A Day in the Life of a Coach
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In this module, you’ll learn how to plan out a coach’s weekly and daily calendar in order to prioritize a coach’s main responsibilities.
By the end of this module, the learner should be able to:
Identify the main responsibilities of a coach and show how administrators can effectively support the completion of those responsibilities
Build a weekly and daily calendar based on the Certified coaching model
Use scheduling strategies to prioritize and protect a coach’s time
Now that you have dug a bit deeper into each step of the Certified Coaching Model, let’s take a look at what it looks like in practice. This content is focused on how a coach will spend much of his or her time during a typical week and typical day.
As presented in the “Overview of the 5-Step Coaching” module, the typical Certified coaching cycle is 8 weeks long. However, we realize that coaching cycle lengths may vary depending on the school or district.
During this 8-week cycle, a coach will work with a teacher on a challenge at a pace that makes sense for the teacher and the challenge.
Whatever the pace, most of the cycle will be spent on step 4: Implement.
For example, let’s say that a teacher tackles one challenge during an 8-week cycle. Six of the 8 weeks might be spent on step 4: Implement. (Of course, the exact timing of each step depends on the teacher, the challenge, and the situation.)
During the implement step, a coach will meet with teachers and visit their classrooms to help implement strategies.
We recommend that full time Certified Coaches work with 8-10 teachers during each 8-week cycle.
As an example, let’s say a coach is working with 10 teachers in a cycle. We recommend a coach meet with each teacher once per week and visit each teacher’s classroom once per week, on average. (These numbers may vary based on a teacher’s needs.) Therefore, a coach may have 10 meetings and 10 classroom visits to schedule each week.
Twenty meetings and classroom visits each week divided by a typical 5-day week equals 4 meetings or visits each day. In the next section, we’ll take this a step further by looking at a coach’s typical day.
The main responsibility of a Certified Coach is to provide direct support for teachers to address challenges through the use of innovative strategies and tools.
The majority of a full-time coach’s day is spent working directly with teachers and in classrooms. Specifically, our pilot program research supports that coaches are most effective when they spent 70% or more of their time working 1:1 with teachers.
However, we believe successful coaches spend some time during their work week participating in professional learning opportunities that improve their ability to support teachers. Coaches also spend time involving the broader school community in the program by sharing resources and facilitating learning activities for all staff.
Let’s look more closely at what a coach’s day might look like, keeping these responsibilities in mind.
Welcome to a day in the life of a Certified Coach!
Here’s the breakdown of a typical coach’s day. As we saw in the last section, a Certified Coach might spend about 4-5 hours each day meeting with teachers or visiting their classrooms. If we think of a day as having 7 hours of work time, that leaves 2-3 hours. A coach may spend 1-2 hours researching new strategies for teachers or spending time on their own professional development. Another hour might be spent on other responsibilities like prepping for the day or time in transition.
However a coach ends up allocating their time, we recommend that the Certified Coaches spend 70% of their day working directly with or on behalf of teachers. In our experience working with schools with a coaching program, we have seen that coaches and administrators who prioritize a coach’s time for teachers and coaching see the biggest impact on changing teacher practice.
Meet Coach Alex! Coach Alex excels at planning his work day to balance his various coaching responsibilities.
Here is Coach Alex’s schedule for a typical school day.
After looking at this schedule, take a moment to read through this narrative describing Coach Alex's day. (Note the various challenges teachers have and the strategies they are using in their classrooms.)
The schedule and narrative presented previously are fictional, but here is a real example of one coach’s 4-day schedule. You can see she has color coded her calendar. Blue represents teacher meetings, yellow represents classroom visits, and purple represents other things that are part of her day.
As a new or experienced coach, one of the most valuable things you can do for yourself is to master your calendar early in the school year. Try various scheduling strategies to find what works for you. Don’t hesitate to change your methods in a later coaching cycle.
