The Medicine Hat Public School Division heard a presentation from six of its eight optimal learning coaches at Tuesday evening’s board meeting.
This is the third year of the program, in which the group of coaches – who are themselves trained teachers – go to various schools in the division to assist teachers in the classroom, from early childhood education to Grade 12.
“There are some new pieces that have come with the new work,” said acting assistant superintendent Jason Peters. “We have some new pilots that are happening – one to do with technology, one to do with numeracy and one to do with literacy. Those are some new areas of focus, but the model itself is continuing to evolve to deliver supports for the system, all the way down to direct support in the classroom.”
The program began in 2017 with 11, so there are three fewer this year.
“We don’t know what the future holds there, but we know that our eight are kept busy. Their schedules are full and we’ll continue to look and see how we can continue to evolve the model to the needs of what teachers are wanting,” said Peters.
The main purpose of the coaching is to help enrich students’ learning experiences.
“The primary goal for the model is for our coaches to support and build capacity within our teachers through various professional learning opportunities, that then in turn get passed on to their students, meeting their individual needs,” Peters said.
