Coaching Connects Entire School
Winter Park Tech finds
Success with Coaching:
"The coaching process opens communications. We really talk to one another using the coaching concepts we learned. We’re not just broad-brushing our feedback by saying, 'oh, you did fine' or 'that was nice.' It's specific, and the focus is always on the one being coached. "
–Diane Culpepper
Administrator
Winter Park Tech
"The benefit of the collegial coaching group is that teachers and administrators share ideas, brainstorm solutions to common teaching challenges, and learn from one another. Where they didn’t mingle before, now they are mixing together, visiting each other's classrooms.
Faculty support has been pleasantly surprising. There has been a lot of attendance by highly experienced teachers willing to share with more beginning teachers. The meetings have almost taken on the dynamics of group therapy sessions! We sit in a circle and share our ideas and experiences in a non-threatening atmosphere. This coaching program has been a great boon to our school."
–Judy Sheehan
Curriculum Resource Director
Winter Park Tech
At Winter Park Tech in Orange Country, Florida, teachers and administrators decided to "circle the wagons" and work together to improve everyone's professional abilities. Winter Park has an academic track and an occupational track. There was a need to build stronger connections between the teaching staff and administrators in the school.
Several faculty members participated in a training program on coaching skills from Performance Learning Systems, Inc. Through this training, they developed skills to improve rapport among colleagues, resulting in positive instructional change and enhanced self-esteem. Eventually all faculty, teachers, and administrators alike took the PLS coaching program.
Born of those staff development sessions was the idea of taking the coaching concepts taught and encouraging further support among faculty in a more informal setting. Thus was formed the "collegial coaching group." The response was tremendous. Twenty of the 45 faculty members showed up at the initial meeting and immediately wanted to continue the process and meet every other week.
The 30-minute after-school sessions cover topics such as classroom management, communication, presentation skills, team building activities, use of peer evaluations, and student motivation techniques. Summaries of each session are emailed to all faculty members.