I bet you’ve just conducted – or are getting ready to conduct – many hours of training for your teaching staff.  I’m sure that the training covers a multitude of topics – curriculum, lesson planning, and ongoing assessment, just to name a few. You probably also have in-service dates scheduled for additional teacher training throughout the year. It’s important to have a plan in place to support teachers in between large and small group trainings – to provide individualized guidance to teachers as they implement what they learned in the trainings.

Mentor coaching is a critical part of a comprehensive professional development plan. It provides teachers with hands-on support that is custom designed to meet each teacher’s needs. It builds each teacher’s capacity and fosters continuous improvement. And, finally, it raises CLASS scores.

A high quality mentor coaching program includes:

• Assessment of needs. Review the CLASS scores and other observational data and determine the teacher’s strengths and areas for improvement.
• Setting goals. Ask the teacher what they’d like to work on. Starting with what the teacher wants to improve on will increase buy-in.
• Ongoing observations. Either in person, or long-distance, provide ongoing observations of a variety of skills.  If this is being done long-distance, the teacher can send videos to the mentor.
• Reflecting and sharing feedback. Through guided questions and activities, the mentor provides an opportunity for reflection as well as specific feedback.

Looking for long-distance Mentor Coaching? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.