This microcredential stack allows a path for those seeking to obtain the instructional coaching endorsement to certify competency for Area 2 - Adult Learning Theory. To be eligible for this path, you must have had the position of instructional coach for at least three years.

This article introduces the idea of moving from coaching light, which is very surface level and how we can support educators through building the relationships to ultimately engage in coaching heavy - which impacts practice and improves outcomes for students.

In forested areas, students are often intrigued by mysterious sticks covered in carved tunnels–but students often think the patterns were made by human artists or termites. After students complete this activity, they’ll have the skills to identify bark beetle galleries, to make explanations about the patterns of beetle galleries, and to interpret what these tracks tell us about the life history of the organisms that made them.

In an optional discussion, students can consider outbreak levels of bark beetles that cause the death of many trees, make arguments based on evidence about possible effects on ecosystems, then brainstorm and critique possible management strategies. An optional extension for investigating student questions about bark beetles is also included.

By paying attention to the sounds and behaviors of birds, students are introduced to a whole new way to experience and observe what’s happening in their surroundings, both during their field experience and back home. In this Focused Exploration activity, students pay attention to the birds around them. After listening as a group, students imitate calls and notice differences between them. Students think about and discuss the different messages birds might communicate, then they individually watch and listen to birds from a Sit Spot. When the group gathers again, students compare their observations and make a large map of the bird vocalizations and behaviors they observed.

It is very dangerous to look directly at the Sun, even briefly. In this craft activity, you will create a safe viewer so you can look at the Sun without damaging your eyes.

This article is one that, although published many years ago, has helped to define the reasons coaches are needed to support instruction, professional learning, and overall school improvement. It is still cited in research articles created today.

This video shows a conversation with a coach and Jim Knight about the complete coaching cycle and their work together across the steps in that cycle.

This video shows a conversation with a coach and Jim Knight about the complete coaching cycle and their work together across the steps in that cycle.

This article discusses how to incorporate the components of change management when helping design personalized coaching plans that inform professional learning priorities.

Technology can be something that has been created to help make things easier.  Technology can also be a robot that helps manufacture vehicles.  Look around the environment and discuss how this technology can affect the way people live, work, travel, communicate, or play.  

This student-centered Exploration Routine can be used in many different ecosystems and provides a way for students to search for, observe, research, and share discoveries about organisms. It can be used with any type of organism or phenomenon you choose for students to focus on, such as macro-invertebrates in streams or ponds, under-log organisms, insects caught with nets, or plants.

Scientists can spend years planning, conducting, analyzing, and publishing the results of their investigations. It’s not surprising that trying to design and conduct scientific investigations in a vastly shorter time span, can often be frustrating for instructors and students, and may lead to misunderstandings about how investigations are done. Students’ attempts at quick investigations are often messy, and data can be inconsistent and fairly inconclusive. But scientists often do “messy” exploratory investigations before doing a full investigation. The goal of an exploratory investigation is to observe and record basic patterns in nature, as well as to explore various methods and improve the ultimate design of an investigation. Exploratory studies can be “quick and dirty” but are important to understanding a phenomenon well enough to develop a testable question and appropriate methods for investigating. Similarly, the goal for students in this activity is not coming up with great data, but to observe and record patterns in nature, and to think about how the investigation could be improved in the future. After being assigned a general topic, such as “exploring where fungi live,” students brainstorm questions, sort questions as testable or not testable, plan a brief exploratory investigation, do it, analyze the results, discuss ideas, and brainstorm ways the investigation could be improved in the future. In a relatively short amount of time, we can give students an experience that’s authentic to field science, while emphasizing how this can lead to a more thorough investigation that answers important questions about the natural world.

This microcredential stack allows a path for those seeking to obtain the instructional coaching endorsement to certify competency for Area 1 - Foundations of Instructional Coaching. To be eligible for this path, you must have had the position of instructional coach for at least three years.

