More results

Now I have collected most of my data from both the New Educators and the Instructional Coaches. Listed here are the responses from Instructional Coaches:

1. How did you support your New Educator in the area of classroom management?

• Meetings
• Behavior plan
• Examples of lesson plans and modifications for children in need
• behavior plan
• Strategies, tips, and suggestions
• Modeling, demonstrations of strategies
• Answers to questions
• Role model
• Did observations to see areas of weakness and suggestions
• Examples (of behavior management) as in quiet desist, specific praise, classroom management, withitness

2. Were there areas of classroom management where your NE needed more support? If so, what areas needed more support?

• Reward system
• Classroom management, organization
• Transition
• During independent work
• Specific praise
• Planned ignores
  

3. Regarding classroom management, what support worked well?

• Weekly contact with New Educator
• Observation at different times of the day
• Behavior modification and teacher interventions
• One on one conference with student
• Modeling for NE
• Giving ideas proven to work
• Providing a framework
• Demonstrations or modeling
• Monitoring
• Letting go
• CRISS strategies
  

4. What did not work?

• Discussion without modeling
• More time to visit NE throughout the day, especially during the first four weeks of school.
• Needed more time for planning
• Using aggressive tone

5. What would have helped you to make your NE's classroom management work better?

• More opportunities to observe effective teachers
• Modeling and more modeling
• Additional workshops
• More time in NE's classroom
• More time for planning
• More time for visits to NE's classroom during the first four weeks of school

6. What suggestions do you have to improve the induction process?

• Extra two days of pre-planning with coaches
• Staff development
• Modeling effective practices
• Reduce amount of paperwork
• Reduce required meetings and trainings
• More mentors available
• Teach more classroom management skills
• Teach more interpersonal skills
• More release time for IC during first four weeks of school
• Give NE time to observe several teachers with good behavior management skills

Do I see any patterns here? Yes I do. Together with the New Educators responses noted on the previous blog, I see several patterns emerging.

• Desire for more time to plan, meet and communicate as stated by both ICs and NEs.
  
• Need for modeling by the Instructional Coach with both their own (IC's) class and with the New Educator's class. In an ideal world, this modeling would be ongoing as long as needed.
  
• Desire for observations of veteran teachers in managing their own classrooms.
• Need for training

Questions and answers

I began to collect data by distributing my surveys to former New Educators and to Instructional Coaches. So far I have collected data from half of the New Educators and Instructional Coaches I have surveyed. Here is a sampling of my data from New educators:

1. How was support given to you (New Educator) in the area of classroom management?

• Collaboration with colleagues
• Observations by IC and feedback
• Opportunities to observe other teachers
• Harry Wong book and tape
• CHAMPs
• Team members, specialists, administrators
• Mentor came to observe behaviors and offer suggestions
• Attended CHAMPs workshop
  

2. My next question to new educators "Were there areas of classroom management that you needed more support? If so, what areas needed more support?" yielded the following:

• 80% said no
• yes- regarding transition
• Routines and procedures

3. My third question, "Regarding classroom management, what support worked well?"

• Team members, more familiar with material
• CHAMPs
• Having own classroom (as opposed to being "on a cart")
  
• Ideas on redirecting students
• Talking, observing, feedback
• Putting check on child's desk to not interrupt class
• Finding a good program and following it well
  

4. My fourth question, "Regarding classroom management, what support did not work?"
New Educators responded:

• Administrators not realizing problem students had a pattern of misbehavior that persisted throughout the day with other teachers as well.
• Textbook pacing
• Having an older teacher come in to "check up" on my class. It undermined my authority.

5. What would have helped you to make your classroom management work better?

• Visiting other classes to see what strategies they use
• Having my own classroom
• Stricter policies to start the year
• Planning checklists regarding back to school and organization

6. What suggestions do you have to improve the induction process?

• More of a student teaching model - have mentor co-teach one day with NE
  
• Start classroom management training during planning week so NEs can have their routines and procedures down before the first day of school
• More observations of experienced teachers
• Classroom management course
• Better understanding of paperwork
• Modeling effective classroom management
• More modeling

As I look at these responses, I see a few patterns beginning to emerge. In question #1, NEs listed support from various staff members from ICs, to team leaders and administration, from workshops to observations of other teachers. It is interesting to note in Question # 2 that while 80% of NEs said they did not need more support in Classroom management, many had suggestions of how to improve the mentoring process in Questions #5 and #6. Perhaps this is an indication that NEs "don't know what they don't know." However, the suggestions the NEs made for #5 and 6 reveal an insight into where their own problems lay. In a positive light, these responses also indicate an awareness of their weaknesses and room for improvement.