A Day in the Life of a Coach

A Day in the Life of a Coach: Coaching Corner Webinar Series

Joyce Escorcia: Okay, Good afternoon, everyone. So glad you could be here to join us. It's been great to be able to chat with you some in the chat box, talking about future topics for the Coaching Corner webinars and just also talking about some of the highlights and challenges from our days of being a coach. So we look forward to kind of continuing that conversation today as we talk about a day in the life of a coach. I'm Joyce Escorcia with NCECDTL. And then, today I'm joined in this webinar with Sarahh Basler also from NCECDTL, so we'll be tag teaming and spending some time together and look forward to having some great conversations. Again, you're here as a part of the Coaching Corner Webinar Series, and the goal of every episode is to explore specific topics that are relevant to you in your role, to identify resources and strategies specific to our topic, and then putting things into practice with what we learn through opportunities for discussions to ask questions, scenarios and even some videos. So we are excited to be able to share some things that will support you in your role. Now, before we get started, just wanted to kind of point out a few things about the Adobe platform. It sometimes will ask you to chat. Many of us have been taking advantage of the chat box today, and so that's going to be to the right of the PowerPoint.

And then also there will be a transcript that you can download, and you can download the transcript that's located below the PowerPoint. In that pod there, so you can download the transcript from today. And then also I wanted to share that following the webinar, we will be sharing a link to the recording of the webinar on MyPeers, so it'll be available there, and then eventually, it will also go on the ECLKC. So thank you for joining us, and we look forward to connecting with you here. And then finally at the conclusion of the webinar, we're going to post the slide with a link to an evaluation form, so we please ask you to fill that out, that we use this information to really improve our presentations and to kind of help us in planning for future webinars. Once you complete the evaluation, you'll be able to download a certificate of completion for participating in the webinar. So if you're viewing with a group of people in one room, no worries. Just forward them the link, or have them click it on the link separately and fill out their own evaluation, and they can download their own certificate. So I think that's it for the logistics of the meeting. By the end of the webinar today, you should be able to identify factors that impact coaching caseloads, to develop a yearly coaching plan and a weekly schedule and then also describe what happens before, during and after coaching meetings and cycles. And also just wanted to mention that and kind of give you kind of a lay of the land for our time together. First, we're going to be talking about those caseload considerations.

Then, we're going into talking about and actually looking at an annual plan and a weekly schedule and kind of things to think about for developing one that could work for you, and then also discussing what happens before, during and after coaching meetings and cycles. And then we want to say welcome back for some of you that were with us in November for the Coaching Corner. This is actually a repeat of the same content. We had some audio issues, and we had some issues with Adobe, so we wanted to offer this topic again to be able to be sure that everyone had an opportunity to participate and make use of the resources, so if this sounds a little familiar to you, and you were with us in November, thank you and welcome back. If this is your first time to talk about a day in the life of a coach with us, thank you for joining us for the first time today. So we wanted to just kind of start off with talking a little bit about the Head Start Program Performance Standards, and so the standards require that programs implement a research-based coordinated coaching strategy, and so you'll notice that the performance standards don't ask you to choose one specific research-based strategy or model and implement it systematically. It just says that you need to. It doesn't say that you have to use practice-based coaching, which is one very specific research-based coaching model. You do not have to choose PBC. Your program does not have to choose PBC.

Feel free to explore other research-based coaching models and choose one that's right for your program. For our time today, we'll be referencing specifically practice-based coaching, or PBC as we refer to it, so we don't have a list of research-based coaching strategies or models other than PBC. If you choose not to implement PBC, then it's, you know, the responsibility of your program and your team to ensure that that model is research-based. So no matter what model you choose, you need to implement that model with fidelity in order to really ensure that your coaching will be effective, you know, according to the research supporting the coaching approach you've chosen. So there's no research-based behind program of your own design or behind choosing a model, but then adding or kind of taking away from its key components, so I just kind of wanted to mention that. And then we sometimes hear people using the words, you know, PBC and coaching, like, interchangeably. PBC is one coaching model, and so there are other research-based coaching models, so it's important to be clear about when we are talking about coaching in general, and when we're specifically talking about things related to PBC. It's also important to remember that PBC is not just the responsibility of the coach implementing PBC, but PBC should be a program-wide effort that is planned and intentional.

