Even the greatest teachers need training before they can become great coaches.
Like great athletes, great teachers benefit from skilled coaching. Yet most districts and schools do not have the tradition or capacity to train effective coaches, who need a unique set of skills that even excellent teachers may not have.
The America’s Choice Coaching Program™ provides district and school instructional coaches with targeted, systematic training delivered by our highly qualified, experienced professional development staff. This program’s modules on skills, process, and culture help coaches
- Hone interpersonal skills for facilitating, questioning, and guiding teachers
- Create customized coaching plans that reflect principles of adult learning and respond to demonstrated teacher needs and student progress
- Nurture a professional culture of collaboration and reflective teacher practice with classroom demonstrations, observations, analysis of student work, and study groups
- Support classroom instruction that is more closely aligned with state standards and assessments
- Meet the needs of all students, including English language learners and special populations
Our action-oriented program uses a variety of proven strategies
- Role plays, case studies, and instructional videos that help coaches establish relationships based on trust, active listening, effective questioning, constructive feedback, managing change, and overcoming resistance
- Assessing needs based on data, developing and negotiating action plans for teacher development, and reflecting on and evaluating outcomes
- Using observation and data to analyze root causes for performance gaps
Our five-day Coaching Institute empowers coaches to create a culture that supports ongoing collaboration and change through professional learning communities and teams.
The America’s Choice Coaching Program also offers training modules on our proven approaches to literacy and mathematics instruction. Optional on-site technical assistance and follow-up for coaches, leadership teams, and administrators are available as well.
