The job of an Instructional Coach is much more difficult than I previously thought. During this assignment, I participated in a coaching session with a coworker, Mr. Smith. Just entering his classroom for the Pre-Conference and the Observation was a nerve wracking experience. It made me feel as though I were severely overstepping my boundaries. For the past three years I have worked closely with this teacher. We teach the same subject and attend collaborative planning meeting together twice a week. When I asked him to participate in this assignment I could tell that he was not as open to it as I would have liked. I’m sure that the thought of me observing him teach did not sit very well with him, but with our schedules, I had to pick a coworker with a different planning time that I have, so I asked him. The follow essay is a reflection on this week’s assignment: Recommending Improvements.
I began the assignment with the development of an evaluation form. I searched the internet until I found one that fit our county’s adopted instructional model, the Workshop Model. I revised the form to just include the components I needed and printed it out. I scheduled a meeting with Mr. Smith at the beginning of the week. I wanted to go over some things with him to let him know that this was something I was doing for my Master’s Program. I made sure he understood that it was not school related and would not be shared with anyone except for my instructor at Grand Canyon University. To ensure his privacy, I am using the alias Mr. Smith for this assignment.
One the day before the observation I met with Mr. Smith for the Pre-Conference. During this meeting I asked him about the lesson he would be presenting. As we both teach 7th grade Social Studies, I am very familiar with his lessons. We collaborate twice a week and share in the development of lesson plans to turn in each week.