This video lesson is an example of ''teaching for understanding'' in lieu of providing students with formulas for determining the height of a dropped (or projected) object at any time during its fall. The concept presented here of creating a chart to organize and analyze data collected in a simple experiment is broadly useful. During the classroom breaks in this video, students will enjoy timing objects in free fall and balls rolling down ramps as a way of learning how to carefully conduct experiments and analyze the results. The beauty of this lesson is the simplicity of using only the time it takes for an object dropped from a measured height to strike the ground. There are no math prerequisites for this lesson and no needed supplies, other than a blackboard and chalk. It can be completed in one 50-60-minute classroom period.

Weird and wild fungi are everywhere, especially when it’s wet out. Given the chance to explore and observe fungi, students will notice them everywhere. Exploring fungi will also lead students to appreciate how fungi function in ecosystems as decomposers and other important roles. Recent discoveries in science have found that huge underground networks of thin, branching tubes of mycelium, the white tubes that are the main growing part of a fungus, provide key links between plants and the rest of the ecosystem.

In this Focused Exploration activity, students begin by observing fungi. Then, they learn that mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi. Students use a simple key to identify types of fungi, record data, then regroup, and discuss patterns of where fungi grow. Next, they learn about how fungi digest what they live on, discuss fungal impacts on ecosystems, and reflect on fungi roles in decomposition.

In this Exploration Routine, students learn how to most effectively use their hand lenses. They practice finding the “sweet spot” – the distance to hold the lens between eye and object so the object comes into focus. Without this introduction, students may become frustrated or distracted by hand lenses because they don’t understand how to use them. With this quick activity, students develop a healthy fascination with this transformational tool and feel empowered to use it like a scientist. This activity is also an opportunity to invite your students into inquiry. By modeling how to use a lens, how to say observations out loud, and by encouraging students to check things out and share discoveries, you can begin to set a tone of collaborative inquiry for your group.

Many field instructors cite this Exploration Routine as their most effective teaching tool. It helps students develop a mindset of curiosity, and provides language tools to actively and directly engage with the natural world. These are important skills students can carry away and apply in any natural setting. Using this routine makes any field experience more student- and nature-centered. After introducing it, instructors can ask students to apply the routine to deepen their understanding of the natural world during any part of a field experience.

During the activity, students pick up a natural object, such as a leaf, and make “I notice…” statements out loud with a partner, then share some of their observations with the group. They do the same with “I wonder…” questions, and with “It reminds me of…” connections. Then, students practice using these tools while exploring whatever they find interesting. This simple routine can help students get beyond seeing nature as a “green blur,” and lead them to never be bored in nature again.

Interview an Organism gives students the opportunity to enter the world of an organism. Students slow down and have a “conversation” with an organism of their choosing, asking questions that can be answered through more observation while paying attention to its surroundings and the scale of its world. It helps take students to a “next level” of observing and questioning as they learn to ask themselves questions that lead them to make deeper observations. In the process, they get to know their chosen organism.

In this Exploration Routine, students search for interesting organisms and observe them. Each pair of students chooses an organism to study, comes up with questions about the organism’s appearance and structures, while attempting to answer each one through observations. Then they move on to more probing questions about the organism’s behavior, ecosystem, and relationships to other organisms. Afterwards, students share with other pairs and then with the whole group.

In this Night Sky Activity, students use a simple indoor Earth-Moon-Sun model to explore and learn about Moon phases and eclipses. Many children (and adults) have misconceptions about what causes the phases of the Moon, and helping them confront those misconceptions with evidence makes this activity pretty enthralling. While it’s pretty easy to see the phases of the Moon in the sky, it’s not possible from our perspective to observe the entire system, which often leads to inaccurate explanations of what’s going on, most commonly that Moon phases are caused by Earth’s shadow. It’s a perfect situation to use a scientific model. Students are challenged to use the model to struggle to figure out, develop understanding of, and explain the phases of the Moon, discuss ideas with others, then adjust their ideas based on evidence from the model. This activity usually includes a lot of big, “aha’s!” as participants encounter evidence while using the model that often contradicts what they previously thought was going on.

This is a resource found in "The Art of Coaching" book. These are interview questions that would support a hiring process that teases out skills and established expectations for coaching.