Coaching Journal

Session 3: Learn 11/14/2023

Ms. Pritchett and I met for the next stage of the coaching cycle, referred to as the improve stage.
Throughout the session, I guided our conversation using Knight’s (2018) questions to confirm
direction, review progress, invent improvement and plan next steps. As held conversation around
those guiding questions were able to discuss her implementation of Studies Weekly during her
social studies block, talk about how it had impact other times during the day, look at some
roadblocks that she anticipated and ended our time discussing how she could change the process
that she had used to make it better moving forward. During this time we were able to celebrate
some good things that Mrs. Pritchett had noticed with her first-grade student like connected
vocabulary to other classes. This skill was also picked up on by another student and they started
to discuss new vocabulary words during reading new stories. Mrs. Pritchett stated that she would
like to find more resources that would work in conjunction with the Studies Weekly curriculum.
She also shared that she was concerned about when it was time to work with her fifth grade
student that the on-grade level curriculum would be too high for the student’s independent
reading and work level. Even with this large roadblock looking her in the face, she still strives to
move forward with the goal and the plan that we have worked to implement thus far.

As we planned for the future we focused on two paths that we would walk down together. The
first path would be to review the data of the upcoming district benchmarks to see if the two
students who would have been able to have a few weeks worth of lesson using this curriculum
would have a positive impact on their scores. Furthermore, we will work together to identify
ways to support the student who is working below grade level as she implements Studies Weekly
curriculum within his grade level as well. These two paths will allow us to make data driven
decisions as we collaborate to do what is best for the students within her classroom. This will
also give me an opportunity to introduce other technology resources that can be used to help
Mrs. Pritchett differentiate many lessons for students who need a variety of reading levels to be
utilized when discussing a single topic. I plan to introduce her to Newsela which will allow her
to find a passage and share it with her students using a variety of levels so that everyone can read
the information on their level.

As I reflect on this coaching session, I feel like this is one of our best sessions yet. Now that we
are further into this semester, I have learned more about Mrs. Pritchett and her personal learning
styles and her need for support and pre-teaching of the information to allow her to process and
fully understand. With that information in mind, I decided that I should “pre-teach” the general
questions that I would ask during our time together and allowed for Mrs. Pritchett to ask
clarifying questions. By doing this we were able to carry on conversation throughout our time
together and really make progress toward shining a light on the success that she had seen,
identify challenges that she wanted help with and make a plan for us as we continue to work
toward meeting her goal. Furthermore, since we started this journey of coaching Mrs. Pritchett
has asked about other technology-based resources that she could use when she hits a wall with a
student in a particular area. Sometimes, I have had a suggestion for her to try and sometimes I
have had to spend some time researching options. I say that to say, I have seen improvement in
Mrs. Pritchett’s willingness to try new things and incorporate technology within her classroom to
support her students.
Session 2: Learn 11/1/2023
Ms. Pritchett and I met for the second time, which was centered about learning about Studies
Weekly and identifying ways to implement the technology-based curriculum into her classroom
as she works toward improving her students’ reading skills and levels during her social studies
instruction. Mrs. Pritchett had previously identified this as her goal, and in order to help her work
toward achieving the goal, I wanted to share and learn about this resource with her. During our
previous session and conversations, I could tell that Mrs. Pritchett lacked self-confidence. In an
effort to boost her self-confidence while teaching utilizing a new resource, I put together a
checklist for her to use during the implementation process. Together, Mrs. Pritchett and I went
through each of the items within the checklists and she was able to modify it into a way that she
felt even more comfortable with. Knight (2018) states that coaches should stop and ask teachers
for feedback on how they might want to adapt a strategy or checklist to better meet their
students’ needs (p. 108). Mrs. Pritchett did this as she changed the plan to include planning with
her paraprofessional and reduced the plan to start the new resource with one student at a time due
to her multi-grade level classroom. She recognized that this would probably be best taught in a
small group rotation setting and that would include the paraprofessional to serve as an instructor.

During the session, we were able to invite Ms. Martin, one of the paraprofessionals, to join us as
we looked at the resources and discussed how a unit could be laid out over the course of 3-4
days. During our session we focused on a first-grade unit and worked to map out an option of
how to utilize the resource within their classroom. While Mrs. Pritchett is a brand-new teacher
with no experience with this resource, Ms. Martin recognized the material after viewing the
online resource. She shared that she had previously used the science-based curriculum but not
the social studies in one of her previous classrooms. We were also able to view a video of a
teacher within the school using Studies Weekly within her general education classroom and
spent some time reviewing what she did in her classroom. In the days that followed our session, I
was encouraged to hear and see Mrs. Pritchett and Ms. Martin working together and reviewing
the recorded lesson as they made plans to implement the lessons in the upcoming week.

