Coaching Journal #1

Meredith Beard

February 5, 2024

This semester, I will be coaching Valerie English, an ESOL teacher who supports

students in my 2nd grade classroom. Ms. English is a veteran teacher who has been teaching

since 1995. She spent 10 years teaching in Florida, then moved to Georgia in 2006, and has been

teaching in Georgia since. Ms. English has taught all elementary grades except Kindergarten, and

for the last 5 years, has been an ESOL teacher. I developed a personal relationship with Ms.

English through co-teaching with her for our ESOL students. I see Ms. English several times per

day, so we frequently have both informal and formal conversations. Whenever she witnesses a

technology-related activity in my classroom, she expresses immediate interest in learning and

implementing it herself. She is always willing to learn and try new things. I would say that Ms.

English has a moderate level of technology use and understanding. Her technology background

shows she is able to proficiently use technology to the capabilities that she needs for work. When

having a pre-coaching conversation with her, she states, “I like the idea of new, innovative

technology because I grew up in a different generation than people your age. I have also seen

through you that there is so much more available technology than I realize. Technology is the

future, and I know that if I don’t learn, I will be left behind” (M. Beard, personal communication,

February 2024). Additionally, after moving out of the classroom into her role as an ESOL

teacher, she recognizes that she has not had as much technology available in the previous years

as a support teacher, but now that we are in our new school, she is excited to have her own room

for ESOL support that also has a Promethean board that she can use with her students.
 To enroll Ms. English in the coaching program, I used Jim Knight’s strategy “Informal

Conversations”. Knight states that if every encounter is about coaching, “teachers may start to

feel they are being sold to and will start to avoid conversations with the coach” (Knight, 2018).

By getting to know Ms. English as my co-teacher first, I was able to have informal conversations

with her while also building a personal relationship with her. “If during an informal conversation

a teacher expresses a concern and a coach can offer some genuine support, there is a great

likelihood that teachers will sign up for coaching” (Knight, 2018), and after several informal

conversations of this type, Ms. English was eager to sign up for coaching and excited to learn

more.

Ms. English is excited to participate in this coaching program and has set some goals that

she would like to accomplish over the course of the coaching sessions. I frequently use QR codes

in my classroom to give students easier access to assignments, and when she saw me doing this

in my classroom, she expressed how it would benefit her ESOL students. The first goal she

wants to accomplish is to learn how to create QR codes that are customized to her students’

needs. The second goal Ms. English would like to accomplish is to learn how to use Kami, which

is a classroom-geared PDF annotation tool. In order for Ms. English to meet her students’

accommodations, she often guides them through assignments step by step. Being able to annotate

on a PDF using Kami and project the annotations to her students using the Promethean board is

something that can effectively enhance her teaching practices. Next, Ms. English would like to

improve the accessibility and organization of her Google Drive. She frequently uses Google

Drive to store files and lesson plans, but she doesn’t yet have the knowledge of how to create

color-coded folders and shared drives, and use document-enhancing features such as image

search, font differentiation, and graphics for visual appeal. Finally, Ms. English would like to
learn how to effectively use and export tools on MagicSchool AI. When I presented on

MagicSchool AI to the teachers at my school, Ms. English attended, however, we didn’t have

enough time to dig deep on all of the features the site provides.

Personally, I am excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Ms. English and share

the strategies that have enriched my teaching journey. Ms. English amazes me with not only her

passion for teaching, but also her willingness to learn, even as a veteran teacher who is nearing

retirement. The only concern I have in regard to this coaching process is finding the time to

dedicate to coaching her. We are both surrounded by kids for the majority of the work day, and

most of the conversations we have are in passing or while the kids are nearby. Ms. English and I

will more than likely plan on staying after school once per month in order to collaborate in

coaching sessions. It will be worth it to spend a bit of extra time at work in order to give Ms.

English the effective coaching that she deserves.