[froggie3]

I am preparing to start my 6th year of teaching and I have been trying to find a job closer to my home. I have been offered a new job and given the choice between a 4th grade teaching job or a literacy/reading coach.

Do any of you have literacy coaches at your schools? What are their duties? Do you like having them around? I am excited about either job, but I do not know much about the coaching position. Any help, advice, or guidance would be great. Thanks a million!

[reading coach]

I am a private readiing coach that is hired by several different schools. I would say to go with your passion. Do you get excited teaching kids to read or helping them to read better? Or would you rather have full responsibility for a classroom? As a reading coach, I work with all ages, but only in one subject. In most of my work the students come to me. I love what I do, and depending on the school, I have a great deal of freedom to do what works best.
Hope this helps.

[wolono]

I moved to a new district this year to become a Literacy Coach. My two main duties are helping teacher improve classroom instruction and preparing and presenting professional development. I do lots of planning with grade levels. I also teach two to three demo lessons a day. I really enjoy the job, but I have to say that if you are looking for the teachers to accept with open arms, don't take the coaching job. It has taken most of the year to build trust with the staff. They don't like my position. If you are an insecure person at all, this job doesn't help. Hope this helps!

[lenarmc]

The previous poster is correct. If you are looking for open arm
acceptance, this is not for you. I see our reading coach as more like a watchdog making sure that we do everything that Reading First wants us to do. For the last five years, we have had 3 different Literacy Coaches. Not one has taught a demo lesson, and I even had one that took down my content word wall because "Reading First only wants high frequency words". Frankly, I have been to training three times on our basal so I really don't need any demo lessons.
As you can tell, this is why we have had 3 coaches in 5 years. Personally, with all the complaining about the coaches, I would never want to be one.
Good luck with your decision.

[5/6 Teach]

I don't know much about the reading coach job at our school because she services the primary grades, but I can tell you she has a lot of paper work and assessment data.

[BirdSong]

Our Literacy Coach is a Godsend. I absolutely love her. I think what makes her so accepted in our school is that she is very willing to help us in any way she can. She really goes beyond her job duties to help the teachers. If we help her out in any way, it is not uncommon to find a Starbucks coffee or some treat sitting outside our classroom door the next morning when we arrive.

She works as a liason between us and our principal also. That's helpful when you do not have a very good leader that is easy to approach.

She came in my second year at that school to watch my writing lessons. It was my third year as a teacher and I felt thrilled that someone considered me an 'expert' in something. An ego boost to the teachers goes a long way.

I really think it is all in how you approach the staff and what you are willing to do for them to make their jobs easier. There will be times when you have to ask them to take on another paperwork task, but it makes it easier to say yes when you are willing to do something for them in return.

Good luck!