So we recommend that you have a coaching leadership team or implementation team that consists of at least the coach, a coachee representative, someone who can make decisions, and it's the responsibility of this implementation team, this leadership team, to look at your data and make decisions about the practices, or the focus of coaching, how coaching fits into the larger professional development plan, and who will receive coaching and delivery options for coaching, so just some things to kind of consider there. And we want to start out by talking about what are some things to consider regarding coaching caseloads because we know that that, you know, is definitely kind of at the forefront of things that you might be dealing with, whether you're a coach, or you're a director joining us today, that coaching caseloads is definitely a hot topic right now. We've seen a lot of discussion on MyPeers about coaching caseloads as well. So one factor to consider is the format and delivery of PBC. That can definitely affect the caseload. So implementing any PBC delivery option, whether that's expert, peer or self, requires that the leadership teams develop a plan and that the coaches are trained on how to implement PBC.

So, educate success and partner with an expert coach, that peer coach, you know, or as I mentioned before, even coach, you know, her or himself. PBC can be delivered in person or at a distance. PBC can be delivered to individuals or groups. We also have the Teachers Learning & Collaborating, or TLCs, is another group delivery format of PBC that we'll touch on in just a little bit. It's important to note that the expert coaching in TLC delivery format for PBC meet the intensive coaching requirements referenced in the standards, and so all formats can meet --  All formats of practice-based coaching can meet other forms of research-based professional development addressed in other parts of the performance standards or other areas of the performance standard. So no matter which PBC delivery format is chosen, or no matter how you deliver PBC, we know that it takes time, that time really needs to be allocated for implementing coaching, so time considerations can also impact caseloads. So we want to know from you kind of using the chat box, what are some of the other things that you as a coach need time for? Now I know before the webinar started when we were chatting, things like scheduling I saw come up when we were talking about that your favorite part of the day is the most challenging. You know, scheduling came up.

I see, Lindsay, documentation and notes. Danielle, I see you mentioned, like, the sub pull. So definitely having to sub in classrooms and being pulled for other tasks is definitely something that can take up time. Follow-up and travel, Miriam, you mentioned. Jennifer, you mentioned planning and training. Again, scheduling, that's one that kind of keeps coming up, coverage of rooms, finding resources, definitely preparing for those focus observations and even the reflection and feedback time after finding those resources, collaborating with other mentors. I love that, Stephanie, and I definitely think that that can take up a lot of time as well. Planning in big bold letters, that's definitely true, Danielle. That can definitely take time, really being able to plan out and be thoughtful in our approach with coachees. Coverage for both the coachee and coaches. Again, kind of getting into those logistics. Those things definitely take time. Megan, the limited time of the teachers. Prep and planning again just kind of keep coming up. Finding evidence-based information, so really finding those quality resources.

And I will say the ECLKC is a great place to start as far as looking for some of those great resources related to effective practices. Dealing with teachers at multiple sites, so definitely working between sites and considering travel and time definitely can take up a lot of time. Katy, I see you mentioned about being a supervisor and a coach, so that definitely will impact the time and kind of what you need time for, so that's a great point there. I see there's people still typing in, but, yes, we see some comments that are coming through the chat box as far as, you know, what we need time for. I'm just kind of scrolling through the chat. Someone asked, Where can we -- Where did I say we could get resources from? I mentioned the ECLKC, and we'll provide that link to you, but you can just Google ECLKC or ECLKC.gov, and that will take you to the Early Childhood Knowledge and Learning Center, but it's, like, the hub for all of our resources with their office of Head Start, so there's great resources there related to practice-based coaching, effective practices, so there's a lot of great things there. And thank you, Lauren, for posting that link for us there. So I see that, Katherine, you put follow-up, that you need time for follow-up, and that's definitely true as well. So we kind of see some common threads coming through there, right, as far as, like, what we need time for and kind of feeling there's just not enough time in the day, and I know that many of us, many times we just wished we just had a little bit more time. So today, we're just going to just kind of talk about and be able to see what a day can look like, and what are some things that we need to consider when discussing, like, caseloads with our PBC implementation teams and even as directors and those support coaches. What are some of those things I really need to think about before and while we're kind of considering how many coachees can a coach really support effectively? So thank you for all of that wonderful conversation. We're going to keep going just a little bit. Please keep those -- We're going to still keep an eye on the chat box and try to bring some of that into our conversation, so please keep that up for us. And so, again, some of this -- 

