How to Coach Teacher Teams

Written By Katie Maciulewicz

Coaching teams of teachers can be a challenging but rewarding experience. It requires a different skill set than coaching individual teachers. Together, we’re going to think through some strategies and skills needed to work with teacher teams. 

Here’s your scenario: You're working with a team of 4 teachers who teach 8th grade ELA. Two of the teachers have been at the school for 10+ years, one is in their 5th year, and one is a brand new teacher. You’ve noticed that the more veteran teachers tend to dominate the conversation and often dismiss ideas from the newer teachers.

Establish trust and rapport

As we know from the Core of Coaching framework, building relationships is the foundation of any coaching – even when coaching a team. Can you create a safe space where educators can openly share their challenges without the fear of being judged? This means maintaining confidentiality, actively listening, and offering non-judgmental feedback. Make it clear that your goal is to support their growth, not to criticize or “catch” them.

Let’s go back to our scenario and think about some ways you can build trust with the team.

• Meet with each teacher individually for a quick check-in before your next team meeting. 
• Affirm the veteran teachers by acknowledging their experience and the value of their contributions. 
• Encourage the mid-career teacher by pointing out their leadership potential and the specific ways they’ve stepped up this year.
• Validate the new teacher’s feelings, reminding them that it’s ok to feel overwhelmed and that their ideas are valuable.

Facilitate collaboration

Encourage collaboration among educators, create opportunities for them to learn from each other, and celebrate successes as a team. Remember, recognizing and appreciating individual contributions within the meetings goes a long way in strengthening your relationship with each educator. You can also connect team members with individuals beyond their immediate team and incorporate creative grouping into PD activities.

At your next team meeting, you could:

• Acknowledge that you met with everyone individually and that you value each of their contributions to the team. 
• Set a norm that everyone will have a chance to speak and that all ideas will be considered. 
• Structure an activity that will allow for collaboration – perhaps looking at student data together to identify a problem they all have in common. 
• Task the team with choosing one small instructional problem to work on together for the next month. 
• Help them brainstorm solutions.

Set clear goals and expectations

It is important to set clear goals and expectations for the team – it keeps everyone rowing in the same direction and focused on the same tasks or challenges. You might also consider the expectations for individual team members and the team’s progress will be measured as you set goals.

To help your team set goals, 

• Consider what they want their students to be able to do by the end of the year 
• Ask them what they, as teachers, want to get better at
• Set an expectation for regular meetings to work on this goal – schedule them before the end of the goal-setting meeting!
• Help them determine how they will measure their progress

Provide support and resources

As coaches, we should provide our teams with the support and resources they need to be successful. This may include providing professional development opportunities, sharing best practices, and connecting teams with other resources.

• Find some articles and videos related to the team goal 
• Connect them with another team who has successfully implemented a similar strategy
• Lead a focused workshop for the team on the instructional strategy they’ve chosen

Monitor progress and provide feedback

Coaches should regularly monitor the team’s progress and provide feedback. This feedback should be specific, timely, and constructive. It should be ongoing while the team collaborates on their goal, not saved until the very end. Just like providing feedback on student work, we want to do some formative checks to make sure things aren’t completely falling apart!

• Check in with the team weekly to see how their work is going 
• Look at data 
• Offer feedback on the lessons they’re teaching 
• Help them tweak things as they go to ensure greater success

Celebrate successes!

It is important to celebrate the team’s successes, both big and small. This helps to build morale and motivation. In this case, the success may just be that the team worked together and collaborated on a common goal.

Some ways to celebrate success with your ELA team: 

• Bring in donuts or other treats for your final coaching meeting
• Share the team’s success with administrators 
• Encourage them to present their work at an upcoming staff meeting

Coaching teams of teachers can be a powerful way to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement. By following these tips, you can create a positive and productive coaching experience for teams of teachers.