"So, during the first coaching cycle this year, I scheduled each week as it happened. I found myself wasting a lot of time chasing down the ten teachers on my cycle, trying to schedule the next meeting. (I’ve found that email doesn’t work at my school for trying to schedule anything!) I’ve made two changes since cycle 1 that have really helped. At the beginning of a coaching cycle, I plan a regular time each week for my meeting with each teacher. I put that time on both of our calendars for all weeks of the coaching cycle. Also, at the end of each meeting with a teacher, I don’t leave before confirming the next time I’m coming to visit the classroom or have a meeting. This has saved me so much time and has also reduced the number of cancellations."
Here are some scheduling strategies other Certified Coaches have used with success:
Use scheduling tools (such as Google Appointment Slots) to allow teachers to book you at a time that is convenient for them.
Don’t leave a meeting or class visit without confirming the next meeting or visit.
Offer to meet virtually with a teacher if that saves time or is more convenient. (For example, you could use Google Meet to do a video chat)
Schedule regular meetings with teachers each week during the coaching cycle. (For example, every Tuesday at 10 a.m. with Teacher A and every Wednesday at 2 p.m. with Teacher B, etc.) This will also help you prepare for future weeks by knowing your schedule ahead of time.
Depending on what challenge a teacher is working on, you might be able to schedule a regular time slot for a class visit. Perhaps you visit during period 5 every Thursday, for example. If they are teaching remotely, ask to be invited to the video call or added as a co-teacher in Google Classroom.
At the beginning of a coaching cycle, look through the school’s calendar for all eight weeks and note any special days (early dismissal, testing, field trips, etc.)
Block your own calendar early when you have a PD day or will be out for anything.
Add in recurring events for yourself such as lunch or regularly scheduled time slots set aside for email and research/PD time. You may need to move them as each week plays out, but having them already in your calendar will remind you to take time for yourself.
Use a Google Form to help track how you are spending your time as a coach when on-the-go or between scheduled meetings. The data collected can easily be visualised as graphs using the Explore tool in Google Sheets. This method may help you keep track of your progress on coaching projects, provide a reflection piece for how effectively you are using your time, or to help communicate accountability to school or district administration teams.
Add in recurring events for yourself such as lunch or regularly scheduled time slots set aside for email and research or professional development time. You may need to move them as each week plays out, but having them already in your calendar will remind you to take time for yourself.
A coach’s role can vary drastically in different schools or districts. Our examples in this module are mostly looking at a full-time coach in one school. If you are a part-time coach or a full-time coach at the district level supporting multiple schools, check out these resources designed for you.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the education landscape as schools around the world moved to distance and/or hybrid learning models. As a result, the ways that coaches interacted with teachers changed as well.
Our Google for Education team recently partnered with Forward Edge, one of our recommended coaching partners, to host a webinar on “the remote coach.” Please watch the video recording below to learn about how coaches can adjust to the “new normal” and maintain the success of their coaching strategies during a time of hybrid or remote learning. Learn how to alter your schedule, coaching programs, and professional development to better suit the world of distance learning. Plus review ways you can better integrate Google tools into your practice to manage your busy (and now mostly virtual) coaching life!
Now let's do a quick check to make sure you’ve mastered this lesson.
Coach Alex’s schedule is one example of a typical coach’s day. Obviously, your schedule as a Certified coach will vary based on the needs of your school. It will also vary day by day depending on teacher schedules and what’s happening at school. Now that you’ve seen what one coach’s schedule can look like, let’s think about what your schedule might look like, based on your school’s schedule and context.
Take a look again at our breakdown of a typical coach’s day. A Certified Coach’s main responsibility is working directly with teachers using the coaching model. Think about this responsibility as well as the secondary things a coach does.
If a coach has 10 teachers on cycle and plans to meet with each teacher once per week and visit each teacher’s classroom once per week, how many meetings and visits in total should be scheduled each week?
In section 3, there is a list of scheduling strategies from other Certified Coaches. Which of these strategies do you see working for you in your school context?