A lot of this is just a review of what we just talked about of what we need time for, observations, kind of reviewing those needs assessments and those observations, preparing for meeting, that came up in the chat box, looking for those resources, reviewing video, that was another thing that could also --  as a coach you'll need time for, especially if you're utilizing the TLC model. Being able to review video is crucial there, and we know that video is a powerful tool to use in our coaching. And then for coachees, you know, they need time to review those resources and videos, to review, you know, those resources that as coaches we find for them. They need time to implement, you know, that targeted practice. They need time to prepare for meetings. And kind of you just need time to kind of be able to sit and reflect, right, on everything that's happening. So those are just some of the things, like I said, we talked about a lot more within the chat box of what we really need time for. And then something else to consider and think about is that coaches often need time to be coached. So providing support to the coaches, many times it's about finding time for them, and so thinking about those who are supporting coaches, then we really need to think about that as a part of that professional development for the coaches of having that time kind of scheduled in there to provide support for the coaches. And, again, keep moving a little bit. So now this slide may look a little familiar to you. We've used it in some of the past slides, but this is really kind of giving us a visual for some of the estimated time that's required for different coaching models.

So the times on the side are approximate and based on research and experience of implementing, you know, these different coaching methods. They offer a good baseline for planning, but it's important to remember that each program is unique, and so the time -- the time needed is going to vary, so this is just kind of something for us to look at. So within the expert model, this is a reminder. In the expert-coaching model, the coach is someone who's an expert in the content and in the coaching practices, works one-on-one with the teacher, home visitor or family childcare provider and supports and guides the implementation of the PBC cycle. So using the expert model, those coaches usually need about 12 to 16 hours per month, per teacher or home visit or family childcare provider that they're supporting. The coachee would need about 4 to 8 hours per month for, you know, coaching activity. So that's what we see there, and if you're looking at the colors in blue, that's going to be that coach -- that coach or that facilitator, and then in red, it's going to be the coachee.

That could be the teacher, the home visitor, the family childcare provider, the teacher assistant. So then if we are looking at site staff who are engaging in self or reciprocal or peer coaching, then they need approximately about 8 hours per month for different coaching activity. And then if we're looking at Teachers Learning & Collaborating --  Again, this is that other PBC delivery format that would meet that intensive coaching requirement. So TLCs, just real quickly, are structured through a process of group meetings with an individual facilitator with education staff meetings and then individual work, like, in a learning environment. So the group facilitator would need about 15 hours per month for TLC activities or activities related to facilitating their group, and so this includes that a group of about six to eight participants that each facilitator would be working with per group, and then the participants need approximately 4 to 6 hours per month. So that just kind of gives us an idea on what some of those times could look like, and so that will really affect, like, the caseload, you know, because there's only so many hours in a day, and there's only so many places that you as a coach could be, or you as a PBC implementation team as you're thinking about assigning caseloads. So just some things to think about there. We're actually going to transition over because we want to kind of hear from you a little bit, and so Sarahh is going to walk us through our poll.

So, Sarah?

Sarah Basler: Okay. Hi. So now that we've discussed some of these caseload considerations, we want to find out a little bit more about you, so we're going to move into the specifics --  before we move into the specifics of a day in the life of a coach. So I see that you guys are already responding and voting to the polls that we have listed, so I see that a majority of our participants today are noting that --  Well, it's pretty close between a full-time coach and a dual-role. That would be, you know, you're a coach, or maybe you're also a supervisor. And then we have a few participants that are not a coach, but you support coaches. I see that most of our participants are working in a Head Start program, and then we have some Early Head Start. Here -- Oh, it looks like we have a majority of our participants with this being their first year of coaching and being a coach, and close behind, we have coaches that this is their first or second year. This is great. So it's interesting that we asked the same questions the second poll, What year are you in the coaching process? And we had 190 participants on MyPeers answer that question, and of those participants, we had 77 percent note that this was their first year of coaching as well. We had 12 percent say that it was their first to second year coaching, 11 percent, 3 to 5 years, and then coaches that have coached 5 years or more was only 1 percent, so those numbers look pretty similar to our participants here on this webinar. So I'm seeing we have also a majority here. It looks like dual role is beating out a full-time coach in our first poll. All right. So thank you, Lauren, for posting that poll. We're going to move on. Okay. So now we want to talk about creating an annual coaching plan that works for you. So some of these plans may look very similar, but it's important that you tailor or individualize your plan to meet the specific needs of your program and as you as a coach. We're going to just go through some samples, and these really are samples. We're not telling you that your plan should look like this.

These are just ideas of what it could look like, and you really want to individualize that to meet the needs of your program. All right. So here we have a sample yearly plan, and as you see, it starts here in June, and even though your program may run from August to May, it's still important to think about the prep as early as June. So in June, this program is going to look at the spring data that they collected from the previous year, and they're going to use that data, and some of that data might be assessment data. It could be staff survey data. It could be class scores or Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool practices. ITERS, ECERS, it could be a whole different lot of data that you could use to choose those 10 to 15 practices, and those are going to be the focus of coaching, and that's going to be determined by your leadership team. And as Joyce mentioned, that leadership team would include someone that's able to make decisions for your program that can sign off on what's decided.

