Beginning Together
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Teaching Pyramid
Coaching by WestEd staff provides onsite, strength-based support, and technical assistance for teachers, and mentoring for internal coaches in enhancing understanding and applying the Teaching Pyramid practices in the classroom. The coach helps staff take what they've learned in the training series and make it meaningful to the work in their classrooms.
Importance of Coaching
The feedback we get at the end of the day is crucial and supports the trainings. Nobody gets everything by attending a class, you have to implement what you're learning, but then you need someone who is an expert to come in with a new set of eyes. You need an objective opinion from someone else. Read More
As a companion to the Teaching Pyramid trainings, strength-based coaching is provided to facilitate understanding and implementation of Teaching Pyramid practices. An internal coach is identified by the program to provide ongoing, onsite support to classroom teachers in implementing Teaching Pyramid Practices. The internal coach can be a curriculum specialist, an assistant director, a lead teacher, or a director. It is recommended that the internal coach not have supervisorial roles when possible. The WestEd coach serves as a mentor to the internal coach.
The coach conducts classroom observations followed by team meetings that include the teachers, internal coach, administrator and other support professionals such as mental health consultants. The meetings give staff opportunities to reflect together upon the meaning of the Teaching Pyramid concepts and to strategize about the practical application of the tools in the classrooms. The coach facilitates the creation of a Coaching Action Plan that captures these strategies and the supports needed for teachers to put them into practice. Coaching is an iterative process, with particular attention paid to the importance of the bottom two levels of the Pyramid and the implementation of the strategies over time.
The Internal Coach and other support staff are encouraged to meet regularly with the teachers to celebrate successes and reflect upon the Coaching Action Plan in regard to fidelity of implementation. This type of comprehensive, classroom-based coaching strengthens teacher understanding of the framework and promotes program-wide implementation.
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