Superintendents & Principals
Dr. Kenneth R. Hamilton, Superintendent
Mt. Vernon City School District, Mt. Vernon, NY
With so many competing priorities, it is imperative that new and evolving teachers get the support and guidance they need. Virtual coaching is one of the most innovative tools available in our field today. My teachers loved the freedom and flexibility to have this virtual resource of well-trained, experienced professionals, to ask questions, pitch new ideas in a safe, non-evaluative format. I wholeheartedly give this resource my highest endorsement.
Dr. Sharon Paver-Nepote, Principal
Wagoner Elementary, Sauk Village, IL
Virtual coaching was a benefit to my teachers. My staff reported that they found the conversations with the coaches rewarding, relevant to their current classroom, and individualized to meet their professional needs. My teachers all reported that their craft was improved through the experience. I look forward to offering virtual coaching to my staff in the future.
Dr. Jennifer Camilleri, Principal
Strassburg Elementary, Sauk Village, IL
This is a wonderful service to be able to provide to new teachers or teachers that are need of some additional supports. Coaching meetings can be scheduled around the busy teacher schedule due to the virtual platform. The coaches are knowledgeable and teachers are paired with coaches based on a needs inventory that teachers fill out at the beginning of the program.
Teachers, Instructional Coaches,
Department Leaders
Q: How has virtual coaching benefited your practice?
Randi Sucic, ESL & Bilingual Teacher
A: “My coach has a lot of experience with English language learners. I was struggling with increasing the quality and quantity of the writing pieces of my students. My coach taught me about using familiar topics, front-loading vocabulary by creating word banks, and sentence frames together before writing begins. We also created a model writing together as a class. After the very first attempt of this strategy, my students’ writing began to improve a ton! Week after week they grew more and gained more confidence.”
“My coach offered a lot of ideas and support regarding writing workshop. She also was and is very supportive during the National emergency with COVID 19 and Remote Learning.” 2nd Grade Teacher
“This experience has helped me in a few ways. First, it allowed me to evaluate my teaching. As I shared the way my classroom ran it allowed me to look at parts that worked well and others that did not. As I was able to have a coach it was great to hear another person’s take and ideas. Another reason it worked well is that I felt I had someone who I could talk to and who would listen to my problems. We then would work together to solve them.” – First Grade Teacher
“It has been beneficial. My coach provided me with resources I could use to help me with planning, data tracking, and eventually virtual meetings for my students. She has been a great help and a great resource. Jessica was even willing to provide a listening ear when I became frustrated with situations involving my job. She also gave handy advice, while staying professional and neutral.” — Middle School Resource Room Teacher
“The virtual coaching program has benefitted my teaching a lot during my first year of teaching. Every week, I would talk to my coach and reflect on my week of teaching. Reflecting was really important and it helped me because it allowed me to think about what went well and what I needed to improve on. My coach would encourage me to keep doing the good things, as well as give me tips and resources on what to do better.” – 3rd Grade Teacher
“My virtual coach helped me learn how to plan guided reading groups and how to conduct a writer’s workshop that was very successful. This was my first-year teaching as an elementary teacher, and the strategies I learned from the coach were very helpful and also encouraging.” — 2nd Bilingual and ESL Teacher
“I was not sure what to think about this program when I was assigned a virtual mentor. It seemed just like another thing piled on top of me when I was already floundering under an unbelievable number of tasks…Various committees and duties had me overwhelmed. The first thing my mentor did was realize what shape I was in. She kept reminding me to take time for myself and that I needed to put self-care first. Through her reminders and encouragement, I realized that everything didn’t have to be done yesterday. We would discuss lesson topics each week and she would give me different directions I could go in. She would not push for one specific idea but let me choose what I thought would work out best for my students.” – Middle School Science Teacher
“The virtual coaching program has benefited me a great deal. I learned new reading strategies, improved on writing lesson plans, brushed up on previous skills, and became a better teacher.” – Middle School ELA Teacher
“The coach has offered a lot of great ideas to implement within the classroom. Her support was greatly appreciated and helpful. It is nice to have an educated outsider to communicate with and vent. She gave a lot of advice and support.” – 2nd Grade Teacher
“I received valuable teaching methods, data collection tools, creative art project ideas, and behavior management resources. The program, and more specifically, Valeriana Bandeh, my mentor provided a consistent, collaborative weekly session to work towards improved classroom experiences.” — Joe Petraitis, Middle School Art Teacher
“The virtual coaching program has helped me realize that I can be flexible in approaches to teaching my students. Words of support and encouragement were given when I felt overwhelmed with my daily workload.” – 4th Grade Teacher
Q: Can you describe a specific incident where your work with the coach increased student outcomes?
