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Jennifer Gonzalez- Cult of Pedagogy: What It's Like to Be an Instructional Coach: March 11, 2018

This week Jennifer revisited an old blog post that she had created about, "What It's Like to Be an Instructional Coach."  As a subscriber to her blog, I received an email from her discussing how she would like to revisit the interviews she completed a few years ago to address anyone's concerns about what instructional coaching entails.  This post was highly beneficial for me as I would like to someday be an instructional coach, therefore I was very glad that she resent this blog post out.

The post started as Jennifer defined what an instructional coach is: “someone whose chief professional responsibility is to bring evidence-based practices into classrooms by working with teachers and other school leaders.” She stated that often an instructional coach's job can look very different from school to school or district to district as we may utilize instructional coaches across the board in all subject areas, for only one subject area, for one-on-one coaching with teachers, or to demonstrate strategies for teachers.

Jennifer's post consisted of two interviews with instructional coaches. If you are interested in becoming an instructional coach, I highly suggest listening to the interviews as they provide great perspectives.  My highlights from the interviews follow:

  • Focus on relationships with those you work with: You could have the best advice for a teacher, but if you have not established a strong relationship with them, your advice may not be taken as seriously.
  • Listen to others and their needs: Do not always focus on what you have planned in an agenda, but instead encourage your co-workers to talk about their needs or what is going on.
  • "Telling is not teaching": One of the instructional coaches mentioned that we do not just tell kids what to do, we teach them.  Therefore, as instructional coach you cannot simply tell co-workers what to do or how to implement something, instead you should coach them and work alongside of them.
I found it interesting throughout this blog post that Jennifer consistently mentioned how every school may use instructional coaches differently.  At my school we use our instructional coach to help with RTI data, to be a strong member of PLC's, and to work with grade levels to help deconstruct standards.  Now, I'm wondering how other schools use their instructional coaches?  I'm wondering if anyone has seen instructional coaches used differently and if as a teacher, they felt one way was more beneficial to them?

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