The Instructional Coaching Role in Middle School: Wearing Multiple Hats

Students are not the people in the classroom who can improve, grow, and refine their studies. Teachers and teacher’s aides have courses they must complete in order to renew their credentials. These courses ensure that teachers are continuously learning and improve their teaching methods.

But we all know, state-required coursework is not the only way for teachers to learn and improve. Many districts and administrations are hiring coaches and coaching companies such as Ei360 to help their teachers improve their pedagogy. Hiring these coaches usually comes after schools realize that they cannot transform their schools by themselves. The state report card plays a major role in their decision to seek outside services.

In some schools, coaches are not always welcomed with open arms. If the administration does not value coaching or request that teachers utilize their services then it may be difficult for schools to change. One approach to coaching is hiring an outside support system where coaches are paired with teachers in similar disciplines. Once paired with the right coach teachers will see great advances due to shared common knowledge and passion in their skills, which will benefit students.

One study shows that when middle school teachers were coached by specialists who focused on community and engagement with middle school students improve teacher/student communication. Because of the active communication with parents, students were more likely to score higher on tests. This study occurred over two years and encompassed 10 schools (Ellington, Aimee, et al, 2017).

 The right coaching can help teachers find patterns around student success, curriculum acquisition, degree attainment. Instructional Coaches also help schools recognize achievement gaps, learning loss, and Social-Emotional Learning. Instructional Coaches can also recommend various intervention strategies which can differentiate instruction. Some coaching services like, “Ei360” use data to create various methods of communication for students, parents, and faculty to ensure a streamline of communication so everyone is in the loop. We know and appreciate coaches supporting teachers who support their students. Here are some of the roles that many enjoy but sometimes can get overwhelmed.

1. Mentoring everyone and having multiple people coming at you at once with individual needs

2. Running all professional development and analyzing all data

3. Looking up things for teachers and providing research on best practices

4. Literacy nights, Before and After School intervention

5. Celebrating your worth and promoting individual wins among your team.

6. Convincing your principals that your role is worth having (biweekly or monthly conversations)

7. Paperwork- many times coaches will take on various administrative roles

8. modeling, co-planning, co-teaching, observing, and conferencing while teaching

9. Everything else: Title 1, Title II, testing, Reading pull-out, and intervention

When schools have an Instructional Coach; it puts teaching at the center of learning with a lens on student learning. With the pandemic underway; companies like Ei360 and others have started to refocus their efforts on Diversity, Equity, and inclusion, as well as Social-Emotional, Learning techniques. This is now becoming the priority in every school. Some schools are starting to have wrap-around services have their teachers undergo trauma training so they can identify students who may need a little more support due to various trauma. Coaches and consultants are also receiving training as well identifying how to monitor body language, tone of voice, and speech so that they do not trigger a trauma response (Adams & Jane Meredith, 2017).

 References

 Adams, Jane Meredith. “Schools Promoting 'Trauma-Informed' Teaching to Reach Troubled Students.” EdSource, EdSource, 16 Feb. 2017, edsource.org/2013/schools-focus-on-trauma-informed-to-reach-troubled-students/51619.  

Ellington, Aimee, et al. “Effectively Coaching Middle School Teachers: A Case for Teacher and Student Learning.” The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, vol. 46, 2017, pp. 177–195., doi:10.1016/j.jmathb.2016.12.012.