What is Instructional Coaching?
If the term/position of Instructional Coach is new to you, you’re not alone. Instructional Coaching was new to ISP last fall and I am pleased to report that this position has been positively embraced by our teaching and learning community. The vision for this position is that the instructional coach (IC) at International School of Portland partners with teachers for professional learning so that we can reflect on, grow, and refine practices to center coherence, educational excellence, inquiry, equity, and joy in service to all students. We believe coaching relationships need to be thoughtfully and respectfully cultivated over time so that the coach can understand how each teacher learns best and how they will be best supported. As my relationships with faculty and staff continue to grow, I become more excited about all that we can learn and accomplish together.
As ISP’s IC I collaborate with many of our teams both visibly and behind the scenes. I regularly work with members of the Student Support Team (SST), the Primary Years Curriculum Coordinator (PYCC), members of the Teaching Leadership Team (TLT), and our EDI Community Committee. I am also a member of the Educational Leadership Team (ELT). As IC I regularly attend grade-level meetings to help provide guidance and support with the hows of teaching, while our PYCC and our divisional heads provide further support and direction with the whats. Additionally, I work closely with our new teacher cohorts to help them successfully acclimate and thrive in our unique and complex school structure.
I frequently work 1:1 with teachers through coaching cycles that provide a structure to explore a question or topic in their teaching practice with a thought partner and teacher advocate and to engage in a reflective learning process with the ultimate goal of helping students flourish. These coaching cycles include an initial goal-setting meeting, a class observation, a post-observation debrief, as well as the identification of next steps. Next steps may include but are not limited to, another full coaching cycle, follow-up meetings, the sharing of resources, further collaboration with me on how to implement a teaching strategy to meet an instructional goal, and/or connecting them to another ISP community member/resource who can help them achieve their expressed learning goals.
I will conclude my update by sharing something new that we are very excited about. This fall I have had the opportunity to organize and launch our first round of ISP Teacher Learning Walks. We know that teachers who have the chance to observe other teachers in action walk away with a greater appreciation for the art of teaching, insights into the complexities of teaching and learning, as well as questions and reflections about their own teaching practices and students. With this in mind, a group of 12 teachers representing each language track participated in our first cohort and had the opportunity to walk in the teacher shoes of their peers as a way to build community while gaining valuable in-house professional development. After spending a short time in each classroom, participants completed a personal reflection and met as a cohort to engage in a facilitated reflective conversation. They were asked what they noticed, what was surprising, and what was held in common with their own practice. Importantly, this reflective conversation ended with insights about their own classrooms. A second cohort of teachers will participate in Teacher Learning Walks between the Fall and Winter breaks.