You'd want to have a coach included in that leadership team, a representative from each program option, so if you have the home-visiting option within your program, you'd want to have a representative as a home visitor, a family childcare provider, Early Head Start teacher or a Head Start teacher. And so if we start looking at those practices, or we wait until August to choose those practices that are going to be the focus of coaching, that's going to be too late. We want to go ahead and get those practices because it's going to take some time to look through that data and see what it is exactly that your program needs to work on.

And so then in July, you're going to determine who or what the criteria is going to be for who will be coached, and again, the leadership team is going to work on that. And then you'll hire and train any coaches if needed, and that'll be done by your program or your regional team PA, and then in August, you're going to finalize all those record-keeping forms, the coaching agreement, needs assessments, all the forms that you're going to use throughout the year for coaching, and so you want to have those ready for when coaching starts.

And then you're also going to choose the coachees and orient them to practice-based coaching, so you're going to choose who wants to be a coachee, and that's --  How you choose that is going to be up --  How you choose who's going to be coached is up to your program. It's also important to think about coachees that might really want to be coached because you might be really successful with having people buy in if they're excited about the coaching process. So then we're going to move on to --  In September, you're going to have your initial meeting to build relationships, so this is between the coaches and the coachees, and this is a really important step. You're going to gather information about each other. That'll be when you sign your coaching agreement and fill out needs assessments, and those needs assessments are going to be based on those 10 to 15 practices that were selected by your leadership team in June, and this step is really important. You don't want to skip that relationship building and jump right into action planning.

You're going to have those initial meetings, and then you'll collect fall classroom and child data. And then when we move into October through December, you're going to follow that 2-week practice-based coaching cycle, and that will be implemented with the coaches and coachees, and it's important to note that some coaching cycles might be more frequent. It depends on how your program is going to implement that, and you should just make adjustments accordingly. And then we would do ongoing professional development for the coaches in content and coaching skills. So maybe they want to research more or have more professional development around learning principles or specific content related to those practices. And then we also want to take time during this whole process to be filling out contracting and any of that paperwork that the coaches are responsible for.

Like I said, that's ongoing, and then the PBC leadership team is going to meet once or twice during this time. It could be more. It could be less frequent. But this would be a great time to check in and discuss how it's going with coaching. It's good to find out how the coach feels things are going and just celebrate, even if -- if things are going well. Then we'll move on into January, and so this might be a good point in the year to reassess the coachees and fill out the needs assessment again, see where they're feeling with the 10 to 15 practices that were selected in June. Maybe they've gone through several cycles, and they are proficient in some of the areas that they thought they needed help in before, so it might be time to reassess and fill out the needs assessment again. This will also be a good time to have the coachees fill out a coaching survey, and this is good because sometimes we think that things are going really well, but we need to stop and really ask, you know, Hey, how are the coachees feeling about this? Are they enjoying coaching as much as the coach might think?

Or it's also a great way to pat yourself on the back if coaching is going really well. You're going to continue to follow that 2-week cycle, and then it's also going to be important to review data on coaching implementation fidelity, and this will be done with the leadership team and the coaches. And some of that information can be coaching logs, reviewing coaching logs, the time tracking. You could be looking at how many action plans that have been completed between the coachees and the coach. So it really will depend on what your program wants to look at, but this will be to see how coaching is going and seeing how it's being implemented and making sure that it's implemented with fidelity. And then in February through April, we're going to continue to follow that 2-week PBC cycle. It's going to be similar to October through December. We're going to make time for that ongoing professional development for the coaches in content and coaching skills, and then of course, continuing to fill out and track that paperwork, and if you're like me, you will have to do this as often as possible.

If I give myself time to not fill it out, then I have a hard time remembering what might have happened, so we want to make sure that you keep going with that, and then the leadership team is going to continue to meet maybe a few times during February through April, and then we come to May. So towards the end of the year, we're going to ask the coachees to fill out a coaching survey again, and then we're going to review data again at the end of the year about the coaching implementation fidelity, and then this is where we're going to collect spring classroom and child data. This is going to be helpful to see maybe how well the coaching has gone. It could give us insight on how well coaching has gone, coaching activity, based on some of that data. And then the leadership team and the coaches are going to meet and reflect on what worked and what didn't work, and this is important. Just as we ask our coachees to reflect, we really want to reflect as a leadership team and as coaches to see, you know, maybe what went well and maybe look for some lessons learned to help make adjustments for the next year and really plan for a really effective and good year with coaching.

