Athletic teams have coaches; middle and high school pupils have graduation coaches; and now Columbia County's high school teachers have instructional coaches.
The school system implemented a program this year in which its four high schools have one instructional coach for teachers in each core subject -- English, math, science, social studies -- and special education.
The coaches, who teach the same subject as the teachers they mentor at the schools, visit the classrooms to observe the teachers in action.
The instructional coaches also meet with teachers before and after they observe their classrooms to discuss strategies and to evaluate information, said Rose Carraway, the director of high school student learning.
The long-term vision of the program is to retain quality teachers.
Dr. Carraway said the program, which grew out of necessity to meet Georgia Performance Standards and to comply with special-education laws, originally was geared toward first-year teachers.
"Not many teachers last. There's a lot of them that change careers in the first three years," said Cathy Sligh, an instructional coach and biology teacher at Evans High School.
The initiative also is designed to help teachers "improve on individual development, and thereby, student achievement," Dr. Carraway said.
Ms. Sligh said the instructional coaches help their colleagues find resources or help them deal with discipline problems.
"Our goal is to go into the classroom, talk to teachers and identify areas of improvement," said Bob Willis, a science teacher and instructional coach at Lakeside High School.
He said overall communication within the departments has improved and instruction has become more collaborative.
Reach Betsy Gilliland at (706) 868-1222, ext. 113, or betsy.gilliland@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
Sharing experiences and having "new eyes" critique your work. What a novel idea. (It's been used in industry for about 80 years.) I'm glad to see Columbia County implement an intelligent approach to teaching. It can only improve the system. Congrats!
Augusta has a huge resource of retired engineers, physicians, and scientists that could all teach in a college or university but to teach in the public schools would require taking education courses and more schooling. Already having a superior education to your average school teacher and not qualified to teach in the public schools is paradoxical. Good enough for Harvard, Yale, MCG, SRS, but no you just can't walk in the door and expect to teach our children.
Bizarro,
Want to know why those folks cannot teach in middle or high school? Because teaching at colllege or working in industry, you deal with people who WANT to be there. Students, typically do not want to be in school. The retired folks NEED the education classes to understand how to deal with the mind of a teenager. It is vastly different than the mind of a paid worker or a college student paying to be in class. The rate of retention for those retired folks coming back to education is less than 50%. It still takes the right person for the job, especially those lowly educated teachers that you speak of.
Bizarro, no one can just WALK in the door and begin to teach. If you think that, then you should sign up to be a substitute and see how many days you can go before you decide that teaching is one of the most stressful jobs out there. Also I know people of "superior" intelligence who can't even carry on a conversation with adults, much less children, because they tend to think on such a high level. That doesn't work when you are trying to teach a skill or objective to a young person. Those people also have to have strong communication and social skills in order to work with parents. Sometimes speaking on a superior level intimidates them.
I don't see educated people feel or act superior, and I do appreciate the difference in skills needed for the different education levels. A better educated person will do a better job of educating, and I remember an article related to a retired SRS scientist who became a teacher-apparently an excellent one. I am not talking about people who believe they are of "superior intelligence" just people who have a higher level of education. We live in the south-some of the most brilliant minds I have met speak with a southern drawl and wear a bolo tie and cowboy boots.
Bizarro, there is more to teaching than possessing vast amounts of knowledge. Let's just say I've seen first hand some currently employed engineers teaching in a middle school classroom. During one particular visit, a pair of engineers visited during engineering week for one day of activities. I'm not bashing them, but the pair left for lunch and never returned. It takes a special individual to possess the knowledge and the skill to teach today' younger generation. I have always said that as part of our civil duties, all parents, community leaders, and educated citizens should spend one week volunteering and working in a classroom. Eyes would be wide open.
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