During this session, I did not feel like I was faced with any challenges, but I do feel like I could
have done a better job by allowing her and Ms. Martin to speak more during the session. I
recognize that as a coach, it is my job to support the mentee by listening more than speaking. I
recognized that this was a weakness during as I reflected upon the first coaching session. In order
to try to help foster more open communication, I did stop and allow for Mrs. Pritchett to re-
answer any question that she did not confidently answer the first time. Again, as I am sure you
can tell from the video Mrs. Pritchett does not exude self-confidence and is very scared that she
will not say or do the right thing at the right time. While I have to learn to allow them to speak
more, I was able to see the fruits of our time together come to fruition as Mrs. Pritchett and Ms.
Martin collaborated together following the session and the lessons were taught the following
week.

Session 1: Identify 10/11/2023

Ms. Pritchett and I met today to review the observational data and to work toward developing a
goal for our time together. We were both nervous as we entered the meeting, however using the
Identify Question proved to be a great way to guide the meeting and allowed us to have
meaningful conversation. Chapter 3 outlines several characteristics of effective coaching,
including four great steps for listening effectively. Listening can be a struggle for me, and I
found it hard to refrain from guiding Mrs. Pritchett due to her hesitance throughout the meeting.
Through the use of the identify questions, I wanted to allow Mrs. Pritchett to have the chance to
express her current reality and self-identify areas that she felt as though were areas of concern
within her classroom and for her students. I spent a lot of time within the coaching session
listening and seeking clarification. By committing to listening and asking follow-up questions I
was able to better understand what exactly it was that Mrs. Pritchett wanted to share about her
classroom and to hear her vision for the future. As I listened to Mrs. Pritchett, I could hear that
her students’ success mattered to her and that she felt as though she needed to focus on their
reading skills across all areas. To hear her say that she strives to grow as a teacher to be a better
teacher for her students told me that the work that we will do together would be meaningful to
her. We decided that we would both look into Studies Weekly, an online resource provided by
the district that would support reading in the content area of social studies.

It was evident that Mrs. Pritchett cares about her students both through our conversations and
during my observations. Mrs. Pritchett was quick to identify that she is a visual learner and will
need to see it in order to fully understand. She has also stated that her students do best with hands
on activities. When Mrs. Pritchett mentioned Studies Weekly she stated that she had logged into
the site but that she was not completely comfortable with it and hesitant to use it with her
students. When I assured her that co-learning was completely acceptable, and encouraged she did
seem to relax a little with this new thought process. I went on to share that I would be happy to
sit down with her and support her we create a plan for implementation. I was also able to remind
her that this would be great to use in a one-on-one setting so she could focus on just one student
to try and troubleshoot with before introducing it to the entire classroom.

As I reflect upon our first session, I think that it went well overall and that we were able to make
meaningful progress. The ability to have the research-based strategies visible not only helped me
to stay on track, but also allowed Mrs. Pritchett to see that what I was sharing was research
based. After watching and editing the video, I realized that I asked a leading question or two and
that is an area of weakness for me. As Knight explains, one way for coaches to grow is for them
to partner with other coaches. The school that Mrs. Pritchett is a part of has an instructional
partner, so I plan to discuss this area of weakness with her. Just like we tell our students that
practice makes perfect, I am hopeful that with more practice I will be able to improve my own
skills.

Pre-Session 9/11/2023
During the Fall 2023 semester I plan to work with, Ms. Wendy Gibson, a first-year teacher who is
going through the GaTAPP (Georgia Teacher Academy for Preparation and Pedagogy) process in
order to complete her certification. While this may be her first year in the role of classroom teacher,
she does have a total of six years of experience in the public school system as a paraprofessional. She
worked in a kindergarten classroom for one year and in a moderate intellectual disorder classroom for
five years. This year she is the elementary teacher for students who are in the GNETS (Georgia
Network of Educational and Therapeutic Services) program. She currently has 4 students on her role,
and they are in first, fourth and fifth grades.

When I first had an informal conversation with Wendy about allowing me the opportunity to provide
some coaching support for her, she stated that she welcomed the help and ideas. Later in our one-on-
one conversation Wendy said that she felt as though she has pretty good technology skills, however
her skills have come from things she has been taught by others. She stated that she could use support
in finding and learning how to implement technology resources that would supplement or provide
additional practice of standard specific objectives and skills.

When I asked for Wendy to think about what she wants to obtain from our time together this semester
she stated that she would appreciate some help curating a list of resources that can be used to support
her direct instruction of the academic standards. She also stated that there might also be times in which
she needs me to show her how to utilize a technology resource as she is a visual learner.

At the conclusion of our one-on-one conversation, Wendy expressed that she was excited to learn new
things as well as to implement new strategies and resources within her classroom to close the academic
gaps that are present in her classroom.

As I reflected on our one-on-one conversation, I began to think about some resources that I could share
with her that would allow her to differentiate instruction based on the needs of her students without the
needs for hours of time to be spend on the planning side of things. I believe that my first step is to
observe in her classroom a few times to get a feel for what the students are currently using and gage
some of their academic levels. It is likely that I will also review some of the beginning of the year pre-
testing data with her from the various assessments that the school uses as benchmark measures. I
believe that I will be able to make an impact by increasing her collection of resources while also not
overwhelming a first-year teacher.