Math coach

Are you a new math coach? Check out these tips on how to approach your job!

If more schools took the time for collaborative planning rather than top-down PD, we'd be in a better place.

Moving into a coaching role as a teacher can be daunting for anyone. You spent years in the classroom perfecting your craft and all of a sudden you are in a new role and feel like a first year teacher all over again. But, you don’t have to. This post serves as a guide for…

As an instructional coach, there are certain items that can make supporting teachers easier. Each of the items shared here are highly recommended by myself as a teacher leader working in multiple buildings across a large district. Grab a binder and fill it with essentials like your standards, pacing guide, and teacher performance rubrics. Below…

Now that we’ve prepared ourselves with research and gathered materials, it’s time for that 1ST MEETING! But let’s be real, whether this is your first year, or your tenth year as a coach, getting the “teacher buy in” can be tricky. So, after trying to decide HOW I could get the trust of my teachers, and begin to build that relationship, I came up with this ~ Cupcakes with the Coach!

ABC's of Coaching

I met someone at a conference who recently reached out to me because she got hired as a Math Coach for her district. She asked for some advice on how to get started in her first year. I thought others might be interested as well ... 1. Develop a Shared Vision with your Administrator Get administrators on board with the understanding that research does not support deficit-model coaching and that working with you should be mostly voluntary for teachers. Principals should not expect that you…

A big part of being an effective instructional coach is using data driven information to help your help teachers do more for their students. While data can be your best friend in the classroom, it can be hard to know exactly what kind of data you need to be tracking. Between teachers and students, there is so much to observe. In addition to knowing what to track, it can be difficult to find a way to track your data effectively. So how can we ensure we are tracking the right data?

The authors of The Coach Approach provide insight into their favorite technology tools for instructional coaches and best practices for school coaching.

Hello Everyone~ Welcome to The Elementary Entourage Back to School Bash! This is just 1 stop where you can grab some great tips & FREE resources! Make sure to visit the entire Entourage family at the bottom of this post. I know everyone is in the mist of the hustle & bustle of back to […]

You have probably felt the frustration of trying to teach a math skill to your class, only to realize that several of the students lacked the essential prerequisite skills to complete that task, and remediation was needed. Here's how I help reach all my students...

It's been awhile since I have blogged...I think this is the longest blogging break I have ever taken, yikes! This is my first year as an I...

Understanding the patterns on the hundred chart, like ten more and ten less, supports early place value understandings. Grab a FREE game!

This year I had the amazing opportunity--thanks to an extremely supportive administration team--to be a part-time instructional coach in the high school where I've taught for 9 of my 12 years. It was an exciting and enlightening year, to be sure. As much as I struggled, I feel so lucky to have been given this…

Think about how you learn a new skill? Any skill. It could be a foreign language, a musical instrument, a technique in a sporting event, an art, craft, or even [...]

How much different is it being a math teacher than a math coach? In this week’s episode of the podcast I get to chat with Peggy Loutzenhiser about her transition from teacher to coach. Go listen to the full episode at buildmathminds.com/50

Implementing choice boards in the math classroom is an effective method to engage students in the learning process.

Higher level math centers will really get your students thinking and writing about math. Read about my top six favorite higher level math centers.

Earlier this week, I broke out the cool new pens I got for Christmas and got to work on putting together my coaching cycle schedule for this next quarter. Creating new schedules throughout the year is a cool opportunity for us coaches. It’s kind of like having a mini beginning-of-school-year kick off more than just […]

Teachers are always looking to improve their craft, and there are a ton of resources out there. But finding the time to weed through them all, so that you know which ones will be the most benefit for you can be time consuming. So I have this list of 5 books for math teachers that will guide you through actionable steps to help improve your math teaching.