How can instructional coaches facilitate custom professional learning experiences for those they serve? In this blog entry, you will see some additional coaching strategies. Personalized learning is a buzzword, but seldom applied to coaching educators. In this second installment, you will see three additional coaching strategies that resulted from a TCEA Convention session panel. Click here to read part one.
4. “Teacher Talk” Podcasts
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops,” says Henry Adams. One of my favorite Louis L’Amour quotes makes the same claim as Adams’ about influence and learning. Teachers have valuable experiences and insights to share. Podcasting offers a platform for educators to discuss best practices, share reflections, and inspire others. Whether as a listener or a content creator, engaging with educational podcasts fosters ongoing learning and professional camaraderie. Podcasts like the ones below have captured my ear. I listen to podcasts when out for a walk, driving in my car, whenever I’m washing dishes. At least, I do the first time. For podcasts that resonate, I jot down notes and ideas in my notebook.
- Science of Reading
- Teaching MLs
- The Broken Copier
- The Cult of Pedagogy
- The ESL Teaching Podcast
- Triple R Teaching
- What’s the Big Idea?
What’s your favorite podcast for education?
5. Digital Playlists for PD
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel,” says Socrates. My first introduction to digital playlists came from my Northside ISD colleagues, instructional coaches John Moran and Stacey Pattenaude. Of course, they were referring to playlists for learning for use with students. But since traditional PD workshops may not always fit into a busy teacher’s schedule, why not use them for professional learning? Digital PD playlists provide flexible, self-paced learning opportunities, curating videos, articles, and interactive activities tailored to educators’ needs and interests.
Here are two AI-generated digital playlists to illustrate the idea, but you can easily make your own using a multimedia text set. Multimedia text sets help learners glean information and ideas that may come from a variety of media sources. Get a copy of a multimedia text set about MMTSs for your own.
6. Reflective Video Coaching
“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience,” says John Dewey.
What if teachers could observe and critique their own teaching? Reflective video coaching allows educators to record their instruction, review their strategies, and identify strengths and areas for growth. This powerful tool enables self-improvement without external pressures.
Consider that the Visible Learning Meta X reports a high effect size of 0.99 for this strategy, also known as Micro-teaching/ video review of lessons. They describe it in this way:
A technique in which a teacher delivers a short, recorded lesson that is then analyzed by the teacher and/or other teachers and leaders for the purposes of improvement. The lessons are usually videotaped to assist with the subsequent analysis.
7. Collaborative Content Curation
“An education is something that nobody can take away from you,” my Dad would always say, probably paraphrasing B.B. King quote. It is a quote I often attributed to him, and one that launched me on a lifelong journey of learning.
Educators are constantly discovering new resources, strategies, and tools. Collaborative content curation allows teachers to share, organize, and build a collective knowledge base. This ensures that valuable insights are easily accessible and benefit a wider professional community. Some ways to create a collaborative repository of content:
- Organize a Google Sites or blog website and have everyone contribute a resource
- Keep a journal of amazing resources and ideas. “By writing things down, I find them easier to process into action,” says Sir Richard Branson.
- Share one strategy that you employed last week and how it went with colleagues
- Ask a stranger (another educator you haven’t spoken to) for a strategy to share with your colleagues
- Listen to podcasts and apply one strategy you pick up, then report on it
There are many ways and it doesn’t have to be a onerous task. Make it fun to learn for yourself, and you will soon find yourself building a habit of content curation. I’ve noticed that learning one thing a day adds up to a huge stack of ideas and lessons to share after a week or two.
“We do not abandon any discipline for despair of ever being the best in it.” That’s a quote I read by Epictetus one day, and it instantly reminded me of Sir Richard Branson interview on NPR. I was struck by the idea that some people stop learning because they find themselves struggling. But that struggle is essential and to be expected when starting anything new. I see curating ideas and learning as difficult at first, but then seeing it get easier over time.
Final Thoughts
Professional development can be engaging, flexible, and impactful. Try these strategies out, one at a time, to build a thriving community of lifelong learners. Maybe write down in the comments of this blog post how you plan to “process them into action.”
