The Impact Cycle
Impacting Education Educators nationwide are looking for ways to improve their practice and make the most significant impact on their students. One way districts are aiding teacher improvement is through the implementation of academic coaches. The district where I have the opportunity to teach has a reading coach, math coach, and technology coach. While this is not necessarily the norm, these coaches make an incredible impact on educators; therefore, the impacts trickle down to students, too. The goal of these coaches is to teach educators new strategies to implement to increase student content understanding. Jim Knight, an expert on instructional coaching, outlines the "impact cycle" in his book, The Impact Cycle. This cycle involves three components: identify, learn, and improve. Coaches are encouraged to identify the learning goal with the educator. Coaches then come alongside the educator to teach and learn how to best meet the goal. Lastly, t...