Evolving from a Teacher to a Teacher Coach.
Upon joining Simple Education Foundation after doing Teach for India fellowship, I was eager to start my new job as a teacher development coach. My understanding of the role of a coach in our government system was very different. I imagined taking workshops in a conference room with 12–15 teachers, discussing culture, safety, and classroom practices. It will be mandatory for the teachers to attend these spaces, so it won’t be my job to make them sit in the room.
The day I joined was very different from what I had imagined. I was appointed to two MCD schools where my role was very well communicated with the school. But, even after that, I felt uncomfortable when I stepped into school, and the teachers were skeptical about my presence there. For a couple of days, teachers ignored me in school. They would talk to me only when I initiated any conversation.
I realized this would be much more difficult than I thought. I had a breakdown in the first month of my joining. I felt so scared and hopeless in school that I thought this job was not for me. When I think about it, I felt so frightened in school because I wasn’t prepared for what would happen in primary school. I was not fully exposed to the reality of MCD schools and how to get things done. The teachers I was going to coach had more than 20 years of experience in teaching. What could I have done better with two years of experience? I think that reality helped me shred a layer of arrogance; just because my job title says I am a Teacher coach doesn’t mean I know everything about teaching. I was given an opportunity, and I needed to build myself to live up to the title.
Once my understanding of my role evolved, my initial focus was understanding the school culture, its values, and where the teachers are struggling. Our teachers’ passion and efforts in teaching our students impressed me. The culture of both schools was very different. The school leadership in both schools had distinct priorities. In one school, the focus of the school leader was school infrastructure development; in the other, it was more student-centric, because of which, the behavior of the teachers in both schools was contrasting. In one school, I saw teachers focusing on academics; in the other, the teachers were always doing administrative work outside the classroom. Which school had which teachers? You can take a guess! So, my methods of dealing with them differed significantly in each school. But in the process, I realized that school leadership could greatly affect the school’s working environment.
As a team, we decided that coaching by not being inside the classroom would not work with the school. So we decided that we would be co-teaching along with our teachers. It was a very new concept for me as well. Making teachers sit with us to plan for a class was challenging. Initially, I didn’t understand why they didn’t want to work on this with us, but as I spent more time in the school, I realized that the teachers were also overburdened with resources. The MCD sends them lesson plans & monthly planners, which they need to follow; if other NGOs are also working in the same school and providing resources to teachers, why would they want to plan for the class with us? As I gained more experience, I realized I needed to show ownership and resilience to work peacefully with the school teachers. Even if the teacher is not sitting in the classroom, consistently showing up is essential. My team and I worked hard to ensure we contextualised every plan for each high-support teacher. We designed all the activities considering the number of students in class, the seating arrangement, the TLMs available and the rigour of the students.
Once I showed ownership, my relationship drastically changed between the teachers and me. Now teachers started executing some parts of the lesson plan we made. They began reflecting on their actions and students’ actions with our support. I realized that reflection & self-awareness are pretty underrated in our society. We don’t give enough time to our teachers to see what is working and what could be improved. They are constantly running from one task to another. It felt empowering to create such spaces for teachers where we talked about our lessons and the growth made by students in depth. I learned so many things from my teachers. Each had a unique way of teaching a topic which made me wonder how beautiful the school culture would be if teachers shared their practices with other teachers. So much learning and collaboration! Hopefully, we will get there soon.
I always wanted to be a teacher, but only a few institutions in India provide quality teacher training. One thing that I have learned about myself is that I am a kinesthetic learner, so I need to practice first before going to theory. Hence, this job was perfect for me because as I supported teachers, I learned and executed some tremendous pedagogical practices. In our team meetings, we had deep conversations about different teaching strategies. And I always felt energized in our discussions. Those discussions with the practical experience helped me understand the role of a teacher more than any course I could have done. So, by becoming a teacher coach, I also became a better teacher. Confidence comes with practice, and the same rule applies to teaching. The more I was inside the classroom, the more confident I got in presenting my ideas to the teachers.
So for me, being a great teacher coach means being a great teacher! This is a learning for me, and I strive to be a better teacher every day.
Looking back to the last year, I am proud of my teachers’ accomplishments. All the teachers that I worked with showed improvement in their teaching practices. Recently SCERT uploaded videos of different active learning strategies from our schools and used them for MCD teacher’s training. Here are some links of that:
Quick Exit Check —
Frayer’s Model —
Rotational Learning Station —
Jigsaw —
I am grateful for the support of my team and organization leadership for creating a culture where I could be myself, make mistakes, and learn from them. When I experience that, it’s easier for me to create the same culture for my teachers. I am excited about the future and look forward to continuing to contribute to the organization’s success❤
