Posts by Gretchen Schultek Bridgers

A data chat with a professional learning community can be a powerful tool to increase teacher proficiency and student achievement. Having a process in place to lead a productive and successful discussion is imperative to achieving the change you desire.   Get Ready for a Data Chat Before diving into a data chat, there are…

Becoming an instructional coach is exciting, but when you are moving into a leadership role on the same campus where you were a teacher, it can bring forward mixed emotions. There are certainly benefits and drawbacks from being promoted within the same organizational structure. Before diving into the list of benefits and drawbacks, I first…

Great teachers will remain in the field of education if they are supported. One way to do this is through onboarding. One of the duties for teacher leaders, specifically instructional coaches, is onboarding new staff to the school. This means that the teacher leader is in charge of helping that new hire acclimate into the…

If you have a student teacher or a new teaching colleague joining the staff, you might be wondering about new teacher gift ideas. This post will give you plenty of options for how to support a new teacher while showing appreciation and encouragement for their new journey into the educational profession. New Teacher Gift Ideas…

For a while, I have been using the term “teacher leader” to mean anyone who supports teachers in their development. Because that is a broad term, I thought it would be important to dig deeper into what a teacher leader is, does and the impact they have in the educational field. What is a “Teacher…

“PD in a Box” has become a new, engaging way for teachers to learn at their own pace and on their own timetable. Professional Development usually occurs in-person as an onsite meeting among staff. Teaching best practices or new instructional initiatives are introduced and expectations for implementation are described. These meetings are usually jam packed…

Virtual coaching calls have become the norm during this period of remote learning and leading due to Covid-19. They are easy to implement and highly effective in improving teacher proficiency and student achievement in the classroom. A virtual coaching call is a 1:1 discussion a teacher leader has with a teacher that focuses on goals,…

There is a life after coaching. At times, it can feel that everything has lead up to your role as an instructional coach. And whether YOU or LIFE has decided your run is over, this crossroads can be anxiety-provoking. Luckily, many instructional coaches have figured out how move on while still continuing to have an…

Becoming an effective instructional coach is not as daunting of a task as one might think. It is true that instructional coaching is one of the newer additions into the educational realm of teacher leadership. Luckily though, each year more supports are created to help nurture the growth of instructional coaches. What is an Instructional…

The acronym PLC refers to Professional Learning Communities, which are organized collaborative structures among educators. Many schools have PLC’s, but how they are set up and run vary greatly. A discussion recently came up in the Instructional Coaching Connection Facebook group where a coach was looking for advice from other coaches on how PLC’s are…