The Coaching Cycle in Six Easy Steps, The Coaching Podcast Ep. 3

As an instructional coach, you have to have some tools in your toolbox to make an impact on your teachers. No, I’m not talking about coffee (although that definitely helps); I’m talking about strategies! One of the best strategies you have as an instructional is the coaching cycle.

The coaching cycle is a simple structure that gives you a lot of freedom to support teachers in different ways. This practical method has three parts: the pre-conference, the observation/ modeled lesson/ or co-teaching lesson, and a debrief.

To start your six-step process, find a “friendly”! This is seriously the best advice I can offer you, especially if you haven’t conducted a coaching cycle before (or if you have and it left you feeling crummy).

A friendly is someone who wants to work with you. This is especially important if you are new to coaching or to a campus. So, think about your staff. Is there someone who has some great stuff going on but wants to try something new? Invite your friendly to work with you.  You can send an invite via email or you can give them a physical invite which can be found in my free download below!

Once your friendly teacher accepts your invite, you need set a pre-conference. During the pre-conference with the teacher, you’ll start making a plan. You have to plan for literally everything.

I am not exaggerating. If you have not planned for management, management will be tricky for you. If you have not planned for resources,  you could potentially walk into that classroom and find an age inappropriate text (speaking from experience). If you have not planned for when you’re going to debrief, you’re probably not going to debrief!

I cannot stress this enough: plan for everything! If you don’t believe me, check out the horror horror story in Episode 3!

After you’ve planned your pre-conference, what services you’re going to provide for the teacher, what the goals are, and the overall lesson plan, it’s time to act! During this time period you need to do whatever you and the teacher decided on whether that’s an observation, modeled lesson, or co-teaching lesson. Finally, you have to debrief.

The coaching cycle without a debrief is like a pen without ink. There’s no point. The debrief session is where you make the learning stick! During the debrief, you should have a conversation about how the lesson went overall, discuss how the students responded to the lesson, and make a plan for next time! You can learn more about giving good feedback in Episode 4 when we talk to Nicole Turner the author of Simply Coaching.

The coaching cycle is one of the best resources that you can use! Learn more about the 6 steps and how to win free resources with a simple hashtag by tuning into Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast, Episode #3.