Innovative coaching strategies are emerging, offering fresh ways to support teacher learning, foster collaboration, and promote impactful instructional practices. If you need to switch up professional development, give these strategies a try. They can assist you in setting your team up for a culture of continuous learning. In this blog, you will see the first three of several cutting-edge strategies. Each is focused on the goals of enhancing teacher learning, fostering collaboration, and promoting instructional practices.
Where Ideas and Coaching Strategies Grow
While attending the TCEA 2025 Convention and Exposition, I had the opportunity to sit in on a panel session my colleagues, Peggy Reimers and Diana Benner, organized. Since I couldn’t stay for the entire session (conflicting schedules), I found myself dropping in from time to time. What happy fortune to drop in during the panel conversation. In the first of a two part series, I share a few insights from district instructional coaches who are members of TCEA. As they shared their wisdom on how to coach, I scribbled in my notebook what they had to say.
1. Micro-Credential Challenges
“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together,” says James Cash Penney. When younger, the TCEA Convention and Exposition offered an opportunity for professional learning. Also effective were the daily interactions in online forums (like the TCEA Community) that occurred through mediums like the Texas Education Network (TENET). Today, I have access to many more ways to learn online. Finding the right combination of insights and curated resources can speed my personal growth.
As you may already be aware, TCEA offers 70+ online courses you can earn badges and certificates for. These micro-credential courses are intended to be bite-sized, no more than 12-18 hours of time spent working through video content and resources. You can set up your own micro-credential learning opportunities and included targeted tasks that educators can complete. As a result, they can earn digital badges that validate their time and effort. This offers them a tangible way to recognize and reward continuous improvement.
Did You Know? You can sign up to be a TCEA Instructional Coach Certification program. This is a program that has already garnered praise from participants and seen a few graduates. Join this cadre of TCEA-empowered coaches working to improve teaching and learning where they are at.
2. Coaching Walks
As a new teacher, I experienced a lot of angst about formal evaluations. Even seeing Mr. M walking down the hallway made me feel inadequate. It was only over time, as Mr. M cultivated a coaching relationship that I came to understand he was there to assist me in my growth, not judge and get rid of me. Coaching walks can make observations and visits into tools for growth. These are non-evaluative visits. They allow teachers to receive meaningful feedback, reflect on their practice, and refine instructional techniques.
I am reminded of Crucial Conversations lessons that include ensuring:
- mutual purpose
- mutual respect
- safety
When combined with coaching approaches like Diane Sweeney’s Results-Based Coaching, the focus becomes changing our behavior to impact student achievement.
3. Lesson Study Groups
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,” says Helen Keller. As a classroom teacher, I often worked alone, only venturing out of my shell to the Teachers’ Lounge to use the copier. You may be surprised to learn that I didn’t experience collaborative learning until I became a director of Instructional Technology. Working as part of a team clued me into what I had been missing with the “egg crate approach:”
…the typical “atomized” egg crate way of organizing schools does not serve students or teachers,
whose “experiences and opportunities for learning are limited because they fail to benefit
from the varied models of instruction practiced by their colleagues or to adjust their teaching
in response to what students learn or fail to learn in other grades and classes.When schools are organized like egg crates, important information about the challenges that teachers
encounter, the problems that puzzle them, and the expertise they might offer their peers
remains limited by the confines of the classroom.”Working together may make it easier for teachers to identify and address problems in students’ progress, share information about individual students from grade to grade or develop curricula and approaches to teaching that are consistent and coherent across grades and subject areas (source).
As much as I enjoy working on certain projects alone, it’s powerful to work with a synergistic team. And, not surprisingly, professional growth (source) can be the result when educators collaborate. One approach to collaboration that leads to growth is lesson study groups.
Lesson study groups provide an opportunity for teachers to accomplish the following:
- analyze student work
- refine instructional strategies,
- learn from one another in a structured, supportive environment.
You can see the big steps of the lesson study cycle below, adapted from the Smithsonian white paper on lesson study (where you can also learn more about it).
This collaborative learning method makes professional learning hands-on, relevant, and impactful. It’s also a great way to build collegial environment.
Wait, Wait, There’s More!
In part two of this series, I will share some additional coaching strategies you may find helpful. For now, take the time to put these three into your practice as an instructional coach. I hope you will check back. Bookmark this blog entry link and check back to see part two linked here when it comes out next week!
