TIM Coaching Tool (TIM-C)

The TIM-C provides a means to record the goals, activities, progress, and outcomes of a coaching cycle. It provides a framework that can be used with most coaching or mentoring programs:

• Phase 1: Set Goals
• Phase 2: Plan Activities
• Phase 3: Monitor Progress
• Phase 4: Record Outcomes
• Phase 5: Reflect on Coaching Cycle

All of the fields within the TIM-C are optional, so a school or district can decide which elements to use and which may be skipped.

Coaches and Clients

A coaching cycle is, at its most basic level, a structured conversation between a client and a coach, or between a mentor and a mentee. The TIM-C allows any two members within a TIM Tools instance to work together as coach and client irrespective of what role or title they may have within the organization. One district may implement the TIM-C using only designated district tech staff as coaches. Another district may encourage peer coaching across all subject areas where both the client and the coach are teachers. The following screen capture shows how a member enters into a coaching cycle and selects a colleague to work with. Either the coach or the client can initiate a cycle. It’s also possible for a third party (e.g. a principal or a coaching coordinator) to create cycles and assign members as coaches and clients.

Figure 1. Creating a new coaching cycle and selecting a colleague to work with.

Figure 2. The Coaching Cycle.

In the last step, both client and coach reflect on the cycle. At this time, the client and coach review the cycle and then click a button to “publish” the cycle. When both have decided to publish the cycle, it then is included in the download file available to administrators. If a school or district wishes to track progress on a coaching cycle (for example to award PD credits for each phase completed), then users should be instructed to click the publish button at the beginning of the cycle. This allows data from the cycle to be available for administrative download throughout the process. The data download will include information about how many of the five steps have been completed, since each step includes a field to indicate completion.

Figure 3. Montage of the screens for the five phases of a coaching cycle.

Tech Coaching Course

TIMT-150: Coaching and Mentoring with the TIM-C is a four-week online course that provides an introduction to the TIM-C and coaching cycles, goal setting, planning and monitoring coaching activities, recording outcomes, and reflecting on the process. Regardless of the coaching model being used, the TIM-C can support consistent, guided, reflective practice across a school or district. Register from the iTeach course catalog page.

The complete Administration Guide for version 6.1 includes more detailed information about the TIM-C dashboard, the phases of the coaching cycle, and accessing TIM-C data. Additional information about the TIM-C can be found on the TIM-C FAQs section and in the following posts from the Teaching and Learning with Technology blog.