Cognitive Coaching: A New Approach to Building Effective Teacher Leaders

Experiencing a coaching management style will ease some staff into this method of communicating without the need for all of the planned coaching and mentoring programme. The session about using the GROW model or different coaching styles could be combined depending on the needs of the staff. Flexibility will be required with the implementation.

Mrs. Lawrence: When planning a lesson, I start with the objective. What is it I am supposed to be cover. Once I know, I start with a hook. I access their prior knowledge then I move on with either an example or model. All along I ask questions to make sure the students

In part 2, I will provide a critical reflection on my own teaching practice during recent placement by making detailed connections to an appended lesson plan.

The teacher candidate has always felt she puts more pressure on herself than her external factors. She is not as nervous to teach to students, but teaching in front of Maercker Intermediate School staff members. On top of putting pressure on herself, she become anxious worrying about what her cooperating teacher and other Maercker staff think. The teacher candidate knows she is not qualified teacher, and can make a few teaching errors along the way, but she worries if she not demonstrating the right teaching strategies and methods. At times, she did not feel confident to teach, but over time, she learned to not focus on what staff members think of my teaching, but focus on how I will impact student learning. Miss Butzen has communicated with Mrs. Corcoran on effective teaching strategies, which she suggests have students work in cooperative learning groups and have students participate during teacher-directed instruction. She has taken this advice, and prefers to use the interactive teaching instruction. Ashley has discovered she does not want to do the majority of teaching a lesson in lecture, teacher directed style, but have students engaged in the lesson by having students volunteer to model the measureable learning target and have students work in cooperative learning groups during the practice

Section II. Teaching Practice Question 1: The Washington County School District organizational strategies in place for teachers has increased academic student growth in my classes. Throughout the year, I participate in professional development activities that enhance my teaching skills and increase student learning. I collaborate with data analysis and colleagues to disaggregate student data, correctly identify the lowest benchmarks that students scored based on FSA performance and Washington County School District Progress Monitoring Program (three assessments from the previous year). For this reason, we develop an "Order of Instruction" for content areas based on data from various student measures that have been assimilated throughout the school year. In like manner, I meet with vertical/grade level teams during preplanning to gather resources and organize materials by units, critique online resources to incorporate new technology into daily lesson objectives. Prior to students entering my classroom on the first day, I locate my class roster in FOCUS, print out all student IEP 's and 504 's and incorporate that information into my data notebook. As a team, we meet weekly to design lesson plans, create informal/formal assessments, and collaborate with another to ensure that standards-based instruction is being implemented in our classroom. After students start the new school year and complete their baseline assessments, I meet with colleagues, data analysis and Washington

Norma received training in Cognitive Coaching and used this knowledge to provide instructional coaching support for her colleagues. Being a new role in our district, this did not come with a job description, however, Norma took the initiative to research best practices, create supports for her colleagues, and set her own calendar in this

Jackson’s dry erase board already has the date printed for the children to write in their workbook pages. After the routine of sharpening pencils and passing around erasers, she begins engaging her students by saying, “Okay! Today we are going to study…” On the other hand, she orally assesses their recollection by asking, “Does anyone remember where we left off from our last class?” Either way, Mrs. Jackson’s students are always ready to learn by responding with excitement and demonstrating their attention level from previous classes. She maintains a humble presence in the entire school, not as an individual who provides intervention and diagnostic data, but as a nurturing instructor that encourages and motivates her students.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington was one of two public institutions nationwide honored for leadership and innovation in teacher education with the 2006 Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award presented by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AACSU). The award recognizes excellence in teacher education programs and advances teacher education by identifying promising practices and critical issues related to measuring the impact of programs on teacher candidate knowledge and the impact of these teachers on pupil learning. UNCW was honored for the learner-centered Cognitive Coaching model partnership in the Watson College of Education which connects university faculty and student educators with

During my own education, I understood that my teachers had done a lot of preparing for class, but I never really understood to what extent until Literacy 1. Each week, I spend over seven hours preparing for our one-hour lesson. Often, while I am preparing, I ask myself why I am doing this and why I have to do all this work and whether or not this is what I want to do with my life. Then on the ride over to practicum, I always get very nervous and anxious about the lesson –Will we have enough time? Will we have too much time? Will I be clear enough with my instruction and teaching? However, once I step into that classroom and I am standing in front of the students, every fear, every concern, every question is gone and I am in my element. I love seeing the students faces and watching their minds race. They make my week every time I go in and I never want to leave. I am happy when I am teaching. It feels right and natural. It is what I am meant to

… an ongoing partnership that helps clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance and enhance their quality of life ……

No longer should teachers see themselves as simply transmitters of content. Indeed, the role of the educator has shifted from the traditional position of being the giver of information to that of a process designer and coordinator. This role alteration from the traditional teacher-centered to the learner-centered approach is a paradigm shift that requires skill in needs assessment as well as the ability to involve learners in planning, link learners to learning resources, and encourage learner initiative (Knowles et al., 1998; Mangena & Chabeli,

Over the past decades, there have been many novice teachers who have entered into the field of education. When entering they are ready to change the world with their new ideas and insights to education. As time passes and they enter into a classroom full of students with different needs and with lesson plans to complete, they (teachers) quickly become overwhelmed with the task of teaching. Often, the transition from that of students of teaching to teachers of students is overlooked and goes unnoticed leaving novice teachers feeling unsupported and isolated (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011). Therefore many states have mandated that districts have a teacher induction program in place. Harry Wong (2004) states that:

plan. The first hurdle many new teachers have to overcome is the ability to maintain control of

When reflecting on the coaching sessions, there were patterns that were seen with all seven and, yet, each was unique. One of the teachers was able to communicate that she was still not comfortable using the “Number Talk” strategy that she had learned from me at a professional development workshop earlier in the year. She requested that I modeled this strategy. Afterwards, she communicated her relief that she was on the right track.

Before I knew it we entered our classroom. Our teacher told us to find our name and sit down at our desk. On our desks sat a pencil box full of crayons, pencils, and erasers ready for us to use. Miss Renee, our teacher, soon got up and gave us a tour of the classroom. Reces, the funnest part of the day, consisted of me meeting new friends.