Focus on Instruction
September 2019
I'm trying a new thing.
As usual, the start to the year has been kind of crazy and I've noticed lots of staff are feeling as though they haven't accomplished half as much as they thought they would (myself included). Which is totally fine, because we're just getting started. I have had a blast getting to be in classrooms all over the Junior High and High School and look forward to being able to do so more as things settling into a good routine. I have seen lots of good instruction, lots of amazing classroom culture, and lots of potential.
Here are just a few examples of what I'm seeing:
Innovation
Student agency
Technology
Clarifying the role of an instructional coach.
Essentially, I see myself doing three basic roles:
- Coaching. This is the most important part of my job, and ideally this will eventually be 60% of my job. This is the one-on-one relationship with a teacher to help them improve their instruction. This is where the coaching cycle I discussed at the beginning of the year comes into play (I've also created another page detailing that process if you're interested). If you want to make a significant change to something you do in your classroom, this is what we'll be doing together. This does not mean you are a bad teacher and need tons of help! We are educators. Educators must believe that education never stops, and that we can always improve our own knowledge and practices. I'm here to help you continue to develop as a teacher. Think of it as personalized PD.
- Implementation Support. Don't need a full coaching cycle, you just want to go out on a limb and try something new? I can help with that too. Let me know what you want to try, and we can practice it without students there and I can provide feedback. I can also come into your classroom the day of and help out. Do you want to try something new but aren't quite sure what that looks like yet? That's fine too. I can be your sounding board and help you figure out just what it is you want to try. I'd like to see this be 25% of my job.
- Information facilitator. I'm there. I'm in classrooms, I'm in department meetings, I'm talking with central office, I'm looking at district- and campus-wide data. I'm even in daily contact with my counterparts at the Elementary and Primary campuses. I get to see trends in instructional struggles, student behavior, and teacher and administrator thoughts on these. This is something I was never really able to do while tethered to a classroom. I feel as though I've spent most of this first term doing this, and this role will hopefully give way quite a lot to the first two (down to the remaining 15%). However, I won't stop doing this completely, as I feel it puts me in a good position to seed this knowledge across the JH and HS campuses. This role also puts me in a position to be a learner. I see trends and I do research on ways teachers and administrators can mitigate them. I hope that going into next term I can start to put this to good use in the first two roles.
It's all a learning process, and I thank you all for being patient with us as we figure it all out! We've got some amazing teachers and kids at Westwood. Teachers support their students, and I want to get the role ratios right and spend more of my time supporting teachers. If we can get this model to work, students will benefit immensely, and that's the end goal.
Haley Avery
Email: hbavery@westwoodisd.net
Website: www.westwoodisd.net
Location: HS Room 151, JH Room 209
Phone: (903) 480-0336
Twitter: @haleybavery