The 5 Proven Coaching Strategies to Support Mathematics Educators

While teaching can be a complex calling, thankfully, it is not a job meant to be solitary. As the saying goes, “A teacher is not an island by themself.” Having teaching coaches can greatly benefit classroom educators, regardless of whether they are newbies or veteran teachers. Effective coaching strategies are essential for helping teachers grow professionally and improve their instructional practices.

Helping educators create meaningful learning experiences for their students is at the heart of an effective coaching program. The following are five areas to consider when evaluating your coaching program to ensure it results in engaged, motivated, and happy-to-learn thinkers in Pre-K through Grade 6 teaching staff.

Cultivating Trusting Relationships

Trust is crucial in any relationship, including between a math coach and an educator. Here are several foundational elements for cultivating a trusting relationship:

• Communication: Open and frequent communication is vital to building trust. Both the math coach and educator should be honest, transparent, and respectful in their interactions. This includes sharing feedback, ideas, and concerns in a constructive manner. A willingness to show interest in the educator’s personal life outside the classroom can also go a long way in building trust because it shows that the coach values them as a whole individual and not just their role as a teacher. 
• Respect: A healthy relationship involves showing respect for each other’s expertise, experiences, and perspectives. Value each other’s contributions and ideas, and be willing to listen and consider different viewpoints.
• Collaboration and support: Work together on setting goals for the teacher and students, planning lessons, and analyzing student data. This collaborative approach can help build trust and a sense of teamwork between the coach and educator. It is also important for the coach to offer support and encouragement to the educator during challenging times (i.e., personal stresses, struggling or difficult students, high-stakes testing periods, etc.). Additionally, coaches can provide resources, guidance, and a willingness to lend a helping hand with various tasks as needed (like grading or sorting papers). 
• Accountability: An effective coaching strategy involves mutual accountability, with both coaches and educators responsible for upholding their commitments. To do this, set clear expectations and goals, and then follow through on commitments. This can help build trust by demonstrating reliability and professionalism.

Whether this partnership occurs in person or virtually, these key elements enable math coaches and educators to cultivate trust in their professional relationships. This can lead to more effective collaboration, improved student learning outcomes, and a way to encourage a love of mathematics in the classroom. 

Crafting Your Curriculum Roadmap

Creating a comprehensive curriculum map is a proven coaching strategy for success. The purpose of a map is to provide an overall, big picture, with smaller details showing how to get from one location to another and points along the route. It is the same with a mathematics curriculum map. It is a guide that coaches and educators can use to map a course from the beginning of the year to the end.

Curriculum mapping is essential for helping teachers manage the extensive amount of material they need to teach in a year. Being an effective teacher goes beyond simply imparting knowledge. It involves engaging students, identifying and filling in learning gaps, adapting teaching methods to different learning styles, and ensuring all students’ needs are met to the best of the teacher’s or school’s ability. A curriculum map provides coaches and teachers with a way to track progress, offer feedback, and keep a record of what topics have been covered and which ones need further attention. 

How can a coach and educator work together to create or use a curriculum map? Here are a few suggestions: 

• Start with the goals. These are usually already established to varying degrees by the individual school, curriculum, and district/state/national educational systems. Know the goals so you can work together to create a roadmap to reach those destinations.
• Evaluate the curriculum content to identify and address academic gaps, redundancies, and misalignments. Plan solutions that keep the end goals in mind. 
• Utilize the scope and sequence provided in the curriculum. For reminders of how to use scope and sequence, check out this article. 
• Track effectiveness using rubrics to analyze levels of student skill and comprehension of mathematical concepts.

Coaching Strategies for Effective Instruction

One role of the coach is to be an example for the teacher. This can include demonstrating educational techniques and materials in the classroom to enhance student skills and promote student comprehension, with time for educators to reflect and practice. 

Coaches can model best practices for instruction by occasionally teaching the math lesson. This allows the educator to observe and take notes on the process, student reactions, and their own ideas for implementing the strategies in the future. Afterward, the coach and educator can reflect on the observations, discussing the techniques and materials used. 

These best practices may include: 

• Presenting material using the research-based ORIGO Approach
• Following the proven success of this four-step staged learning model 

• Modeling instructional practices that support student communication and problem-solving, such as:
  • providing wait time for them to form their answers
  • asking various types of verbal and written questions, including factual, self-reflection, and conceptual thinking about mathematics
  • including collaboration activities to build a supportive math community for students

Tailoring Support for Educators

Ready for a shocker? Not everyone is the same! Every person has individual personalities, strengths, struggles, and preferences. The same is true with coaches and educators. Effective coaching strategies must be tailored to individual educators, as the approaches that work for one may not be effective for another.

It is also important to appreciate the differences between novice and veteran educators. New teachers are often like sponges, ready to soak up advice and willing to try new ideas. However, if we’re honest, veteran teachers can sometimes get stuck in their ways and are hesitant to change (especially when it involves technology). These experienced educators may require more patience, examples of effectiveness, and gentle nudges to be willing to continue growing in their knowledge and abilities. 

One way to reach all educators is to encourage them to identify their unique strengths and challenges, guiding them towards avenues to grow in both areas to be the best educators they can be for their students. After all, the kids are what it’s ultimately about, right? The love for and desire for our students to learn and grow should be the common link that connects every teacher. 

Empowering Educators with Resources

Educational coaches are a valuable source of knowledge, support, and resources. Whether through personal expertise or connections with others, they can provide assistance in finding the materials and information mathematics teachers need. To put it simply, if they don’t already have a resource, they know where to find it! These can include manipulatives, lesson activities, physical or web-based mathematics games, instructional videos, etc. They can also provide inspiration and ideas for new resources to be used in differentiation to meet the needs of each student. 

Effective coaching strategies often stem from ongoing professional development. Coaches can recommend valuable opportunities for both math coaches and educators to grow and learn. This can be a valuable resource, plus it helps to build trust by showing a commitment to continuous improvement and learning. 

Be sure to consider connecting with an ORIGO Stepping Stones professional learning expert! Tailored coaching sessions, strategies to leverage supplemental resources, and embedded on-demand support are just the start when you partner with ORIGO to strengthen mathematics teaching and learning in your school community.