This session introduces our outstanding selection of presenters and provides an overview of all the presentations and activities. Additionally, participants will hear about research that has been conducted this past year at the Kansas Coaching Project as well as details about what is planned for next year’s Instructional Coaching Conference.

Jim Knight, moderator
Joellen Killion - TBA
Jane Kise - Filming Student Thinking to Change Teacher Thinking
Tricia Skyles – Getting Real: A Coaching Self-Assessment
Karla Reiss - Attributes of a Great Coach
Randy Sprick - Response-to-Intervention for Behavior: Implications for Coaching
Cathy Toll - Tools for Successful Demonstration Lessons
Lucy West - 22 Verbal Events
Ginger Grant

Research indicates that resistance to change is a major reason why organizational change efforts fail. One of the greatest challenges school leaders face is effectively dealing with resistance from others to school change efforts. There is hope and help! Successful coaching is all about change… in thought and behaviors to achieve different results. Yet most people believe change is hard. In this interactive session, participants will learn how to shift their leadership style to a coaching approach, the attributes of a great coach, and the primary causes of resistance that will help educators break through obstacles and resistance among staff or the community. Participants can engage in interactive role-play using their school-based situations.

In preparation for their chapter “Research on Coaching” included in Coaching:  Approaches and Perspectives, Jake Cornett and Jim Knight reviewed and analyzed more than 200 documents describing various research studies related to professional learning.  In this session, Jake Cornett will present a brief review of the research on coaching, presenting findings from several seminal articles, summarizing the broad findings in the literature, identifying research questions in need of attention, and allowing ample time for questions.

Changing classroom practices is hard work, even when we believe the changes will help more students succeed. Meaningful change is most likely to occur when coaches take into account teachers’ strengths, feelings, and beliefs. Learn how “Differentiated Coaching” provides a framework for identifying individual needs of teachers during change and shifting your coaching style to meet those needs.

Lucy West, contributing author to Jim Knight’s visionary book, Coaching: Approaches and Perspectives, will explore the role of content in the coaching process and in lesson design. She will engage participants in a lively discussion about what constitutes a “good lesson.” Through the use of video clips, we will examine the question, “What exactly are we looking for as coaches and educators at all levels when we observe a class, and what evidence will we gather (besides test scores) to know that students are thriving?” We will go on to consider how coaches might ensure that responsive instruction of important, relevant, and useful content is at the heart of coaching sessions. Time permitting, we will consider the role of the teacher, school based administrators, and adults at all levels in cultivating an academically rich coaching culture.

Instructional coaches are often asked to help in classrooms in which part of the problem is the teacher’s ability to implement an effective classroom management plan. This session provides an overview of how administrators and instructional coaches can help teachers spend less time dealing with disruption and other misbehavior and spend more time teaching. Information will be provided on the building-based administrator’s role in creating clear expectations for teachers regarding high-levels of student engagement, and how coaches can then help teachers meet those expectations. Coaches will be given tools for objective data collection that can be used in partnership with teachers to help teachers develop and implement a cycle of continuous improvement regarding their classroom management plan.