 2013. Some of the questions posed included… How do you transform the culture of a school? How much time do you spend aligning terms, norms, and expectations with observers and teachers? How do you measure and capture the demonstrations of the MV Mindsets? Have you ever included students or parents […]

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Book Review / Coaching & Feedback / Instructional Rounds / Reflective Practice / Teamwork Posted on:

Thanks for the Feedback

Thanks for the Feedback Our team has recently discovered this fabulous book, recommended by Meredith Monk from Folio Collaborative. The authors outline the 3 types of feedback we all need and receive as human beings: appreciation, coaching, and evaluation. None of these concepts are new, but the clarification of each one, as well as the interconnectedness of them are providing important insights for us. Just the summary from Chapter 1 alone has given us great fodder for discussion and reflection. “Feedback” is really three different things, with different purposes: Appreciation – motivates and encourages. Coaching – helps increase knowledge, skill, […]

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Coaching & Feedback / Instructional Rounds / Professional Learning / Reflective Practice Posted on:

Implementing Instructional Rounds

Implementing Instructional Rounds Recently, the idea was posed to us about how to implement instructional rounds. I’m so excited at the prospect of sharing this valuable practice with other educators, that my mind began racing. Hundreds of thoughts all crashing together in my mind at the same instant. Pulling out a trusty, white legal pad, I began to scribble down questions. Ah, start with questions. It’s embedded in my DNA. Questions for Schools to Discuss Before IR Can you describe your school’s current model for observation? Current evaluation model? Feedback model? Is there any peer to peer observation happening in your […]

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Coaching & Feedback / Instructional Rounds / Professional Learning / Reflective Practice Posted on:

Traditional Observation v Instructional Rounds

In our third year of practicing instructional rounds, I continue to learn and grow in my ability to deliver quality, meaningful feedback to our teachers. They are the best. The top. The elite professionals. I often tell them they are the “Michael Phelps” of education. And even Michael Phelps needs a coach to be the best in his field. I believe instructional rounds is one of the most effective methods to professional growth in education. “A commitment to professional learning is important, not because teaching is of poor quality and must be ‘fixed,’ but rather because teaching is so hard […]

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Coaching & Feedback / Instructional Rounds Posted on:

Teacher Feedback – Old School

In my basement are 5 large boxes of files from 10 years of teaching. It used to be more, but I have been slowly condensing the boxes over the last 4 years. I was amazed to discover some old observation feedback from my first year at Dunwoody HS. It was fascinating to compare how I received feedback then as a teacher to how I capture and deliver feedback now as an administrator, especially as it relates to instructional rounds (#IRFEDU).   Date: April 13, 2000 Focus of Lesson: Socialism/Capitalism Teaching Task I: Provides Instruction Your students participated in the classroom […]

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Coaching & Feedback / Instructional Rounds Posted on:

Feedback from Instructional Rounds: New Network

A team of 4 Middle School Teachers and 4 Administrators piloted the second instructional rounds group in Mount Vernon’s Middle School starting in January 2014. After one pre-brief (to establish norms and goals), four observations and four group debriefs, we concluded our rounds with one final post-brief session. Here is the feedback… What was good about this IR experience? Greatest learning came from hearing about others’ feedback Our group allowed the conversation to be organic I benefited from an inside view of the all the classrooms This increases the respect for our profession It allowed me to form relationships with […]

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Coaching & Feedback / Professional Learning / UbD - Understanding by Design Posted on:

Feedback from Performance Task (UbD Stage 2) and iPlan17

What was your biggest takeaway about performance tasks? What questions do you still have about performance tasks? How relevant was the focus of the professional learning on Jan 6 for your classroom practice? What new insights did you gain about the connection between “the initiatives we have launched” and the “why” behind them? In Wednesday’s faculty meeting, what was your biggest takeaway from giving and receiving feedback with vertical teams on your performance task designs? How familiar are you with the details of “Design and Demonstrate” in the Strategic iPlan17? To what degree do you plan to utilize GRASPS as […]

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