Cynthia Dabney, Middle School ELA Teacher
“I worked with my coach specifically on classroom management. We were able to track positive responses to challenging behaviors. This greatly improved my relationship with students and parents. I definitely saw more improvement later on in the year.”
“Finding the common denominator when adding and subtracting fractions was difficult for the students to grasp. My coach demonstrated an intentional use of anchor charts, making use of manipulatives in the classroom, defining vocabulary for students such as ‘whole’, ‘part’, ‘common factor’, ‘numerator’, etc., over time the grades on student exit tickets improved. The suggestions allowed me to take the topic and teach it in depth especially in small math groups.” — 4th Grade Math Teacher
“One skill that was greatly improved in my classroom was sight word knowledge. My students came in significantly behind on the words they knew. As the year went on they learned words slowly. After talking with my coach, we came up with a program that motivated the students and the parents to work on the words. After starting the program my children made great gains in their sight word knowledge.” — First Grade Teacher
“The writing group idea she offered really helped out. She helped me look at the different ways to regroup and structure my writing block. She gave me ideas on how to change and mix the different abilities together to help each other. If anything I walked away with more confidence and understanding of the writing workshop.” – 2nd Grade Teacher
Joseph Petraitis, Middle School Art Teacher
“The main reason for seeking the NTSC was for behavior management ideas. My mentor was able to help me focus on student misbehavior and to hold students accountable. There is no substitute for a real-life, additional aide in your room, but it felt like I had another creative mind (although virtual) to bounce ideas off of to help my day-to-day teaching run more smoothly. I was able to organize my thoughts, reflect on the past week, and prepare for the next week with each weekly session.”
“My coach has a lot of experience with English language learners which was very beneficial to me as a 2nd-grade bilingual teacher. I was struggling with increasing the quality and quantity of the writing pieces of my students. My coach taught me about using familiar topics and front-loading vocabulary by creating word banks and sentence frames together before writing begins. We also created a model writing together as a class. After the very first attempt of this strategy of writer’s workshop my students’ writing began to improve a ton. Week after week they grew more and gained more confidence.” — 2nd Bilingual and ESL Teacher
“My coach has improved my questioning in small guided groups by providing me with a list of high order thinking skills questions. Each week we focused on using these questions and ensuring that students’ responses were demonstrated depth of knowledge. I utilized these with small groups and my students have made progress in their thinking skills. This benefitted my students in assessments as well because they were used to answering “HOTS” questions in groups.” — 3rd Grade Teacher
Personal kudos to the virtual coaches
“Jessica Lewis was punctual, consistent in her preparation, and her calm demeanor made time spent communicating with her trouble-free.” – 4th Grade Teacher
“My coach was amazing!!! She kept in contact with me even when I was not at my best. She gave me plenty of ideas of things to try to improve my craft. She was always there if I ever needed a sounding board or ideas.” – Middle School Science Teacher
“It was nice to hear other suggestions outside of my school and learning.Ms. Jones was a big help for me not only with improving my teaching practice but my well-being. She listened when I was stressed about work or felt defeated. It was really nice to just have someone listen to you. She encouraged me, gave me great ideas to use with my kids was very friendly and easy to talk to. I could reach out to her whenever I needed and she would reply promptly.” – First Grade Teacher
“Jessica, I really enjoyed connecting with you on a regular basis. You had a lot of great ideas to help me to improve my practice. I also appreciate that you never made me feel inadequate. You were very supportive and non-judgmental.” – Middle School Resource Room Teacher
“Valeriana Bandeh was a phenomenal mentor to have in my corner. Her upbeat, friendly voice was always a pleasure to hear during our weekly sessions where she would share a wealth of great ideas, methods, tips, suggestions, and a side of humor gathered from her years of experience in the classroom. She often made quick work of whatever issues I was dealing with that specific week and gave me a fresh new perspective to carry into the next week. I’m confident she has seen it all, and as a new teacher, understands what you’re going through on a personal level. If you believe in yourself, Val will be there to cheer you on and lead you to a successful school year.” – Middle School Art Teacher
“My coach was super encouraging and very flexible and she had so much experience! She was also very warm and friendly.” – 2nd Grade Bilingual & ESL Teacher
“Jaclyn was a great coach!! I truly enjoyed talking to her each week. It was great to have someone that cared about my teaching abilities, as well as my personal life. She was very understanding of everything I was going through, especially having multiple troubled students. As a first-year teacher, I felt like I struggled with many aspects, and Jaclyn’s expertise was very supportive. It was nice to receive outside resources that helped my instruction and super beneficial to reflect and debrief about my week in the classroom. Jaclyn always followed up with an e-mail, summarizing what we talked about and restating her advice. Thank you Jaclyn for being an amazing virtual coach!” – 3rd Grade Teacher