Four Phases for Launching Student-Centered Coaching

Phase 1: Building Relationships – Prepping the Soil

This phase is all about partnering with teachers so you can set the stage for deep coaching work.

• Be Visible: Find opportunities to be seen in your school community. You could help kindergarteners to class on the first day, or actively join staff, PLC, or department meetings. If you work in multiple buildings, strategically rotate through them, perhaps by eating lunch with a different grade level each time.
• Join PLCs and Other Meetings as a Learner, Not a Leader: When attending meetings, focus on partnering alongside teachers rather than leading the work yourself.
• Offer Mentoring Support to New Teachers: This is a great way to build relationships. You can support new teachers even if they already have a mentor, or partner with existing mentors. However, be cautious not to become only the new teacher coach; ensure your support extends to all teachers to promote equitableness.
• Support Classroom Community Building: Get creative! Offer to co-facilitate class meetings or provide other support to help teachers build strong classroom communities.

Phase 2: Principal Coach Team – Making the Plan

This phase is about making intentional decisions and organizing your year, much like setting boundaries when planning for your garden.

• Have an Initial Meeting with Your Principal: Discuss your roles in supporting coaching, teachers, and students across the building. It’s crucial to have these conversations as soon as possible, but it’s never too late to initiate them.
• Organize Your Schedule: Consider structuring your year in “rounds” that last 4-6 weeks. You might align this with the curricular calendar or with specific units where teams have expressed interest in partnering with you.
• Be Thoughtful About Who to Engage With First: Listen during PLC or department meetings for teachers who might be interested in coaching support. For example, a data meeting revealing a school-wide need (like non-fiction reading scores) could be a perfect opening to engage a team in a coaching cycle.

Phase 3: Messaging and Marketing – Planting the Seeds

Here, you’re showcasing what coaching could look like when taking a student-centered approach.

• Plan How to Message and Market Coaching: Think about what you want your message about coaching to be for the year, and align it with existing school messages. Consider how you’ll kick off this message (e.g. staff presentation) and how you’ll continue it (e.g. quarterly newsletters).
• Work with Your Principal to Advocate for Coaching: Empower your principal with examples of how they can advocate for coaching work, especially in focus areas like student discourse or a new phonics program. Their support is invaluable, as you can’t always be everywhere.
• Engage Teacher Leaders: Especially if you’re a new coach or trying out new programs/resources, engaging teacher leaders in a coaching cycle first can be highly strategic because it supports the message that coaching is for everyone.
• Listen for Openings: Your visibility and active listening can reveal prime opportunities for coaching. A casual conversation at lunch can be a game-changer for a teacher deciding to participate in a cycle.

Phase 4: Coaching Cycles – Harvesting

This is where you begin launching your coaching cycles. 

• Invite Teachers into Cycles: Consider leveraging different coaching structures, such as team cycles, mini-cycles, or co-planning sessions before full cycles.
• Plan How You’ll Measure Impact: Go into coaching cycles with the intention of collecting evidence. This includes data about student learning, as well as reflective conversations with teachers about instructional practices and what’s working for both students and teachers. Tools like the Results-Based Coaching Tool can help summarize this work and gather qualitative and quantitative data.
• Use Partnership Agreements: This crucial move involves having conversations with teachers to set norms for coaching cycles. It removes guesswork and assumptions about how co-planning or co-teaching will unfold, ensuring both parties understand the process and reasoning behind the work.

By thinking intentionally about these phases and implementing these moves, you can lay a strong foundation for a successful and impactful year of coaching. For more in-depth information, check out the resource Moves for Launching a New Year of Student-Centered Coaching (Sweeney, Harris, and Steele, 2023).