Pitch Perfect Coaches: Mastering the Elevator Speech to Rock Your Role

Purpose & objective

The purpose of this session is to:
-Explore the unique value and role of coaches through dialogue and examination of the ISTE Standards for Coaches
-Define what an elevator pitch is and describe
how one can help maintain the integrity of the coaching role
-Collaborate to craft concise pitches that can be tailored to various audiences

Educational Challenge: The role of the coach within Digital Teaching and Learning varies greatly across schools and districts. Titles, job descriptions, and expectations can look very different. As a result, there is a lack of clarity for what a digital coach can and should do. This lack of clarity compounds the problem, leading to frustration of coaches, their stakeholders, and ultimately student support can suffer. When digital coaches can align their work to the ISTE Standards for Coaches and when they craft an "elevator speech" to concisely share their role with others, they are better able to maintain the integrity of the job.

Instructional activities/strategies:
-Guiding presentation created using Canva
-Activating prior knowledge and experience through self-reflection and group discussion questions
-Individual brainstorming and identification of coaching tasks
-Small group examination of the ISTE Standards for Coaches with guided questions
-Individual sorting of coaching tasks into the ISTE Standards for Coaching
-Group analysis of sorts, using the "Notice/Wonder" discussion structure
-Direct instruction surrounding "elevator speeches or pitches"
-Turn and Talk partner discussion to apply elevator speech solution to challenge situations
-Video instruction with structured pauses and questions (in EdPuzzle) to guide the creation of individual elevator speeches
-Example and individual support for the use of Chatbots to create/revise elevator speeches
-Partner, small group, and whole group coaching and feedback to support elevator speech creation
-Small/whole group discussion around adaptions to speeches based on audience and brainstorming contexts appropriate for elevator speeches

Evidence of success: Participants should leave the session with at least a draft of a digital coaching elevator speech.

Outline

Guiding presentation created using Canva
-Welcome and introduction (facilitator will share an elevator speech as her introduction) (2 min)
-Activating prior knowledge and experience of digital coaching through self-reflection and group discussion questions (7 minutes)
-Goals of the session (1 minute)
-Individual brainstorming and identification of coaching tasks (5 minutes)
-Small group examination of the ISTE Standards for Coaches with guided questions (7 minutes)
-Individual sorting of coaching tasks into the ISTE Standards for Coaching (3 minutes)
-Group analysis of sorts, using the "Notice/Wonder" discussion structure (5 minutes)
-Direct instruction surrounding "elevator speeches or pitches" (2 minutes)
-Turn and Talk partner discussion to apply elevator speech solution to challenge situations (2 minutes)
-Video instruction with structured pauses and questions (in EdPuzzle) to guide the creation of individual elevator speeches (10 minutes)
-Example and individual support for the use of Chatbots to create/revise elevator speeches (5 minutes)
-Partner, small group, and whole group coaching and feedback to support elevator speech creation (6 minutes)
-Small/whole group discussion around adaptions to speeches based on audience and brainstorming contexts appropriate for elevator speeches (5 minutes)

Supporting research

Books:

Wolf, Mary Ann, Nancy Mangum, and Elizabeth Bobst. Leading Personalized and Digital Learning: A Framework for Implementing School Change. Harvard Education Press, 2017.

Deacon, Lindsay and Angela Scotto Harkness.. The EduCoach Survival Guide. NextAdventureEduCoaching, 2020.

McBride, Ashley. The EdTech Coaching Primer. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), 2021.

Articles:

Elias, Maurice. "Why You Need an Elevator Pitch About School Culture and Climate." Edutopia, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/you-need-elevator-pitch-about-school-culture-and-climate-maurice-elias

"Elevator Speech." American Library Association (ALA), https://www.ala.org/advocacy/advocacy-university/school-library-resources/elevator-speech

"Elevator Pitch Example." Wishing Well Coach, https://wishingwellcoach.com/elevator-pitch-example/

"ISTE Standards for Coaches." International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-coaches