My kids love to play with the hose in the backyard.
We live in the semi-desert of Southern California, so it’s too hot to play without a sprinkler for about 8 weeks during the summer, but they’re even thrilled to dance in the rain yesterday, as the rest of the country is grappling with record snows.
Anyway. They really like the nozzle below.
My daughter likes the mist setting, she can spray a little bit of water all over the place without soaking anything.
That’s a lot of how I feel about my job as a coach: spreading a tiny bit of water all over.
(Astute readers will note this is the second recent reference between water and instructional coaching. Yep. Keep reading.)
In the last few years, getting a bird’s-eye view of capital-E-Education has made me awaken more to the world outside the four walls of my classroom. Public education must be effective for all students, and my Equity bone has been aching more and more.
So I want to focus my impact, twisting the top of this nozzle, to be less spread-out and more focused.
As noted in recent posts, a job focused on relationships is more likely to produce growth. A site-level administrator would have more concentrated impact, more time to build relationships with staff, and more authority to produce equitable conditions for students and staff.
All the chatter about becoming an Administrator is due to something I learned in August: My job as Ed/Tech Coach expires in June.
Now, I’m not upset about this; like many TOSA jobs, my position was designed to have a shelf-life, and five years ain’t a bad run for an Instructional Coach.
And — if I’m honest — it’s probably time.
Of all the teachers I supported last year, 51% of them were classes I visited only once during the year, and never saw again.
Nearly three out of every four classrooms I visit are people I only see once or twice a year. It’s hardly hyperbole to guess that I’m not improving the instruction of those teachers, which begs the question,
Do we need a full-time instructional coach if I’m only driving change in 25% of my visits?
Now, there’s a much larger conversation to be had about effective instructional coaching and an ideal staff-to-coach ratio (It’s probably not 1,000:1), but the conversation I want to have is about impact.
I want to focus my impact on a smaller group, and it’s becoming clearer that site-level administration is a good next step in that direction.
So as the 2018-19 school year wraps up and I clean out my desk, I’ll be looking that direction.
More to come.
~Matt “Ready to be Mr. Vaudrey again” Vaudrey