Tuesday, September 23, 2014

One more week to go...

This is my last full week of maternity leave before returning to work and beginning my new position as an instructional coach. Although I am quite nervous to embark on this new journey, I am also excited for the adventures that it will bring. I am looking forward to collaborating with other teachers, supporting them in the classrooms, and in general making their jobs more manageable and enjoyable.

With that in mind, I feel like I will be extremely busy these last few days leading up to October 3rd. Therefore, I made a list of what I need to accomplish prior to returning to work.

1. Prepare my brain to use higher-order thinking skills.
These past seven weeks have been spent feeding Lucy, changing diapers, catching up on sleep, and watching television. I now plan to carve out time to catch up on emails, read some educational articles, and collaborate with other teachers in preparation for when I return to work.

2. Complete any final to-do items here at home.
Basically, I want to finish writing my thank-you cards and do a deep cleaning of the house.

3. Hope, pray, and wish for Lucy to decrease her nighttime feedings from two down to one.
It's no big deal now if she decides to wake up several times to eat, but there will be issues if she continues this once I return to the world of the working. I'm planning on having a stern talk with her about this, which I really think should solve the problem.

4. Enjoy my final moments at home with Lucy.
I can't believe she's already been here for a month. I know the time will fly, and before I know it she will be graduating from high school.

So, there's my list. I think it's doable. With that, I must get to work at accomplishing this list. I look forward to seeing my colleagues on Friday, October 3rd and diving in to my new position.



Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Instructional Coach Videos

If you're bored and have a few minutes to kill, here are some short video clips about instructional coaching:

1) https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/instructional-coaching
This video is from TeachingChannel.org and gives a general overview of how coaching improves instruction. It is 2 minutes and 35 seconds in length.

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut2_VFVU4W4
This video is an actual meeting between a teacher and a coach, and it will give you an idea of how meeting with a coach is informal and non-evaluative. Don't be fooled by what YouTube tells you is the length of the video. Only the first 3 minutes and 49 seconds contains the meeting between the teacher and coach.

3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIM2ypSIXI
This video accurately describes what instructional coaches do. The length of this video is 5 minutes and 28 seconds.