Instructional Coach (Summer Session 2024)

Breakthrough Pittsburgh at Sewickley Academy provides six years of academic enrichment and college preparation to motivated Pittsburgh students with limited educational opportunities, ensuring they are academically successful and on the path to college. Breakthrough also inspires talented college and high school students to become educators and engaged citizens by giving them responsibility for teaching in its programs. Breakthrough Pittsburgh is an affiliate of the national Breakthrough Collaborative.

The intensive six-week summer program for rising seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth graders is a key component of Breakthrough's effort to ensure students are receiving academically rigorous instruction through middle and high school. Summer programming consists of four core academic classes (math, literature, writing, and science), as well as electives, such as 3DArt, Japanese, and cryptozoology. Because Breakthrough's utilizes a students teaching students model, all summer classes are planned and taught by our exceptional college-aged fellows. Teaching Fellows bring energy, commitment, and a willingness to learn, and Instructional Coaches bring experience and knowledge. The program has served nearly 1,000 youth since its inception in 1994, with the goal of ensuring that each student has the confidence and academic skills to thrive at rigorous college preparatory high schools and go on to pursue a college education. In our most recent cohort of high school graduates, 90% are now pursuing a post-secondary degree. In this way, Breakthrough's Pittsburgh is making good on its promise to increase opportunity for our students through college access programming, combat summer learning loss through a rigorous summer educational experience, and improve our schools through intensive teacher training.

General Job Description

Instructional Coaches (ICs) are experienced and successful professional educators who provide content-specific support and mentoring for Breakthrough's Teaching Fellows (TFs) and engage fully in the Breakthrough Pittsburgh community. ICs dictate the level of academic rigor during the summer program through their interactions with TFs. Each IC supervises six-eight TFs in one subject area, leading weekly department meetings, visiting classes, evaluating lesson plans, and meeting frequently with individual Teaching Fellows regarding their on-going work. As the only professional teachers on-site, ICs are accountable for the quality of instruction Breakthrough students receive and are responsible for supporting Breakthrough TFs through their first teaching experience.

Specific Instructional Coach Duties: Complete two training sessions (to be scheduled in May) Complete pre-summer readings Consult with Breakthrough staff regarding curriculum in specific content area Refine existing unit plans in specific content area as needed

Teacher Orientation: Help facilitate teacher training workshops on topics such as classroom management, lesson planning, and teaching practices specific to content area (optional) Participate fully in orientation workshops Guide TFs through lesson planning and general preparation for the summer

Six-Week Summer Program: Provide four - six TFs with support and regular feedback as they design and revise lesson plans Maintain a big picture understanding of the curriculum and guide TFs in making adjustments as necessary Observe each TF in classroom at least once weekly Conduct once weekly one-on-one debrief sessions with TFs, in which they receive concrete feedback based on Breakthrough's Teacher Excellence Rubric Plan and lead weekly departmental meetings Work with Instructional Coach team to determine professional development needs for TFs and lead at least one large group professional development session (optional) Communicate regularly with the Executive Director regarding TF progress

Teacher Wrap-Up: (attendance optional) Submit a final narrative evaluation for each assigned TF (letters of recommendation upon request) Provide revisions and suggestions on curriculum for next summer's TFs and coaches Evaluate overall summer program