Helping teachers hone skills

“Jennifer Whitlock is a part of a middle school reform effort working as an instructional coach with Ooltewah Middle School students.”

“Jennifer Whitlock is a part of a middle school reform effort working as an instructional coach with Ooltewah Middle School students.”

Ooltewah Middle principal Brent Eller hopes that he always has Jennifer Whitlock – or someone like her – on his faculty.

Whitlock is an instructional coach.  Her job is to provide professional development on an on-going, every-day basis for the teachers at Ooltewah Middle.  “She is a resource for teachers,” says Eller.  “She fills in a lot of gaps for us.”

Much of the time, professional development is provided for one or two days here or there.  Teachers may pick up a useful tip or two, but there’s no follow-up, and it’s not necessarily the help they need when they need it.  Having an instructional coach working in a school every day to provide targeted resources and advice on a consistent basis can make a real difference.

That’s why instructional coaches are part of Middle Schools for a New Society, the middle school reform effort underway through a partnership between Hamilton County schools and the Public Education Foundation, with $10.5 million in funding provided by the Lyndhurst and NEA Foundations.

Kelli Solock, a language arts teacher at Ooltewah, is very grateful for Whitlock’s help.  “Having an instructional coach helps to improve what I do for students because one, it helps validate that I’m doing what I DO need to be doing, but also, if there’s something that I’m missing, it helps for somebody else to come observe my class and say ‘Just try this, as a suggestion.’”

Solock feels that other teachers would agree.  “I think a lot of people sometimes are intimidated by an instructional coach because they see them as an evaluator…but as the grant has gone on more people have begun wanting them to come in and saying ‘Hey, I do need you to come in here and help me’ and ‘What do you think about this?’  I think once they realize that an instructional coach is a good thing and they’re there to help us and support us they LOVE having the instructional coach, and love having her come to their classrooms.”

Learn more about the great things going on at Ooltewah Middle School as we talk with Eller, Whitlock and Solock at www.pefchattanooga.org/ExcellentTeachers.

Frances Haman-Prewitt is PEF’s director of communications.