We have only 17 days remaining of our inital year as Sumner County's 1st Instructional Coaches.....what a journey! In thinking back to our first day on the job in July 2009, we all eagerly boarded the big yellow bus for a crash course of ALL 42 of our county's communities and schools, through which I still believe to have been some type of "boot camp" strategy to weed out the car sick folks! Afterwards, we axiously soaked up weeks of training with Steve Barkley and other most wise gurus in their resepective fields. And finally, feeling as if we had grown from fledglings to full feathered avians ready to take flight, we entered the hallways of the schools! As I type this, the feelings still reasonate of that first day..... eager, ambitous, willing, nervous, alone, questioning...any of these sound familiar? We spent each day from that point working diligently to build relationships, trust, bring comfort, provide support, etc... each school's environment evolving at variant rates. Then, in a blink of an eye, here we are ONLY 17 days remaining! This sudden time warp brought many questions to mind, "what has been accomplished?...."where have we been, where are we going?..... "will we get there before time is up?"
I have revisited these questions for a couple of weeks now. Being the overly ambitious person I am, I wished I could have done more. But then, in an ever so simple statement, those notions were calmed. A wise woman said..... "Coaches, you have been the wave of change." "AHHA... I said and the realization came....
"The WAVE of change is just as important as the CHANGE itself!"
Taking that notion to application through Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, we as a coaching group were provided with an extroidanary series of opportunities, seized those opportunities, widen our knowledge, refined our personal strengths and exercised our practical intelliegences. However, we have merely logged 1,222 hours and 30 mins of PRACTICE in being Instructional Coaches...... thus being only a ripple in the 10,000 hours rule! My hope over the next few weeks of this journey is to STOP, reflect on where we have been and how the simple laying of the tracks will effect future travels.... not everyone in the village will ride the first train leaving the station......

"Yea...My 1st Ever Blog Posting!"

I have to share with everyone what a teacher here at Vena Stuart who also has a child in 3rd grade told me this morning. I've been going in her little girls class for about 3 wks. now and doing a 4 Square lesson to model the process for the teacher. I personally have loved doing this, but didn't know how much the children did til today. She said she just had to tell me what her daughter had said. She said she'd been loving Mrs. Watson coming in each week. I was teaching her exciting things!!! I almost cried, because I miss having a class that loves me. So, I got to get that goose bumpy feeling again! Yea! So, what we're doing ladies, does make an impact on the children.

Teaching and testing ah ha moments...

Well, I reconnected with my ELL experiences this week as I tested two ELL students at LPES. I realized SO much the need for intensive vocabulary instruction every day as many times a day as possible. This was the one thing that held them back during testing. You may be saying duh, but it was huge for me. Everyday words that we take for granted just really threw them. One of my students said, "I didn't know so was a homophone til now." He was faced with the word sew on the test. He got the answer because his little brain was working overtime. I also experienced the power of prior knowledge with this same child. After answering a question about using a filter in science, he told me he knew it because in his country they "put these things around trees to catch them and dirt gets in them and we have to shake the dirt out to get them." I am not sure what "them" was... some kind of fruit maybe?? At any rate, it reaffirmed what I know to be true about learning. It also made me miss teaching.

A Couple Thoughts on "Outliers"

So as I finished up Outliers, I was almost haunted by the idea that we possess the power to affect change, but rarely truly harness it. Students in KIPP schools given opportunities rise to the occasion by seizing those opportunities. This idea led to an interesting conversation with my daughters. My oldest daughter is in 7th grade, and knew about KIPP schools (Thank you, Channel One!). She went on and on about how many "amazing experiences" those kids have when they might not otherwise have anything meaningful to do. After lots of mom questions and probing, my youngest daughter remained unconvinced that so much time invested in school would be worth it.

I recognize that the premise is that poorer children need these opportunities to keep up with their wealthier counterparts. But what about my kids? Neither poor nor wealthy... I can't help but think that I'm failing to help them recognize the necessity for effort, practice, and that the opportunities they are given are worth seizing.

Just thinking... and hoping to do better day by day.

How coaches influence student achievement

A fabulous article by L'Allier, Elish-Piper and Bean in the April 2010 edition of The Reading Teacher describes how literacy coaches improve student performance... highest gains were reported with students whose teachers worked with coaches who spent most of their time working with teachers, as opposed to other activities.... makes sense. But the good news is that over time coaches begin to spend more and more time in "teacher-centered" activities....It seems that it often takes as many as 3 years to build those collaborative relationships!!! Read it and comment about what you think....

Congrats to Cynthia!

I know she is too modest to tell you, but I wanted to let you know that Cynthia was given the award of "Above and Beyond" at Whitten Elementary. This honor is given several times a year by the Whitten faculty to another faculty member who has shown and given their best and more in contributing to education in the building. She was given a journal in which each teacher wrote their thoughts and thanks regarding how she has helped them this year. I know Cynthia deserves it and I am especially pleased because this brings honor to all of you as coaches-- it shows what a difference you make!

A New Resource in the ELL Library

I wanted to let you know I got some new resources about SIOP.(Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol). One excellent one is 99 Ideas and Activities for Teaching English Learners with the SIOP Model by MaryEllen Vogt and Jana Echevarria. It has some great ideas for regular ed teachers...It is in my office if you want to borrow it. One idea I really like is the Magic Button strategy. You give the kids "buttons"-- one says "I'm thinking" and one "I got it!" It helps the students to value the thinking process and lets  you know when they are ready to answer. It may help with those kids who shout out answers.... Any one else have other ideas?

A Place for Creative Minds

 You just can't go on Spring Break without the chance to bounce ideas off your coaching buddies, can you?  I have set us all up as authors and no one else can post or view this blog. I thought it would be a more efficient way to ask questions like-- anyone know how to make a tornado in a bottle? etc. I will also invite the instructional coordinators-- maybe it will be a way to share and work together more efficiently! What do you think?