Written by There is no great time to launch yet another initiative. After our second face-to-face we were in the throes of the pre-December rush, and it seemed like a bad time to start. After the winter break we were in the throes of gathering data for Semester 1 final reports, and I wouldn’t have dreamed of launching then. Recently we have been in the middle of end-of-season sports fixtures and we are leading up to the pre-March break rush.
When is it a good time to start anything new? Never would seem to be the correct answer, and this does not get my action plan underway, nor does it support teachers who might like some support. Thus, I sent out a survey on February 27, 2019. I kept it simple and followed the Instructional Coaching Group’s line of questioning. You can find their free downloads associated with the Instructional Coaching book (buy it) near the bottom of this link.
I generated a surprising-to-me amount of interest (Figure 1, below). My next step will be to have a face-to-face sessions with each teacher to explore our options going forward. Our steps will be based upon what they would like to see happen for their groups of learners. Of the respondents, most were interested in gaining support in the area of assessment and feedback (Figure 3, below). This is all I wanted to let you know for now. Thanks for reading!
I think that if a new initiative was directly connected to an area I know I’d like to work on, I’d be open to it even as the year ends. I’m learning that my pedagogical learning doesn’t always line up with the school year, and that this is okay.
Hi Jennifer and Leslie,
I think that Jenn you hit the nail on the head. Learning doesn’t always fit into the academic calendar (thank goodness!). What do you make of Leslie’s question and answer: “When is it a good time to start anything new? Never would seem to be the correct answer.”
I think, Leslie, that you can add this to your line of questions: when would instructional coaching be of most use to you? Why?
Just a thought,
Garth.
I love this little update on the coaching front. I am really struck by how you are going at this from a relational place: it’s all about the personal connection that you can build with your colleagues and through this relationship real and deep coaching can happen! I sometimes forget this with my students and I’m always comforted when I bring myself back to working on my relationship with my learners first so I can challenge them later!
Also, depending on how “woo-ey” you are, you might like this from the book Present Shock: https://www.amazon.ca/Present-Shock-When-Everything-Happens/dp/1617230103
There are some better times to start new things according to the cycles of the moon https://justadandak.com/present-shock-matching-the-rhythms-of-the-moon/
Take it with a grain of salt, but it’s interesting on some level 🙂
Hey @lesliefarooq. Happy to hear that over half of your faculty is interested in accessing coaching on a variety of educational practices. This term, our learning centre faculty is offering blocks of times in classes to come in to conference so that the students have two teachers in the room to provide formative feedback. Our librarians are also available to offer feedback on different stages of the research process. What coaching strategies are you using or planning to use to build teacher practice in the area of formative assessment?