Credit: Coach by Kim Paulin on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
It’s my appraisal year at this job. As part of appraisal, each teacher needs to identify areas for growth, determine a goal for the year, and work to achieve that goal. To determine my goal, I considered my biggest challenge as a technology coach.
I’ve taught at four different schools, and the name of my role has changed from place to place. In this job, I’m called a digital learning facilitator (kind of like an elf, but one letter short). While I’ve worn a lot of different hats in my work, the role of coach is always one of them, and is this job it is likely my biggest role.
In reading Chapter 1 of Coaching Approaches and Perspectives, I’m reminded that part of the reason my job feels so hard is because it’s so loosely defined. As an INT/SJ, I love parameters and find that they help me better manage my responsibilities. I’m excited that my supervisor has identified the need to redefine/clarify the job description and performance standards for faculty in my role. Many coaching roles are not well defined, with a broad, vague job description and role expectation. ISTE has developed standards for technology coaches, which I used them at my last school. It would also be useful to have school goals and coaching program goals.
Knight uses the terminology of couching heavy and couching light. Coaching heavy is focused on improving teaching and learning and uses all the tools available to do that, examining teacher beliefs* and challenging the comfort level of both the teacher and the coach. Coaching light is focused on strong relationships and tends to be more superficial with little analysis of the impact on teaching and learning.
* I am reminded of research on the importance of addressing teacher beliefs for effective professional development on technology integration.
Book Citation: Knight, J. (Ed.). (2008). Coaching: Approaches and perspectives. Corwin Press.