Sunday, October 26, 2008

COACHING CHALLENGES

In the last few weeks as I have been traveling to schools, I have noticed that teachers are wanting time to just talk to me instead of asking for modeling. That is a good thing, I think. I am enjoying the challenge. Teachers today have so much pressure on them. In our district we have added a formal writing curriculum, new reading series and K-3 teachers are doing DIBELS 4-5 teachers are doing SRI. So many new things to process.

Last week I got to sit down with some kindergarten teachers for collaboration. One teacher was struggling to find out how to deal with an autistic child. Her patience and love for the child just shown from her face. I could tell she had a heart for helping this child to learn. It was great to hear her co-teachers share ideas and do some problem solving with her. That is what true collaboration is all about.

This week is Parent/Teacher conferences and the teachers are busy getting reports ready for those meetings. I was impressed with another kindergarten group as they prepared for these days. They talked about how they had their kiddos be part of the discussions with the parents. The child led the conference at the beginning telling the parents what they had been learning. Then the teacher shared her view points while the child sat right there and participated in the discussion. What a wonderful way to be sure our children have a hand in their own education. AND this is kindergarten!!

I guess, even though I miss working with the cherubs in our district, this part of my job is important and interesting, too. The journey of being a literacy coach is always a challenging but rewarding one!

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