By Laura Yaeger, IU 5 PIIC Mentor

As I pause to reflect about my work with coaches, I am humbled by the fact that I work with coaches who seize the literacy message and unflinchingly provide support, modeling, resources and a listening ear to so many teachers, day in and day out. The enthusiasm and dedication that I encounter among the coaches and school leaders I work with continues to inspire me every single day.

As an IU PIIC Mentor, how can I help my coaches? This can be done in a variety of ways. Following the PIIC model, I provide coaches with one-on-one and small group support. This works for all coaches, regardless of their content area. I meet with coaches one-on-one via onsite visit, Skype, or telephone. The agenda for the onsite visit is largely left up to the coach. I meet with coaches in small groups at our monthly coaching meetings held here at the IU, during our PIIC Statewide Conferences, and also at our PLN offerings.

I work with coaches to plan professional developments to support instructional goals. As we collaborate together to design learning opportunities, I strive to understand, clarify, question, model, and provide resources as needed. I may be called upon to support the coach as the professional learning is being delivered. If  the presentation is repeated during the day, I might model the gradual release of responsibility by allowing the coach to take over more of  the presentation each time, It’s very satisfying to me to see that coach gain confidence and skill with each repetition.

After spending several years with IU 5 in various capacities, I have access to a rich variety of resources. PIIC has also provided me with a library of resources that are available to my coaches to borrow. Coaches are also able to visit http://pacoaching.org and use the resource tab to peruse our bank of previous PD materials available at the PIIC wikispace. They may also register to use the PIIC Resource Guide (www.instituteforinstructionalcoaching.org). As a mentor, I remind coaches of these available resources at our monthly coaches meetings.

Sometimes I help coaches by just being the extra set of eyes or the extra listening ear. I like to believe that this may be the most meaningful way of all that I support coaches.