Our Purpose

ICIC mentors will provide support and guidance to new coaches while establishing a relationship that the new coaches can depend on.  Mentors will be expected to initially meet the mentee face to face (in person or Google hangout), contact the mentee three times per year, provide and review the coaching kit, and provide advice when necessary.  Ultimately, mentors will be an instructional coach for those who have just begun coaching.  The opportunity to be a mentee is available to coaches who have been in the role for two years or less.

If you are interested in being mentored or being a mentor in the 2018-2019 school year,
​please fill out this form.

Coaching Tools

Getting Your Cycles Started!​
Art of Coaching- Elena Aguilar
Differentiated Coaching- Jane Kise

Instructional Coaching Group- Jim Knight ​
Student-Centered Coaching- Diane Sweeney

General Resources
Checklist Links
This is a list of checklists that coaches could use when observing teachers to assist in the feedback process.
Assessment Literacy
Questioning

Instructional Coaching
​Book Summaries

"The Art of Coaching" by Elena Aguilar

This comprehensive book describes not just what coaches do, but also what they think and value.  The Art of Coaching encourages the reader to examine his or her beliefs, develop a coaching manifesto, and create an effective work plan.  It has chapters on building trusting relationships, planning for coaching sessions, listening and questioning strategies, facilitating different types of conversations, and more.  Aguilar also provides many practical tools such as rubrics and question stems.
Topics included in this book:
  • Building trusting relationships
  • Developing a coaching work plan
  • Listening and questioning
  • Facilitating coaching conversations and activities
  • Technical tips and common challenges
Why would a coach want to read this?
This book provides a lot of resources on how to have powerful coaching conversations.  It covers how to listen, how to use different questions to provoke different responses, how to manage and guide conversations, as well as how to respond to whatever surfaces.  

"Coaching Conversations: Transforming Your School One Conversation at a Time" by Linda Gross Cheliotes and Marceta Fleming Reilly

As the subtitle of the book might suggest this book has a school improvement focus.  That being said this book is great for either a new or seasoned coach.  The book focuses on the primary mode of interactions that coaches have, conversations.  New coaches will find guidelines and suggestions for making sure that conversations are focused on the goal at hand.  At 109 pages there is a lot packed into this tiny book.  Coaches will get most out of Chapter 3: Committed Listening, Chapter 4: Powerful Speaking and Chapter 5: Reflective Feedback.  Be certain to take the Listening Skills Self Assessment included the book.  This is a great tool to not only improve your coaching but also your teaching.  

"Coaching Matters" by  Joellen Killion, Cindy Harrison, Chris Bryan, Heather Clifton

This book, published by Learning Forward, was written as a resource to support and strengthen the practice and results of coaching with guidance for coaches themselves as well as for those who support and supervise coaches.  Coaching Matters addresses the conditions, structures and supports that should be in place to help “coaching matter” - to increase teacher effectiveness and student learning.     

Topics included in the book:

  • An introduction to different coaching models;
  • The ways in which administrators can support coaches;
  • Areas of professional development that support the needs of coaches;
  • Suggestions for how to evaluate coaches and a coaching program.

Why would a coach want to read this?

This book would inform a school or district looking to develop a coaching program or one that is early in their coaching journey.  Though the target audience is certainly coaches themselves, this would be a valuable resource for administrators who support coaches as well.  Valuable features of the book include many specific examples and scenarios of coaching in action as well as a huge set of organized resources and templates available for download from learningforward.org.   

"Focus On Teaching: Using Videos for High-Impact Instruction" by Jim Knight

Video has the power to completely change the way we “do” professional learning. In this book, author Jim Knight explores the vast potential of video recording to reach new levels of excellence in schools.

Explore how video can improve our teaching methods by helping us understand what our current teaching methods are. Knight outlines a clear process for using video to promote professional growth and teacher effectiveness. He discusses how to integrate the use of video to maximize the effectiveness of coaching, PLCs, and authentic assessment by administrators, and gain strategies for harnessing video to create immediate and long-lasting change in our classrooms.  

Topics included in the book:

  • Strategies that teachers, instructional coaches, teams, and administrators can use to get the most out of using video;
  • Tips for ensuring that video recordings are used in accordance with ethical standards and teacher/student comfort levels;
  • Protocols, data gathering forms, and many other tools to get the most out of watching video.

Why would a coach want to read this?

This book offers strategies and rationale a coach can use with an individual or team to help them realize how video can impact the performance in their role. There are also plenty of resources to guide the coach on what to do and say on how to best utilize video coaching in a coaching session.

"Instructional Coaching" by Jim Knight 

In Instructional Coaching Jim Knight creates a compelling case for how instructional coaches can make a difference in the world of professional learning.  He outlines what a coach’s day to day looks like, where to get started, and how to keep the momentum going.  Coaching isn’t just about the logistics, it is also about effectively supporting teacher learning and growth.  Helping adults is complex work that can be facilitated through the use of partnership communication and philosophies.

Topics included in this book:
  • How to enroll teachers in a coaching partnership
  • Facilitating learning conversations
  • Areas of focus for teacher goal setting “The Big Four”
  • Using data


Why would a coach want to read this?
This book provides the basics about what coaching is, why it is important, and how to get started.  Learning maps at the start of each chapter provide a quick overview of the content and ideas.  An “Instructional Coach’s Tool Kit” is included as well.

"Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction" by Jim Knight

Although this book was written with a school improvement focus, it contains many valuable tools for both new and experienced Instructional Coaches. It delves into Jim Knight’s Partnership Principles, which have been a guiding compass for my instructional coaching. Not only are the principles of equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis and reciprocity detailed, but it also includes tools to help coaches take data in a variety of classroom settings and design follow-up questions. The dedicated chapter on “Instructional Coaching” and “Workshops that Make and Impact” are must reads for any Instructional Coach or Professional Development facilitator.

"Visible Learning for Teachers" by John Hattie

This is the proverbial dictionary for teachers and coaches. It outlines the teacher practices that have little, medium and high effect sizes. The appendices in the back are a great place to start with this book.  Specifically Appendix D indicates the kinds of best practices that yield real results. Chapter 6 and 7 are a “how to” in terms of using the effect sizes and applying them to the flow of the lesson in terms of learning & feedback for students. According to Hattie, various forms of feedback are associated with very high effect sizes, so my recommendation is for chapter 7! This book closes with the types of mind frames that teachers and school leaders should adopt in order to maximize student success. Even if you get this book for the appendices, it will be well worth it.