Coaches Working As A Team
Lake Elementary School
by

Amanda Blake

&

Yasontas Burton

When Yasontas and I first began our colleagueship, we really thought of many approaches to our coaching strategy. How would we manage our day? How would we divide our time? Who would watch our children when we were gone from our classroom? At one of the first leadership meetings with Yasontas, Mrs. Mclin (our principal) and myself, I remembered something from my earlier participation in the school review at Sycamore School in Talladega, Alabama. I remembered how the two coaches shared a classroom and alternated weeks in and out of the classroom. One coach was in the class with the children for a week while the other coach was busy with Cornerstone throughout the building. When I presented this idea, Yasontas and our principal agreed with me that this was a great idea. We would team teach a kindergarten class and share all of the responsibilities.

After the fall testing was finished, it was time to go into classrooms and begin modeling. We sat down with our principal who gave us some direction, but she also gave us flexibility in adapting our schedules to better suit our needs and the needs of the other teachers in our building. I had been in other classrooms before doing read alouds and shared reading activities with teachers, but nothing to the extent of providing deep, meaningful lessons. This was all new to Yasontas, and her biggest concern was becoming comfortable working with other teachers in their classrooms with many children she did not know. I also had doubts about how to approach and develop strategies for some of the more, how do I say, obstinate teachers. We came up with an idea. We decided to go in together to see what would happen, and it turned out that this was the best thing for us!

We each took turns with the crafting sessions. Yasontas usually modeled for
K-1 teachers, and I modeled for 2nd-3rd grade teachers. With the 4th and 5th grade teachers, we shared the responsibility. When one of us was Crafting (modeling) for the children, the other coach often sat in the gathering place with the children to spark deeper thinking or help generate ideas. She also frequently sat close to the classroom teacher pointing out tips, suggestions or commenting on the behaviors of the children as the other coach conducted the session.

After the lesson was complete, both of us sat down with the teacher and talked about the lesson. We hoped that the teachers would tell us what they thought worked or did not work, or what they liked or didn't like. The following day was usually the homeroom teacher's day to model the strategy with his or her own children. And the coaches then observed the classroom teacher.

This has seemed to work for us because we don't take complete control of the situation. We allow the teachers to have a voice in the process. We have been mindful and respectful of their feelings and inhibitions about the entire situation. We know that we have to be careful, but we have worked hard to establish trustworthy relationships with our fellow teachers, the same way our principal has done with us. It is our hope that they, in turn, see us a resource and that we have only there to help.