A Quick Guide to Video Coaching: The best practice to improve the art and craft of teaching through guided reflection - Softcover

Kosiorek, Dr. Casey; Thompson, Mr. Jim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0692996672 ISBN 13: 9780692996676

Publisher: Casey Kosiorek, 2017

Synopsis

The need to train high school graduates specifically to become teachers was recognized in the early 1800s. Over the next century, “normal schools” turned into teachers’ colleges which became state universities, and these entities changed from teacher training schools to liberal arts colleges and then into research universities. The focus reasonably shifted from the practical to the theoretical as a result of this evolution. Many colleges and universities have attempted to recalibrate their approach to preparing prospective teachers for the profession, but it is evident that teacher preparation must continue to evolve with more emphasis on teaching experiences that provide opportunities for feedback and reflection on a continuous basis.It’s not just our postgraduate teaching preparatory programs that struggle with this mission; the field of K-12 education owns a big part of this dilemma as well. Once teacher candidates enter the system, we continue to miss the target by not providing opportunities for them to improve their instruction. The structure and methods for such approaches are absent from the field. Often quality professional development is sparse and may seem more like a current fad rather than a change in practice for overall teaching improvement.Early on in our approach, we were convinced the answer could be found in the realm of coaching. One of us had some experience with peer coaching where colleagues meticulously “scripted” each other’s lessons and provided feedback within carefully agreed-upon parameters. The other had experience as a student-athlete through college, varsity coach, and physical education teacher who recalled an expression repeated by a football coach: “The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.”The football coach was referring to video-recording.That’s when we experimented with the notion of recording a teacher’s instruction. A curious and willing classroom teacher had video-recorded a number of his lessons and allowed us to view them. Then we sat down together to discuss exactly what we were seeing. The teacher was energized by the undeniable evidence of his own actions, both those that were effective and those that were not. We discovered that the teacher, who was seeing himself teach for the first time, was very capable of identifying those teacher actions that needed to be altered to produce more desirable results, but the lightbulb went off when we realized that the experience could be enriched with the guidance of an instructional expert. We started small with “slow is fast” as our mantra. In the first year, we worked with about a half dozen volunteer teachers. Fourteen teachers benefitted from video coaching the next year. Within four years, the number of schools participating had increased dramatically. We know the video coaching approach is working as part of systemic change because we are now training cadres of coaches instead of only working with individual classroom teachers. Part of our journey has been understanding how important quality control at every juncture is in maintaining credibility and building trust. In this book, we are offering a pragmatic approach to the implementation of a video coaching model in your school. We have successfully worked through our model on a small scale in a small school, then on a larger scale in a small school, then in nine different school districts, and now on a larger scale in a large school district. The most direct route to improved instruction is to refocus and support teachers on their teaching by having them reflect on their own practice in a safe environment with a trained coach in response to incontrovertible video evidence of the instruction they deliver in their own classrooms. We’re excited about helping you to chart your own course.

About this title

About the Author:

James Thompson, NAESP Nationally Distinguished Principal and New York State Elementary Principal of the Year. Jim is a retired Elementary Principal with 30 plus years of administrative experience. Jim currently serves as the Executive Director of Video Coaching for the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership. He served as an Elementary Principal, Assistant Principal, Social Studies teacher, and he has taught at the Elementary, Middle School, High School levels, and 15 years teaching undergraduate and graduate level students. He has also served as National Consultant for HOPE Foundation working with districts in Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, Alabama, Kansas and New York. Jim has had his work published in the Journal of School Administrators' Association of New York on topics including supervision of instruction and the importance of mentoring for school administrators. He has also been published by the Association of California School Administrators on the topic of instructional leadership. Casey Kosiorek Ed.D, Superintendent of Schools, joined the Hilton School District on Jan. 1, 2016. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of the Byron-Bergen Central School District, a position he held since 2012. Dr. Kosiorek earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physical education and Master of Science degree in education from Canisius College. He then earned his Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership from The College at Brockport and his doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Rochester. Dr. Kosiorek taught physical education and health at Royalton-Hartland Central School District. During that time, he also coached varsity football, varsity swimming, and modified track. He has worked at Le Roy Central School District’s Wolcott Street Elementary School as assistant principal and then principal. In 2017, Workplace Dynamics, in conjunction with D&C Digital, presented Dr. Kosiorek with the Leadership Award for the Rochester Top Workplace - Large Employers. He has also been named Administrator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, was recognized for his leadership by the Genesee Valley Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and received the Tyll van Geel Educational Leadership Award from the University of Rochester. Dr. Kosiorek is a member of the National Center for Education Research and Technology and is a member of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.

About this edition

• Publisher: Casey Kosiorek
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0692996672
• ISBN 13: 9780692996676
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 84