Get started together—with trusting relationships and data-informed decisions
The foundation of successful instructional coaching is based on collaboration, relationships, and trust, starting with coaches and school leaders. Trusting and collaborative relationships among all stakeholders are key to the success of impactful education transformation.
Meet together and establish trusting relationships—leadership and coaches
Here’s a suggested procedure to establish this trust during initial meetings with school leaders.
- Together identify issues and challenges that exist academically at a school level and more specifically for students, educators, and other relevant areas.
- Discuss and set educational goals and objectives to collaboratively attain.
- Design plans and strategies for addressing issues and challenges for achieving these identified goals.
- Cocreate successful strategies to meet both leadership and coaching goals using a backward design process.
Microsoft Whiteboard is the perfect tool for brainstorming and strategizing.
Prioritize the school and district goals, then plan collaboratively for targeted, ongoing professional learning opportunities (including modeling, mentoring, and professional learning communities) that address these identified goals.
Remember. student success is at the forefront of all coaching, and teacher growth is a crucial component of that success. That’s why a coach’s role is critical. Coaches are the bridge between leadership and teachers for implementing change and transforming education.
Learn about Microsoft Planner, a great planning tool, on the Microsoft support site and at the Microsoft 365 YouTube channel.
Learn more about Microsoft Whiteboard on the Microsoft Education YouTube channel.
Data-informed decisions
When developing and implementing strategies that support educators and students, use data analysis as an important factor in that process. Review relevant data such as standardized test scores, student grades, reading assessments, student attendance, and student engagement. These findings allow for data-informed decisions throughout the coaching cycle.
One way to collect data beyond traditional education assessments is by creating and administering a custom survey for the school community’s stakeholders. This survey may provide additional targeted, contextual data relevant and personalized to the educational community’s culture and groups. Stakeholders can derive insights to support the planning, strategies, goals, and objectives of the education initiatives, helping to optimize success.
Microsoft Forms provides a streamlined and secure method of collecting this data. A Microsoft Forms survey can be created collaboratively, then results can easily be shared with specific individuals and groups.
Did you know you can add a Forms tab to a Microsoft Team, streamlining the process and providing quick access for Team members? It’s easy! This video explains how.
Another one of the effective tools provided by Microsoft for impactful data analysis is Education Insights Premium. This tool makes it easy to visualize trends (and share them)—both academic and those related to social-emotional learning (SEL) and engagement. With it, stakeholders can better understand the dynamics in a school, subject, or grade level. This supports more meaningful and relevant conversations with educators to support learning.