And then, of course, as we do throughout the whole process is, we're going to want to celebrate the successes, and maybe that success is just that this is our first year, and we made it through, and, you know, that we want to celebrate throughout the whole process. The leadership team, it's important to do that with your coachees. All right. So now we've spent some time talking about a yearly plan. We're going to talk about some of the specifics of what a weekly schedule might look like, and just as with the yearly plan, this is just a sample. We are not expecting everyone's plan to look like this because we know that everyone has different responsibilities and different time allocations for coaching. Maybe you're not a full-time coach. Maybe you have a dual role. Maybe you have more than a dual role.

So just keep in mind that, as we go through these, these are just samples. All right. So here, we often get questions about what coaching actually looks like, so this is a sample of one coaching partnership and the contacts that the coach and the coachee have as they move through two coaching cycles. So it's important to remember that practice-based coaching is content-ready, so the flow of coaching is going to look basically the same no matter what the context. So that might be if a coach is coaching a home visitor, a special-education teacher in a school district, a family childcare provider, any -- our Early Head Start teachers, the cycle is going to remain the same. It's still going to have those components, but one thing to consider is that, with each program option, you might have to make different considerations. So, for example, the focused observation may be different in the home base program because the coach will either attend the home visit with the home visitor, which means that the family would need to understand why the coach is there, or the home visitor needs to get permission to videotape or audiotape the home visit. So however those steps aren't shown on the slide.

This slide is just illustrating the length of the coaching cycle and the number of contacts that the coach and coachee might have. Coaches and programs will need to build in time that it might take for these additional steps to happen for maybe a home visitor or coaching approach. It's also important to note that meetings don't necessarily have to happen face-to-face. You could, you know, maybe your programs, some of the programs that you're coaching are at a distance. You could use platforms like Zoom or Skype or FaceTime, and focused observations could also take place via video as well, so the coachee could record the observation, record video and then share it via Coaching Companion or another platform.

So if we look at the slide here, we see that, for this one coaching partnership, we have Monday, the coach is going to meet with the teacher and review the needs assessment, and they're going to create that first goal. And then on Wednesday, the coach is just going to check in by text just to see how things are going with that coachee. For Week 2, we're going to check in in person, and these are just going to be brief, and in that check-in, maybe the coach gets some questions from the coachee, and on Tuesday, the coach decides she's going to provide, or he is going to provide additional resources based on that check-in. Then we have Week 3.

The focused observation is going to happen, and then Wednesday, they meet for reflection and feedback and a goal-setting and action-planning. So you notice that the observation happens on a Tuesday, and then the meeting happens on a Wednesday. Important to keep those meetings pretty close together, and I know that scheduling can be one of the hardest things about the coaching process because things happen, and people get sick, or, you know, it's kind of like Murphy's Law. Anything that will happen probably will, but you want to make sure that you have your reflection meetings pretty close to your focused observation so that that information is fresh for everyone involved. Then we're going to move on to Week 4, and Monday, the coach is going to e-mail an article related to the practice and then just briefly check in by text on Thursday. But then that text may lead to a phone call because maybe the coachee has a more in-depth question. Then, Week 5, we're going to start back over with that 2-week cycle and have the focused observation, and they're going to meet that same day for the reflection and feedback, goal-setting and action-planning. And then Friday the coach is going to check in in person.

All right. So there's a lot of things to consider when creating a weekly schedule. So some of the things that go into your weekly schedule could be outside of just those coaching duties, especially for those of you that have more than one role. You might have administrative meetings, and those could include those leadership team meetings, but any other meeting that you might be involved in. There's other duties that you might have, such as classroom coverage or collecting assessment data. There's also the coaching duties that you have, which would be prepping materials, supplies, making copies, really prepping those resources, reviewing data so that you're prepared for those coaching meetings, prepping for the coaching meetings, and that could include, you know, writing out what your feedback might be. I always like to write out questions that I was going to ask to prompt me to remember because sometimes I would get going with the meeting and would forget. You're going to have to schedule time for the actual coaching meeting and for those observations.

