I'm a state-level Adult Ed professional development coordinator and presenter in my state (among other things, hahaha). As a trained instructional coach in the K-12 system, I am interested in implementing a coaching model in our state, but there is a lot of skepticism about the feasibility of utilizing instructional coaches in a setting with mostly part-time teachers. I'm looking for success stories, if there are any, preferably at a state or regional level, of coaching implementation.
Thanks in advance for all your thoughts!
Tonya Creamer
Office of Adult Education
Department of Education, South Carolina
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Just popping this back up in the feed in the event that you missed it. I would LOVE to get some info on this, but I understand if it doesn't exist. :)
Tonya
Helllo Tonya,
While coaching may be well-known in K-12, as far as I know it is not common in adult basic skills education. It might be helpful if you could describe it here; perhaps there are models that exist, but are not described as coaching.
I am familiar with one adult basic skills coaching model, new this year, that has had some challenges, perhaps because:
I share your interest in coaching models for adult basic education and hope that, if you describe the elements of a coaching model here, there may indeed be a few examples to look at, or at least that you will know that you are plowing new ground in a new field, and in a tough growing season.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Hi Tonya,
I don't have a success story for you on a large scale but I am an instructional coach in an adult ed public charter school in Washington, DC and we have a well established and highly effective coaching program in place. Quite a few of our teachers are part-time as well so we utilize non-traditional methods to reach these teachers.
When we work with our part time teachers we just try to meet them where they are. We meet with them in small chunks of time before/after class when possible or even sometimes during break times. If possible, we provide class coverage for 30 mins or an hour for the teacher to step out and work with a coach. We have managed to flip our faculty meetings so that teachers have time to work on professional development, including work with a coach, during scheduled meeting times. We also have a mentoring program for all new teachers that is very helpful. One component of the mentoring program is being observed as well as observing other teachers. When we can't reach teachers in person, we hold coaching conversations through Skype. We also have had teachers tape themselves and send the video to the coach for feedback and coaching. We utilize a Google+ community to share information, collaborate, and communicate.
Our part-time teachers really benefit from coaching and value the extra support. Many of our PT teachers have full time jobs during the day and their work with a coach is the only opportunity they have to develop and grow as educators. Hopefully, this was helpful! If you have any specific questions for me, I'd be happy to answer them. Good luck!
Becky Shiring
eslbecky3@gmail.com
Hello Becky and others,
Thanks, Becky, for your description of coaching at the Carlos Rosario international adult public charter school. Very helpful!
I think you have identified some important elements of success in coaching part-time teachers:
1) Meeting with them in small chunks of available time;
2) Teachers video recording their classes and then -- with a mentor or coach -- analyzing their lessons;
3) Using Internet technology for real-time meetings that cannot be scheduled face-to-face because of the complexity of part-time teachers' schedules;
4) Using internet technology (Google + community) to share information, collaborate and communicate.
Teachers' video-recording their classes
There is a time-honored teacher training practice, originally known as micro-teaching, in which teachers prepare a short lesson, usually for under a half-hour, including creating a lesson plan that has student learning objectives. The coach or mentor meets with the teacher before the lesson to go over the lesson plan, and to find out what the teacher would especially like the mentor or coach to observe and comment on. The lesson is video-recorded, often by the teacher herself, using a smartphone or inexpensive digital camera. The teacher and mentor or coach watch the video together if possible, but separately if not. Then they meet, in-person or real-time online, for example using a Google Hangout, Join.me or Skype, to discuss the lesson.
I wonder if some of the features of micro-teaching are incorporated in your coaching model, Becky.
Library of just-in-time professional development resources to use with coaching
Here's an idea that I wonder if you -- and others here who are interested in coaching and "just-in-time professional development" -- have considered:
Create a smartphone app professional development library tailored to the needs of new -- and other -- teachers at your school. Despite best efforts to prepare new teachers or tutors face-to-face upfront, often the tough or persistent challenges emerge once their teaching or tutoring has begun. Some of these challenges may, especially over time, be predictable, and the app could include separate sections for each major identified kind of challenge. It could include a short description of the challenge (for example, addressing English language learners' needs in a multi-level classroom), and then links to good professional development resources: articles, videos, websites, LINCS resources, LINCS archived CoP discussions, archived webinars or free courses (such as those on LINCS) that the coaches believe would be helpful. Some of the PD resources might be videos that your coaches make of their own teaching, that are uploaded to a private or public YouTube channel. Think of this as a just-in-time professional development library that is focused on predictable teaching challenges, and that is best "delivered" when the teacher or tutor is facing the actual need. One example of this, designed for volunteer tutors, is the Literacy Mid-South app, available free for iPhones, androids, iPads and other tablets. Although the app has other features, such as a tutor management system and links to relevant social media pages, the video links library provides just-in-time tutor professional development. http://www.literacymidsouth.org/resources/practice-forms/ Perhaps the Carlos Rosario adult school could create such an app -- the underlying software for the Literacy Mid-South app is either free or inexpensive -- that is tailored to the needs that you and other coaches have identified. Or perhaps you already do something like this, perhaps with a webpage or with a mobile app? If so, please let me know. I wonder if other programs are using program-made apps and web pages for just-in-time PD, and if they are linking it to coaching.
I have a couple of questions for you, Becky. You mentioned these, and I wonder if you could expand:
1. What does a "flipped" faculty meeting look like?
2. What does your new teacher mentoring program include?
Thanks.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Hi David,
I actually just stumbled across this article today about apps-based PD prior to reading your post! I checked out the Literacy Mid-South app and would love to have something like that here. I'll have to touch base with our IT team. Currently, I just have a listing of resources, videos and self-paced courses available by topic in a Google Sheet that I pull from or refer teachers to. But what I am really missing is an evaluation piece. When teachers complete self-paced PD I'd like to have some standard evaluation that could be used to see what they took away.
To expand upon my earlier points:
1. A flipped faculty meeting is basically just a condensed faculty meeting. Our faculty meetings used to be an hour long, once a month. Now we try to condense as much of the information as possible and make it available prior to the meeting in order to allow teachers time to work together on PD related topics.
2. In our mentoring program, new teachers are paired with a veteran teacher (often someone who teaches or has taught the same class) and they usually meet 1-4 times per month to complete a checklist. The checklist includes a lot of technical/logistical items teachers need to know like how to submit different forms, what different processes look like etc. But it also includes several items related to pedagogy and teaching the curriculum. During the process new teachers have the chance to observe mentors and for mentors to observe them. The process lasts for one semester (15-16 weeks). The feedback we receive from new teachers is that the process is very helpful in acclimating them to our school environment.
Becky