This presentation will document a small, rural district’s journey in being able to successfully develop and implement an innovative way to create a “Community of Coaches” by building coaching capacity within their teachers and giving them the opportunity to become “coaches in training,” while still serving in the roles of teachers. This idea of using “teachers as coaches” has helped to not only reduce teacher burn-out, but also the burn-out of those responsible for serving in the role of teacher or instructional coaches by creating a multi-tiered system of supports for teachers.
Dr. Martin’s doctoral research for her dissertation centered around the relationship between school culture and effective leadership styles. She began focusing on creating a strong mentor program as a school principal as a part of building a positive school culture and participated in monthly Mentor & Mentee Group Sessions to support new teachers. She continued this practice upon changing from a school-level administrative position to a district-level administrative position so that it could be implemented in all schools across the district. Within the past three years, she has expanded it to also include permitting mentor teachers to participate in instructional coaching as a way to provide support to their colleagues, while simultaneously building their coaching capacity.
Linda Locket has 22 years of experience in the field of education. For the past two years, she has served as an Assistant Principal at Crawford County Elementary School. Prior to that, she served as an Academic Coach for two years and Middle School Science/Social Studies Teacher for 18 years.