There is time to set aside for research and learning, maybe trying to find some strategies to help that coachee work towards their goal, and then, of course, there's always the paperwork and tracking from your coaching activities. For many, you have travel time, and then we also want to make time for professional development. Okay, so this is an example of a coach that coaches a quarter of their time, so this coach is going to spend one day and part of another day coaching. So here we have a sample of what that might look like. So for the first week, there's going to be a focused observation and a meeting with two of the coachees, and that's going to total about 4 to 6 hours, and then, of course, in addition to those observations, the coach is going to need about 2 hours of prep for those meetings. And then while the coach is prepping for those other meetings, he might check in with the other two coachees. This coach coaches four teachers, by the way --  has a brief check-in, and then with the remaining time is going to be used for paperwork, gathering resources and learning.

And then for the Week 2, it's going to flip-flop, and so that coach is going to have focused observation meetings with the two coachees that he was unable to meet with the week before and prep again for those meetings, brief check-in with those other coachees to see how things are going, and then, again, the remaining time is going to be used for the paperwork and the resources and the learning. Okay, so now we're going to look at a sample of a full-time coach's schedule, so this coach is coaching 10 coachees across two sites, and this coach also has other duties. So you see here, there's an "M" on the slide. "M" is going to stand for meeting. So Joy is our coach in this example, and she's a coach in the center-based program. When she's creating her weekly schedule, she's going to start by filling out the time slots that are already taken up by meetings and her other duties. So you can see that she has a leadership team meeting on Tuesday morning from 8:00 until noon, so she goes ahead and blocks off that time. She has a meeting with her own supervisor at 2:00 on Thursday, and then on Thursday, she's also going to be conducting a 2-hour TPOT assessment, and she's got to include those interviews that accompany those TPOT assessments, so that is built in on her Thursday. And then on Friday, the coaching team meets together as a community of practice.

So you see that on Friday where it says meeting and coach. And then she also covers classrooms every afternoon for 2 hours. Well, she covers classrooms every day from 4:00 to 5:00, and then, on Wednesdays, she covers for 2 hours. So she goes ahead and fills out first so she knows what times are taken by her other duties. So here, next, we're going to fill in with the weekly coaching observations and meetings, and so you'll notice that FO will represent focused observation. Again, "M" stands for meeting, and then you'll see TPOT. That's where she's going to conduct her TPOT observation. So on Monday, she'll start her week by meeting with Joe before school for reflection and feedback to revise his action plan, and this is all based on the focused observation that she did in his room on Friday. She'll need to conduct a focused observation during morning meeting in another teacher's classroom, so she goes ahead and schedules that. She also knows that she needs to plan for a 25-minute drive between centers before she can do a focused observation in Kim's room.

And Kim is working on using open-ended questions during lunchtime, so Joy has got about an hour between that time that the observation ends and the time that she'll meet with Kim for reflection, for feedback and action planning. So when that meeting ends, Joy is going to drive back and cover the last hour of her day in a classroom at the other center, and then we see on Tuesday, she'll meet with Maya to discuss Monday's observation. They're going to have their meeting and plan how they'll move forward based on her implementation of her action plan, and so in this way, Joy is going to continue to fill our schedule with the observations and meetings that have to occur at certain times. And just as I mentioned earlier, it's really important to try to keep those focused observations and meeting times close together. All right. So now in the spaces that are left, we're going to fill in important things like lunch --  Remember to eat because that's important --  and prepping materials, and you'll see SUPP on the slide.

That will stand for --  Let's see --  prepping of supplies. So she schedules time on Thursday to check in with all of the coachees that she's not seeing this week as well --   -- as time to type up her notes from the observations and meetings, and she's going to prep those supplies and resources and do required paperwork such as her coach time tracking. And you'll see PW also stands for paperwork in some instances. All right. So for Week 2, Joy does the same thing the following week, but she's going to do that with the remaining teachers on her caseload, and she's going to begin with the parts of her schedule that are out of her control by filling in, you know, those meeting times and those assessments as well as the class coverage, and then she's going to fill in the remaining time with research, professional development, meeting prep and putting together classroom supplies and resources. And as I mentioned before, like, this is, you know, in a perfect world when things don't happen, but we know that often we have the best-laid plans to observe in someone's class, and then maybe they're sick that day, or maybe you're sick that day, and you're unable.

So it's important to be gentle with yourself as things have to be --  You know, don't be too hard on yourself when things have to get rearranged. But we know that that definitely is something to take into account because it does happen because we're all humans, and that's life. So now we're going to break it down and look at Joy's schedule as it relates to just one of her coachees. So, as you remember, she met with Joe on Monday morning of the first week, and Joe reflected on his implementation of the action plan, and Joy gave him feedback based on her last focused observation, and so that took place on the previous --  In the afternoon on the previous Thursday. She really doesn't like waiting so long after the observation to meet, but this Monday morning time was the first time that worked for both of them, so sometimes you just have to make it work. Joe has been working on using a variety of words to describe children's emotions, and he's going to focus on using emotion words with the children in the first hour of the day. At the end of the meeting, Joy and Joe scheduled their next focused observation and meeting times. So on Wednesday morning, Joy spends about 20 minutes laminating and cutting out feelings faces that were a part of Joe's action plan, and then she swings by and drops those off to his classroom at lunchtime.

