Guide: Cycles in TeachBoost Coach

Coaching Cycles in TeachBoost give you a way to structure your coaching relationship and track its progress step-by-step. When you begin a Cycle with one of your Coachees in the app, all future activities are associated with the cycle (and the currently-selected phase of the cycle) until it's finished. Jump to the sections below to find out how it works:

1. How can I use this feature to structure my coaching work?
2. Get started: select a Coaching Model
3. Create your first Coaching Cycle
4. Move through your Cycle Phases
5. Finish a Coaching Cycle

How can I use this feature to structure my coaching work?

Track your activities within your coaching cycles by moving between phases—here is an example of how TeachBoost Coach can help you structure your relationships and guide your teachers within the Impact Cycle:

Step 1: Create a new Cycle

An Impact Cycle will automatically begin in the 'Enroll' phase (see here for phase details), where you might:

• Begin with a Kickoff Meeting to get to know your teacher.
• Schedule a Classroom Visit to observe a lesson.

Step 2: Move your relationship into a new phase

Once this first phase is over, you might move the cycle onto the second phase, 'Identify': 

• Schedule a Debrief Meeting with your teacher to review observation data and ask your teacher to share their ideas.
• You and your teacher identify a student-focused Goal to work on throughout your Cycle. Learn how to assign a Goal to an in-progress Cycle.

After identifying your focus for the rest of this cycle, you can switch to the 'Learn' phase:

• Share Action Steps with your teacher to guide their progress towards a goal.
• Schedule a Planning Meeting to discuss how your teacher might select an approach to modeling that they want to observe in action.
• Provide your teacher with Resources to help them achieve their goal.
• Arrange a Modeling Visit where you can model an approach for your teacher.

Then for the final stage of this Cycle, the 'Improve' step:

• Your teacher schedules a Classroom Visit to implement new techniques.
• Share Action Steps with your teacher to continue guiding their progress towards a goal.
• Arrange a Data Gathering Visit to view your teacher's progress toward their action step list.
• Record Evidence within your classroom visit to guide your conversations with your teacher until the goal is met.

Step 3: Finish your current coaching cycle

Congratulations! You can finish your current cycle with your coachee on their profile page, where you can also mark your Cycle Goal (and any further active goals) complete, ready to start afresh!

Get started: select a Coaching Model

To use the Coaching Cycles feature in the app, you should first select a 'Coaching model' for use with your team. You can add a coaching model on your Team Settings page.

There are 3 default coaching models available for you to select right away: the Google model, the Impact model, and the Student-Centered Coaching model. To choose one of these out-of-the-box models, just select one in your Team Settings page to get started with Coaching Cycles.

Note: As soon as you create your first cycle, you will not be able to change your coaching model, except by submitting a support ticket, to prevent data and reporting issues with your cycles.

Create your first Coaching Cycle

When you have a 'Coaching Model' selected in TeachBoost Coach, you will notice that your dashboard displays your coachees' coaching status ('not yet coached', 'informal coaching', or 'coaching cycle') and has an additional column to note the Cycle Phase of each of your coachees (if applicable). 

If your coachees are not yet within a Cycle in the app, you will be able to click the 'Start Cycle' button on their row (you can also start a new Cycle on your coachee's profile):

• If you already have an open, active goal for this coachee, you can select this goal in the dropdown menu, which will make it this cycle's 'Cycle Goal'.
• If you do not already have an open, active goal for this coachee, you can choose to create a new Goal to kick off your coaching Cycle! Just select the 'Start with a new goal' button to fill out the details for your new Cycle Goal.

Note: If you choose to start your cycle without a goal at this time, you can create a goal at a later time and select the 'Assign Goal' button in the Cycle section of your coachee Profile page to make this your Cycle Goal.

Move through your Cycle Phases

As you work through a coaching cycle with your coachee, you can modify the cycle phase to move both forward and backward. Record the different phases of your cycle to easily keep track of where you are and capture where each activity is happening in real-time.

You can view and adjust the current cycle phase from the Coaching Cycle container located in the right-hand panel on your coachee's Profile. Click on the current phase to reveal a drop-down menu listing each phase of your Coaching Model. Simply select a different phase to modify this.

Changing the cycle phase will automatically update any future scheduled events that have been tagged to the cycle. Any new activity added will also match the new cycle phase.

Note: You can manually change the cycle phase of a particular activity by locating this on your coachee's profile, clicking to open the activity editor, and adjusting the Cycle phase tag.

Finish a Coaching Cycle

After moving through the phases of a coaching cycle with your coachee, you can easily complete this from your coachee's Profile. Simply click the Finish cycle button in the Coaching Cycle container, situated in the right-hand navigation panel. Once an in-progress cycle is closed, you will be able to start a new one whenever you are ready.

When finishing a cycle, you will also have the option to complete the cycle goal and any other open associated goals for that coachee. Any future scheduled events will also untag from the completed cycle.

Caution: Once a cycle is completed, this cannot be undone. If you've finished a cycle in error, please submit a support ticket.