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Coaching is about listening and building partnerships. When those two qualities are present effective strategies emerge.
Most educators are looking for effective strategies to make challenging subjects like math more accessible to students. However, few educators have the time or the resources to consider what makes an effective strategy, much less identify and implement one. Math Solutions coaching builds the foundational conditions for listening and partnership in the classroom, and delivers effective classroom strategies for teachers. Coaching is first and foremost about building the important foundational conditions of listening and partnership building that will ensure that the strategies are adopted and implemented. Without these vital components: listening and partnership, no strategy will take hold in an environment. Listening and partnership building are at the core of what a math coach will contribute to your school.
Listening is fundamental to learning. Listening is fifty percent or more of communication and at the foundation of everything we do as human beings. Just as students who are not listening to teachers are not learning—teachers who are not listening to students are not teaching.
One of the most important skills we teach in math coaching is how to listen effectively. When one listens, one must evaluate what is being said, and determine how to act with the information. Just as teachers listen to students, a coach listens to a teacher and helps evaluate a particular teacher’s skills and needs. While coaching, we also listen and teach for formative assessment. It’s usually during the formative assessment process that useful insights are discovered into a teacher’s or student’s individual style and needs.
Listening is also fundamental to connecting and building partnerships. Partnerships depend on strong connections and an environment where people can speak freely and openly. This is where complex ideas and concepts like those encompassed in mathematics are shared, tackled, and grasped. This is where effective strategies are discovered and implemented.
At Math Solutions, our coaches have years of in-classroom teaching and coaching experience. They are experts in helping educators plan for instruction that will meet the needs of all students, while maintaining a level of rigor required by current standards. Math Solutions coaching develops educators content comprehension, as well as how to support students successfully and our coaching model exemplifies the best practices of listening and building partnerships. During observations and subsequent feedback, our coaches strive to keep the focus on the educator.
We offer both team and individual coaching to provide your teachers with opportunities to collaborate while building individual skills.
Math Solutions coaching develops educators’ content comprehension, as well as how to address individual styles of learning, and how to incorporate these into a model classroom environment. Download our Instructional Practices Inventory (IPI) to learn more about what a model classroom looks like.
With our coaching your educators will learn educational strategies and ways to address individual styles of learning. To read more about the extraordinary results that coaches can provide, visit the “Research and Resources” section of our website.
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