Co-Teaching as a Digital Coach

This week I had a fun experience! A teacher invited me to collaborate with her on integrating more technology into her math class and moving toward a model that would allow her to have some time with small groups. I ran a sort of flipped guided math model in my own classroom and was exited she asked for my help. As we talked, our consultation turned into a plan for us to co-teach her math lessons throughout the week and occasionally throughout the next several weeks as students are introduced to new tools.

She was able to share with me the content and outline for each math lesson. I took that information and created a lesson HyperDoc that included virtual manipulatives, collaborative slide sets, FlipGrid topics for student thoughts, video explanations/tutorials and links to extensions for practice games. It was really powerful to team teach these lessons. The teacher was able to teach the content while I tagged in to walk students through using new tools or adding the tools to their bookmarks, extensions or shelf on Chromebooks.

This was such a powerful model for Digital Coaching. Having experienced other coaching models in literacy and arts, I'm coming to the conclusion that perhaps there isn't one model that is a perfect fit for every teacher. Perhaps the best model is what the teacher is open and willing to do. Some teachers may not be comfortable in the team teaching model I described above, they may be happy to just have me come in and share a lesson showcasing how to use a specific tool. Other teachers are happy to consult and learn about some tools that could be applicable to their desired outcome and then want to explore on their own.

In my specific situation, I am a coach by invitation. Stationed at 4 different schools, one school each day of the week (Friday's reserved for meetings, planning and prep); I am scheduled by classroom teachers for support. Sometimes that's great, other times it's not.

So, here are my questions: How does an educational coach, in any subject area, facilitate true pedagogical change in teacher practice? Can an invitational model really affect the deep rooted change needed? Can a mandatory model really affect change?

There are deep rooted reactions to both that affect whether a teacher is open to and applies new methods and learning. How can coaches truly affect that change?

Now I'm focused on the great experience with one teacher that reached out and desired a change and specific outcome that we've been able to collaborate on and put into effect. Ultimately, how do we get to this point with all teachers? We have the focus for all students to reach standard levels of learning, which implies all teachers need to be at a level of teaching...