Notes
I introduced myself and shared that we had three major purposes for our call today:Â to get to know one another a bit (personally and professionally), to outline what our work together could look like (what coaching is and what it isn’t), and to share successes and challenges in her literacy instruction.
I learned that Liyan is a former high school teacher, she has been an aide at primary grades, she has a psych background, and she is now a PhD student at KU. She has a yellow Lab named Lucky and three cats (with her parents). She lives in Lawrence.
When I learned that she has no students currently, I inquired about her motivation for taking this class. She said that she has friends with kids who are new to the U.S. who are having trouble learning and she wants to know how to translate theory into practice. Mandarin is her first language and she doesn’t remember how she, herself, learned English. She shared that she has heard it said that students just need to be encouraged to read more (and reading development will happen), but she knows that is not enough for all students and that instruction has to be explicit.
She has just finished Module 2 and is starting Module 3.
She would like to have opportunities to observe in real classrooms, but does not have transportation.
We agreed to both think about how we can make this coaching process work for her situation. We will meet again on 3/30 at 1:00.