The school year has started, and I am already running at top speed. We are only three weeks in and orders are unpacked and delivered, I’ve attended lots of meetings, materials have been created, lessons are being modeled, curriculum is being unpacked, new teachers are being trained, and assessments are being completed. My schedule is full and it feels good to be off to such a strong start. I think teachers are happy that they are receiving so much support from their Literacy Coach at this early time of the year.
However, I’m also concerned. I know that supporting teachers is important and that building relationships is essential. Teachers really appreciate it when I help organize a classroom library or create materials for upcoming lessons. They thank me when I help them score prompts and copy rubrics for a grade level meeting. They are appreciative when I come to their kindergarten classrooms at the end of the day and help with pack up and dismissal. But my work as a coach is more than that. I’m responsible for taking the long view of literacy in my building and in my district. I recently heard Barak Obama’s biographer say that President Obama always had the long view. He saw the long arc toward justice. I need to keep my eye on the long arc toward literacy for all students. I need to be sure that my coaching does more than just “lend a helping hand.” That will only get us so far.
I need to find my focus for the year. Will it be:
building student and teacher independence (vs. compliance)?
helping teachers personalize the teaching and learning in their units of study?
studying student work to determine success?
I know I have to do the “hard work” of coaching, not just the nice helping work. I need to help teachers to bring students to new levels of literacy learning.
What are your ideas for this school year? I’d love to hear them.
Writing to Learn, Learning to Write 
This really resonates with me! In the effort to build relationships, I find it important to do those helping tasks for teachers, but I worry about getting stuck in that role. Your focus on the long arc of literacy is a good reminder. It’s making me think I should have one long view for the literacy outcomes I want to see in the building and several different plans to get there based on the needs of teachers.
I always find the teacher research stance helps when in search of focus – “What happens when I work with one teacher all year long in Writer’s Workshop?” “What happens when I confer with one child at each grade once a week?” “What happens when I meet with teachers once a week outside of grade level?” I find these questions, like a OLW, can ground me throughout a year. Can’t wait to hear what your focus is and what you learn! Thanks for sharing!!
Great idea! I love the questioning stance. I’m going to give it a try…..after AIMS testing!
I am in the second year of leading a co-curricular garden club. We meet Thursday for the first time. I wrote a piece of curriculum I plan to use. It is a game on the topic of monarch migration. I wrote it for a course I took this summer. The game was developed because I rarely use them in my teaching. I wanted to “grow” and “stretch”. My other focus for this year to to see what the teachers at the base where I am based really want from me and the garden club. I also wrote a “needs” assessment to help me determine the answer to that. Last, I will graduate in December with a MS in Natural Resources. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for a local job in environmental education.Lots to consider. I guess I have more than one focus. Good luck narrowing down yours.
It’s hard, right? I guess a few areas of focus could work. Best of luck to you in all of your areas of interest!
That is where I was last week and the week before. (see my posts. 🙂 We can get very busy, fixing, helping, etc., being pulled in a lot of directions. Let’s hold ourselves to our long view. You’re my mentor team, my writing group. Together we are better. Good luck.
Here’s to this amazing team! Here’s to the long view!