Principal as Instructional Coach - No Competition

It's the last day before winter break and, like you, I'm swamped.  So today I'm rerunning a piece from 2012 about the important role principals play as instructional coach.  

Enjoy your holiday!

SZ
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Short post today.

Dag-gone work is getting in the way of my writing.   So I'm writing this on my Lapdock while sitting at McDonalds after just having sucked down a $.99 McDouble - I think I'm addicted to that sandwich.

But I digress, and the office is expecting me back.

I ripped this conversation from Twitter earlier in the week (from @PrincipalSharp) and thought it would make a good post.  The conversation had to do with principals as instructional coaches and whether their role as boss and evaluator interfered with that role.

My initial response reflected my thought ... "of course principals are instructional coaches and no coaching does not get in the way of being an effective evaluator."

I don't have much experience with coaching sports.  But I am in the middle of my first season of coaching (assistant) youth soccer.  U7 (rec) and U14 (rec).  Admittedly not a bastion of soccer glory but we have fun and we win a few games.

Photo (CC) by Yatmandu

As a coach, every time I step on the field, whether during a practice or during a game, I am evaluating-as-I-coach and coaching-as-I-evaluate.  As an evaluator, I'm deciding who the starters are, who should play defense, who should play offense, I'm ranking players and player shifts.  At the same time, as a coach, I'm looking at and correcting technique, I'm demonstrating, I'm encouraging (and sometimes chastising), I'm getting involved and getting dirty.

It would be nearly impossible to separate my two roles.

If I coached at a higher level or acted as a scout I would also assign scores to players - placing value on their skills in ball handling, passing, team-work, shots on goal - basically breaking down all the aspects of the game and giving them visual feedback in the form of a score.

As a coach I have two goals - to help players improve and to produce the best result for the team. 


It's the same for principals.  A good principal will break down the elements of teaching and accurately  score teachers according to their ability (evaluation).  They will use this information to drive individualized professional development activities to help the teacher improve (coaching).