She checks in with him on Thursday to make sure that he has everything needed to implement his plan, and she also asks if he has questions, and he doesn't. So what is highlighted in yellow are the contacts that Joy had with Joe over the course of the week in that ongoing communication. Okay? So this second week, we, on Thursday of the following week, she checks in again with Joe, and she's going to make sure he remembered she was coming to do his focused observation during the first hour of the day on Friday and that they're going to meet after school, and that's an important step because sometimes we forget that people are coming, and it's not fun to have someone just show up. So you want to check in and just make sure that they remember. And on Friday, she worked on preparing for meetings as soon as she left the observation. She considered what questions she's going to ask during that meeting and plans her feedback. She is reviewing her notes from her last meeting, and she also downloaded a video of a teacher using emotion words effectively, and she's going to print out an article so that she has it, just in case she needs it, which is related to the topic.

And this would be if Joe decides he wants to continue working on the same teaching practice during the next coaching cycle. She's really --  She's prepared. And then at the end of their meeting, she had to do her usual classroom coverage, but she knows --  So before she left for the weekend, Joy makes sure that she types up her notes from that meeting because she knows that staying organized is a really important part of being an effective coach. So it's really important, just like I mentioned. I don't know how many people are like me, but if I wait too long, it's like I don't even remember what happened, and that's why I like to schedule my meetings usually the same day as an observation, and even doing my notes the same day is helpful because, especially on a Friday, you leave, and then a whole weekend happens, and then you're kind of like, "Huh, what happened during that meeting?" So it's just important. It's an important step to being an effective coach. So I'm going to --  I've just given you a brief overview of how a coach might plan a week and their yearly plan, but now I'm going to turn it over to Joy so that she can help us think about what might happen before, during and after meetings.

 Joyce: Thank you, Sarah, and there has been some great chat going on, as well, a lot of people really liking to see the different kinds of schedules and things to consider when looking at that yearly coaching plan. And one thing that's kind of been coming up is really being flexible, and so different people kind of put their approach to it, and it really is --  It's your schedule, right? So I think being flexible is definitely key, and so what we were saying with you today, it was just kind of an example of this is what it could look like, but it definitely can change. And, you know, your schedule from one week to the next could look, you know, could and probably will be a little different. So I loved kind of hearing some of the ideas of different people's approaches on being flexible with their schedules kind of on a weekly and sometimes even daily basis. I just want to point that out, so thank you for sharing that with us, Sarah.

We want to talk a little bit --  Kind of wrapping things up, we want to take a few minutes and talk about things to think about before, during and after meetings with coachees because we know it's not just about actually, you know, going in and doing, like, a certain observation, but there's a lot of planning and things to consider before, during, and even after. So before the meeting, before your coaching meeting, you need time to review notes from the last meeting, like, as Sarah shared that, you know, that things happen, and it's easy to kind of forget or to even, like, trying to remember, like, what, you know, which notes or what happened with which coaching and which classroom or learning environment. So really having time to review your notes, review any video if there's video that you need to look at, planning for those reflective questions, and looks like there's some great resources. There was a few people that asked for some sample resources, and we have several things posted in MyPeers. In the Files tab, there is a PBCTI materials folder, and there is a lot of great sample materials there like sample needs assessment, sample action plans, sample observation logs, so there is some great resources there.

So I wanted to just mention that real quick that you could use before in kind of getting ready for your meeting, things like preparing resources or supplies. In the example we filed, Joy, you know, she was preparing some materials and going to drop them in the classroom, but that takes time, so you really have to consider that and also preparing blank copies of planning forms and tracking logs so that when the meeting starts, that we're prepared and ready to have that conversation and really give the best of ourselves and the best of our time to the coachees. So those are some things just there to kind of consider, and then when we think about during the meeting, things to consider would be just informal conversation because, you know, a part of what we have with PBC, everything is kind of built on that collaborative partnership, so really having time for just an informal conversation, some time to kind of get to know the coachees is so important for them to get to know us, time for, you know, opportunities for prompting, reflection and feedback. Definitely have time for reviewing those needs assessments together, again, as part of that collaborative partnership. They're not just coming there to kind of, for us to give them all the answers, but it is really that working through that cycle together. Time for writing and revising goals and action plans and for providing information about the specific practice that's been kind of a focus for that cycle.

