Innovation Proposal
Online Blended Coaching Strategy
Dear Curriculum and Instruction Administrators of SWISD,
Academic Coaches are an incredible asset to our district as they coach our teachers to improve student achievement. At this time, elementary Academic Coaches are expected to be experts in all content areas as they coach our K-5th grade teachers on Tier 1 instruction, understanding curriculum, lesson planning, assessments, small group instruction, and professional learning community. The list of responsibilities can be overwhelming and on top of that, Academic Coaches must continue to learn through professional development to increase their knowledge and maintain being a solid academic resource for their campus. We have 100% of Academic Coaches with less than 2 years of experience in this role. A high percentage of Academic Coaches state that their area of strength is reading. Professional development for math must be authentic, actively engaging, and meaningful to have a high retention of the content being taught as the knowledge gained will be utilized to coach our teachers in the area of math. The traditional “sit and get” professional development approach will not suffice but there is a solution.
The solution is an Online Blended Coaching Strategy. Blended learning will maximize space, time and allow Academic Coaches to be fully engaged in learning activities before, during, and after ongoing learning sessions using everyday tools we currently have. The solution will provide them the opportunity to self-regulate, critically evaluate their math content knowledge and progress through reflections and connections. The ongoing and evolving professional development will permit our Academic Coaches to be successful in their role.
I am proposing to pilot the implementation of an Online Blended Coaching Strategy that will:
Use the technology we have to create a coaches’ centered learning environment that fosters authentic learning, active engagement, meaningful connections, and clearly defined learning and performance outcomes.
Immerse Academic Coaches in an Online Blended Learning Environment to become self-directed learners and experts so that they too can create a similar environment on their campus.
Provide Academic Coaches with a choice of time, pace, place, and path of math learning activities throughout an ongoing and evolving professional development.
Allow Academic Coaches to own their learning process as they will have multiple opportunities to self-assess, reflect, connect, and learn by posting evidence of their learning and performance outcomes.
This innovation plan allows us to coach up our Academic Coaches and to close the math content knowledge gap that currently exists. Academic Coaches have very hectic schedules and a plethora of roles and responsibilities. An Online Blended Coaching Strategy allows the implementation of technology to be effective, efficient and at the same time fostering a powerful learning community where learning is deep, non-threatening, flexible, collaborative, engaging, and most importantly authentic.
I ask curriculum and instruction administration for the opportunity to support this researched and results-based plan by allowing me to innovate our math professional development by implementing an Online Blended Coaching Strategy with our Academic Coaches over the 2024 -2025 & 2025-2026 school years. During this time I will be testing, exploring, and measuring results to further expand initiative with elementary and secondary content coordinators. We will make use of our current technology while innovating, and expanding math professional development as necessary for our Academic Coaches to triumph in their role. Together, we can add math value to all eleven of SWISD's Elementary Academic Coaches.
Respectfully,
Sonia Rodriguez
District Math Coordinator