During the pre-observation process, I was able to find and review the LAUSD teacher growth and development cycle documents and found the administrator-specific instructions. This helped me understand and view teacher growth with a new lens. The document helped provide the rationale for different steps that I had not taken the time to consider when I was a teacher being observed and evaluated. This document also had question stems to ask the teacher to help guide discussions and reflection in the pre and post-observation meetings. I also just referred to the CalAPA cycle 3 guide which helped me plan out discussion points and information I wanted to share with my volunteer teacher. Information such as what I will be asking her to bring to the meeting prepared with, what she can expect from me, to begin thinking about what evidence will be collected, and the type of questions I will be asking to help prepare her thoroughly for what we need to accomplish. We then scheduled the observation date and planned to touch base in the days between.

During the observation, I used an observation evidence collection document to help me write down what was going on throughout the lesson. This helped me keep an unbiased account of what was happening. I recall in the “Instructional Rounds” reading that the goal during debriefs and observations is to simply describe what is happening without using judgemental words or phrases. I told myself I would use the observation evidence collection document similarly to how a scientist would take down field notes. This would help as a reminder as to how I wanted to try and conduct our post-observation meeting. I was able to see student work examples and go over them with my volunteer teacher and held a rich discussion about how effective this evidence was in capturing student growth and collaboration toward the learning goal. My volunteer teacher’s next steps consisted of students then using the learning goal of identifying text features to create text features within their writing. Once we discussed that I was able to share how I had student work she could look at from previous years of students creating books with many text features.

One of the main challenges was getting my teacher to have a lesson plan ready for the pre-observation meeting. I don’t necessarily see this as being a problem in the future because as an administrator during an official observation and coaching process, hard deadlines are in place to keep both sides accountable. Also, if it is not an official observation and coaching cycle, then as a coach and teacher working together there can be more flexibility with how we discuss lesson planning. This can be done verbally or even by co-constructing it on paper during a meeting. 

Another challenge was trying to remind myself to be a little more formal when speaking with my volunteer teacher and providing meaningful feedback. I think we were both comfortable with each other which is a good thing, but on reviewing the videos I feel as though I was quick to move on from a comment and casually agreed or stated a positive teaching practice of hers without further explanation. I recall a particular instance where I simply said, “I liked how you showed them the non-fiction family tree. That was nice”. I should have said that the use of a visual representation to help students understand the many different kinds of non-fiction text was an excellent tool that helps students visually organize the information they are reviewing and processing. I think explaining with deeper reasons rather than just casually saying that it was good or nice would mean so much more to the teacher. I think giving teachers proper acknowledgment of their practices and efforts needs to be something I work on verbalizing in real-time. I am sure that will come with more practice and getting comfortable in the role of a coach or administrator.

One of my areas of strength is being a tentative listener by showing that in various ways. I would have body gestures such as nodding my head in agreement, or head tilts to show I am really thinking about what they are saying, and more importantly, I would restate what they said and ask follow-up questions. This would also help prompt more discussion with the volunteer teacher after hearing how I would restate what she said. She would either go into more clarification or we would build upon each other’s thoughts such as when we were rethinking the order of her lesson to bridge together students' prior knowledge to what they will be doing for the lesson. Additionally, asking clarifying and follow-up questions is a strength I showed during this process that not only helped me genuinely learn about my volunteer teacher and the lesson she was planning but also helped my volunteer teacher have moments of reflection and analysis on her teaching practices.

Giving options to teachers as to how they want to continue their growth would be a better system. Some people prefer learning from a coach or role model, and others may feel better as part of a group and classroom where discussions and group work help build their knowledge and practice. I am drawn toward the instructional rounds model or community of practice model. They both offer unique learning opportunities to the participants. In my opinion, the growth from these last two models would feel more authentic and have more room for creativity and trying something new. I am very interested in creating a community of practice at my school and somehow tying it into one of the adjunct duties at the school site. Giving topics or themes to the community of practice can draw different teachers into the group but all with a similar interest or strength. This reminds me of the activity we had in winter where we broke off into different groups based on whether we liked sports, nature, travel, arts, pick your own, or pick all of them. The activities people came up with from each were all very rich in their own way but still followed the main directions of creating a unique experience without having to worry about budget or restrictions. 

The observation and coaching project connect to various CAPES standards. Through this project, we showed personal and professional learning by involving staff using CSTPs and helping staff make personal growth plans while drawing focus back to student learning and connecting it to the school's vision. By doing this we were promoting effective curriculum, instruction, and assessment used when planning lessons for a variety of students, holding high expectations, and communicating the state standards.  One of the main CAPES was 2C where we were tasked with supporting teachers to improve their practice. We accomplished this by using the CSTP to guide our learning, discussions, and reflections. We also took into account who our volunteer teacher was to help design and facilitate growth throughout the observation and coaching cycle.  Another focus was providing feedback on instruction. This was done by using questions to help prompt reflection based on the academic content standards as well as the CSTP. Through this experience, we gained practice in managing personnel by analyzing evidence of teacher effectiveness, equitably, and timely for teacher support. We provided constructive suggestions and unbiased, evidence-based feedback. This further built on CAPE 5A as a reflective practice by using a professional learning plan to help guide us closer to the school's vision and mission. We kept all these CAPES in mind while conducting ethical decision-making throughout the process. We asked questions about which students may not access the lesson and helped guide the discussion to find a solution for it and bring us closer to accomplishing our school’s vision and mission. We then took ethical action to apply practices and policies that support our students so that we may have fairness, equity, and justice for groups who my be marginalized.