There needs to be time to decide together what to look for and which coaching strategies might be used during that focused observation. Again, it's linking it back to that collaborative partnership. We really need to kind of establish those parameters of what our coachees are comfortable with. And there also needs to be time during that meeting for scheduling-focused observation and for scheduling the next meeting. So all those things are just some things to consider, what happens during those meetings together. I wanted to mention those few things and that after the meeting, because the things don't just end as soon as the meeting is over, but the piece to really kind of think about afterwards is about writing those notes, as Sarah mentioned. Like, things happen, so if we wait too long, then things can get muddled or confused with other observations. So really having time afterwards to write those notes out to complete those logs and any kind of reports that we have and if you're tracking things via child services and things that need information or data, it needs to be entered there.

If you're using the Coaching Companion, like, to go in there and update and, you know, kind of be sure that all of your notes and everything is in there, trying to communicate scheduling to supervisors and others because again, this is, like, a coordinated effort, and so people need to know, like, when you're coming into their building, going into their centers and into their classroom, and then to also check in just briefly, whether it's by text, e-mail --  I saw in the chat someone actually FaceTimed yesterday --  or in person between meetings. So that's all a part of that collaborative effort, and then also reminding the coachee of your next visit, of the next time you're going to have a focused observation before the meeting so that they're prepared, and then they're prepared for their time together with you. So there are just some things there to consider for after the meeting. If you have any other ideas or thoughts, please share them in the chat box. And then before the focused observation, just, you know, kind of as a reminder, you know, this is that second piece of that PBC cycle. We need to kind of review those action plans and prepare for collecting data. Like, what do we need to be able to collect the data? Do we have everything that we need with us to prepare for the use of the different coaching strategies, you know? Like, are we going to do some role-modeling in the classroom, you know? Do we need to bring some extra resources with us to prepare for using video equipment if necessary, you know?

 If that's not something that you're comfortable with, you need to be able to practice that before we get into the classroom because, you know, things happen, and they usually happen whenever we don't want them to. So the more that we can kind of plan and be prepared, the better we'll feel about our time together with our coachees. So that's just something else to consider before that focused observation, and we kind of wanted just to end our time together and talk about kind of making that MyPeers connection. So we mentioned MyPeers throughout our time, and MyPeers is a platform where we can kind of connect with others all around the country and share resources and ideas. There is a total of 44 communities within the MyPeers community, and the practice-based coaching community is one of those communities, and we are over 1,000 members within our community, and Lauren just posted the link. If you're not a member of MyPeers and want to get connected, then just use that link, and that would be your first step, and I see Gretchen says she loves MyPeers, and yes, Gretchen, I was just reading some of your posts earlier today, so thank you for that, but we have detailed posted resources that we have there, and then also, as Peers, anyone can post any of their resources or strategies that they're using. So after the webinar today, we will be posting a link to a recording of this webinar and any related resources, so a PDF of the PowerPoint, as well, so you will have access to all of that via MyPeers, so we look forward to connecting there.

And we threw out this question on MyPeers. We just asked, like, you know, if you had to describe, coaching in one word on, like, your most challenging and your most fulfilling day, like, what would be that word? And so these are some of the responses that we got, and we kind of did this a little bit before the webinar today and had kind of some of the same reactions, although we had a little bit more dialogue in the chat box today. We see some of the words there, and we just want to see, like, how many of you kind of resonate with some of these words? Like, you know, does it feel, you know, rewarding? Does it feel like an opportunity sometimes? Or, you know, and then sometimes does it feel like we're just a little bit, like, scrambled? And sometimes, you just feel like you just survived. All of those feelings and things, those are all right, and those are all good, and it's okay to feel all of those things, but just to know that there's a place where we can be connected and look for resources and look for ways to celebrate together and to also address any challenges that we're having, so we were so excited to have you together today. Now we are at the 4:00 hour. We're going to ask that you please take a few minutes and fill out the evaluation link.

It's going to be posted in the chat box, and then you also see it on the screen, and so if you go to that link, fill it out, and you can download a certificate of completion just saying that, you know, you participated with us today, so please do that. We really look at that, the data that we receive there, and it really helps to inform our future work and to help just make us better at supporting you in what you do. So thank you again for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you on MyPeers, so thank you, and we will see you again for another Coaching Corner in March, so -- 

And we'll stay on for just a couple of minutes if there is any questions that come up in the chat box. So thank you, everyone, and see you on MyPeers.