As educators are moving away from ineffective “sit-and-get� professional development, more schools are turning to peer-to-peer coaching for 21st century professional development. The Peer Coaching Program at the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology is making an impact around the world. I sat down with Les Foltos , director of the program, to learn more about it.

Maureen Cain: It looks like your peer coaches are focusing on technology in the classroom. Are you training technology coaches?

Les Foltos: We train the coaches to teach strong learning that integrates technology. The learning comes first, the technology second. The coaches help their peers identify ways that technology can strengthen classroom curriculum and enhance student academic achievement.

MC: How is coaching different than mentoring?

LF: Typically in the US the term mentor means a very senior teacher working with a brand new teacher. But this coaching program is open to all teachers, regardless of tenure, with a focus on increasing student achievement.

MC: What kind of person makes a good peer coach?

LF: Time after time, we find that a good coach is a leader respected by the colleagues in their building. He or she might be a junior teacher, but more often than not it’s a person who’s been in the field for years that other teachers naturally turn to for support.

MC: What are the benefits of being a coach?

LF: The majority of our coaches are in it for the personal professional growth opportunities. In most countries where we work coaches don’t get any extra pay. They want the communication and collaboration skills, and they want to be better at the craft of teaching. Some think about their careers after the classroom — they might want to go into professional development or administration.

MC: With facilitators training a coach and then that new coach training the next, and so on and so on, how can you ensure that the program doesn’t get too watered down? After a few years aren’t you getting a copy of a copy of a copy?

LF: There are some things that are core to the program and cannot change. Training coaches to be good communicators and good collaborators is a mandatory part of the program. Still, we have to be flexible and allow countries to make modifications to suit their needs. We’ve brought this program to forty-six countries outside of the US. This year there will be 100,000 coaches trained around the world. In Argentina alone there have been 22,000 coaches trained over the last two years.

MC: How do you know peer coaching works?

LF: Each country sets up its own program evaluation system. Most programs look for changed teacher behavior because they know that this is a precursor to improved student academic performance.

We can see in Washington State, for example, that after a teacher has worked with a coach for 20 hours, they integrate technology into their teaching. After 30 hours of time with the coach, the teacher begins to change his or her instruction in ways that increase problem solving, critical thinking and strategies to actively engage students.

In addition to answering my questions about peer coaching, Les invited me to observe a peer coach training and a coach-teacher session in person. Watch for my report on those events later in the fall.

Just for fun! Test your knowledge of education acronyms:

Part II: A potential client is on the phone. Now what?

You’ve found a potential client and they are ready to talk details about what they need and what you can offer.

Treat the call like a job interview. Chances are they are screening several consultants for this contract, so your job is to stand out. You know all the basics of how to conduct yourself professionally on a phone interview, so we don’t need to go over things like speaking slowly and sounding confident.

Here are eight things you can do to wow the soon-to-be client on the other end of the phone:

1. Give out a freebie on the phone. You’ve done your homework by researching the school district and reading their strategic plan. Be prepared to offer them a preliminary idea or two.

2. Ask smart questions. Focus your questions on the big picture and make them think a little by asking tough questions. The response you want to hear from your smart question is “Hmm…we didn’t even think of that.� Consider a question like “How will you sustain this work after I leave?�

3. Show. Don’t tell. Right before the call, e-mail samples of final products you’ve delivered for previous clients. Walk them through the documents while you discuss why each piece was a success. This is 100 times more effective than telling them about a project you completed.

4. You are The One. You have a niche and they need your services. Be clear and let them know that no one else can do the job as well as you can.

5. Oops, you’re not The One. Half way into the call you might realize, however, that they are looking for someone with a different set of skills. As soon as you identify this, speak up – your honesty will be appreciated and they’ll keep you in mind for a future project that does match your skills.

6. Be a therapist… Spend more time listening than talking. When you ask your smart questions (see above), listen to the response and dig a little deeper with a follow up question.

7 …and a cheerleader. They might be looking for a consultant because there’s something wrong, a problem that needs to be fixed. It’s easy to get sucked into worry and negativity with your potential client, but now is the time to be supportive and optimistic. Down the line you might find that they need tough love – put that in your back pocket for later.

8. Don’t promise the moon. Manage their expectations by clearly defining the project and your role in it. If you promise too much, only bad things can happen. You’ll either work way too many hours and end up not making any money or they will be disappointed because in their eyes you didn’t deliver what you promised.

 

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this blog for Part III where I’ll share specifics about how to set expectations by developing a clear Project Description.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Springfield, USA: Today Superintendent Gary Chalmers announced that Springfield Elementary was awarded an $800,000 grant from the US Department of Education.  

“These funds will help bring Springfield Elementary into the 21st century,� Chalmers said. “It’s almost as if Springfield has been standing still in time for 20 years.�

“With this grant money, we’ll pay smart kids from Shelbyville to take standardized tests for our Springfield students,� said school Principal Seymour Skinner. “The plan will cost a lot, but Springfield Elementary will come out looking really good.�

“Uh, I’d like to thank Moe for hosting the meetings in his bar,� said Homer Simpson, chair of the community oversight committee. “Also I’d also like to tell the other chumps on the committee to quit their whining about not getting any doughnuts – you snooze, you lose. Thank God my daughter Lisa was there. That kid really knows how to run a meeting.�

When asked why so much of the money was spent on slide rules and slate boards, Simpson replied, “How else are Springfield kids going to learn 20th century skills?�

D’oh!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how visual literacy shows up in the charts, maps and diagrams that schools and organizations create to illustrate what they mean by 21st century skills. The term means different things to different people, but since almost every inventory of 21st century skills includes visual literacy, it’s not surprising that lists of 21st century skills and knowledge are often organized and communicated graphically.

One of the original visual frameworks of 21st century learning comes from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). P21’s signature rainbow image represents student outcomes. The pools under the rainbow show the support systems necessary for those outcomes.

I spoke to Vice President Valerie Greenhill about the thinking behind the P21 rainbow.

“We wanted the image to illustrate the integrated way in which skills and content work together,� Valerie told me. “So we thought carefully about whether to blur the boundaries between colors of the rainbow, to show a smooth transition between the concepts. But the gradients looked awful, like a muddy watercolor painting.�

“In the name of good design we didn’t go that route,� Valerie said, “but still, it’s a shame we had to put those solid lines between the bands of color, because you can’t really talk about skills and content as if there’s a solid boundary between them. Their relationship is interdependent and fluid.�

Here’s my collection of visual representations of 21st century teaching and learning. When I look at these diagrams, I see a snapshot of each group’s vision for education in the 21st century, and I get a glimpse into the discussions, negotiations and compromises that must have been made in the process of their creation.

1. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills rainbow

2. Catalina Foothills School District’s 21st Century learning triangle

3. Jordon School District’s 21st Century Engaged Classroom image

4. Goochland County Public Schools flow chart of 21st century learning

5. SREB’s graphical representation of 21st Century Skills and Information and Communication Technologies Literacies

6. ISTE’s Student Educational Technology Skills diagram

7. Colorado’s Council on 21st Century Learning mind map

8. Metiri Group’s enGauge grid of 21st Century Skills

9. West Virginia Department of Education Teach 21 triangle

If you have additional charts or diagrams of 21st century skills, please leave a comment with a link.