I read an article in the current issue of Educational Leadership about virtual coaching. It got me thinking about my student-teaching experience and the lack of coaching that I received. All too often, novice teachers are pushed in the lion's den before they are ready to handle it. That lack of training will make or break a new teacher quickly.
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| Educational Leadership October 2011 |
Thankfully, I survived my Spring semester 6th grade student-teaching assignment, and now, I am facing the challenges of classroom management being a substitute. The other day the principle of the school I sub frequently for observed me, and then called me to his office after school to discuss what changes that I need to make to become a more effective teacher. Since I am still considered a novice teacher, he wants to help me become the best teacher that I can be.
The principle only had a small amount of criticism to share with me: 1. I need to make sure that I don't have my back to any student. (A little tricky since it's not my own classroom, and the desks were position in a way that made it nearly impossible to move about the room and maintain eye contact with all students at the same time.) 2. Be more in control during non-lesson times such as, dismissal/reading time/transitions.
While he was discussing how I could improve, I kept thinking back to the article, The Power of Virtual Coaching by Marcia L. Rock, Naomi P. Zigmond, Madeleine Gregg, and Robert A Gable. The article tells about the advances in professional development. Instead of letting a teacher struggle all year without a clue on how to improve, a coach can assist the teacher during the actual lesson. Using a webcam and a bluetooth headset, the coach can easily guide the teacher with immediate feedback during actual class time.
The principle told me that I need to be more in control during non-lesson times, but he didn't pinpoint what exactly I did for him to think that. With virtual coaching, teachers can have immediate guidance on what to do when chaos erupts or during an lesson that didn't quite go as expected. Talk about learning on the job!
The article claims that virtual coaching makes teachers more effective faster. So, is this the future of evaluating teachers? Will this eventually be the new basis of PDAS? The only drawback is that some teachers might be closed off to virtual coaching, because they might view it as Big Brother and be afraid. People can only improve if they keep an open mind and accept other's ideas. I believe that virtual coaching is the right track to help novice or expert teachers improve to provide the best education to students.
Reference:
Rock, M.L., Zigmond, N.P., Gregg, M., & Gable, R. A. (October, 2011). The Power of Virtual Coaching. Educational Leadership. 69(2), 42-48.
I had my formal observation today and I sat with my principal after my lesson to discuss what she saw and what I should improve on. She only gave me prasie and told me how wonderful I was doing in the classroom. Please do not get my wrong, I throughouly enjoyed the compliments and I have a difficult class this year and need to hear I am doing a good job, but at the same time, I was looking for one thing I could improve on and I didn't recieve one. Some people may think I am crazy because I wanted a critque but at the same time, I want to always strive to be better! I think that using a headset to help teachers throughout the lesson would be awesome! I also beleive we should be recorded and forced to watch ourselves to see how we look to our students. Teachers who are uncomfortable with being watched throughout a lesson should see the value in immediate feedback because we need to do the same for our students. I think using the headsets would increase productivity in teachers!
ReplyDeleteI think the Virtual Coaching is a great idea for all teachers, not just the new teachers. We all need to be critiqued and given feedback that does not just smooth over our ego. There is always something that a teacher can improve on to reach each and every student in their classroom.
ReplyDeleteWhen your appraiser just gives you nothing but positive feedback and says you are doing everything right, they are just hurting you. The video conferencing will help to see things that may not necessarily be seen if you were being observed by someone physically inside of the classroom.