Jessica
Stoneham’s
Top Ten
Literacy
Coaching
Beliefs
MAKE YOUR PRESENTS KNOW IN
THE BUILDING AND YOU JOB
DESCRIPTION CLEAR TO ALL
#1
You want to make sure everyone
knows that you are a part of the
team and that you have a certain
set of responsibilities within the
school that will aide them in
doing their jobs better.
WORK WITH ALL MEMBERS
OF THE SCHOOL
#2
Make sure that your co-workers
understand that you are there to
assist in improving instruction for
all students and not there to
evaluate teachers and their work.
#3
ESTABLISH TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS
WITH YOUR COWORKERS
Let teachers and
administrators know that you
value their thoughts and
opinions and that you will
maintain confidentiality of
student and teacher
information. Keep judgment
out of the conversation.
#4
RECOGNIZE YOUR BELIEFS AND
ATTITUDES ABOUT TEACHING AND
LEARNING AND BE OPEN MINDED TO
BELIEFS OF OTHERS’
Coaches must be flexible in their
teaching and adjust their materials
and what they do, depending on
needs, interests and personalities
of teachers they are working with.
BE A LEARNER AND EMBRACE ONGOING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
#5
As a team we build our knowledge.
There is always something new to
learn and you have to be willing to
learn it and reflect upon it in order to
grow as an individual, professional
and as a team.
#6
DO NOT ACT LIKE THE EXPERT, BE
SUPPORTIVE OF INSTRUCTIONAL
NEEDS BUT DO NOT EVALUATE YOUR
TEACHERS
You must establish yourself as an
equal member of the team and as a
colleague who is working with
teachers to find solutions to the
educational problems in your building
or classrooms.
BE ORGANIZED AND DOCUMENT
ALL OF YOUR WORK AND USE
YOUR RESOURCES.
#7
There is not much empirical
evidence as to the effectiveness of
coaching therefore is is important to
reflect upon what you as a coach
have done. This insight will guide
future coaching work with teachers.
DO NOT EXPECT
IMMEDIATE CHANGE
#8
You are not going to be able to
change a school or classroom
overnight, you have to celebrate
the small steps forward that you
as a coach are making and take it
one day at a time. Don’t expect to
work miracles.
#9
BE PRESENT BUT NOT
FORCEFULLY INVOLVED IN YOUR
TEACHERS CLASSROOMS
If you are new to a building, allow
the teachers to get to know you by
offering your services to all and
letting them come to you for help
at first instead of pushing you
services onto them and making
them feel inadequate in their
teaching.
DON’T AVOID THE TOUGH ISSUES
#10
Coaching a teacher to teacher
a certain way can be
challenging but you can’t avoid
the things in life that are
uncomfortable to talk about or
they will continue to get worse
and the students will suffer.