Coaching, as Cliff Gilkey practices it, does not mean fading into the background. It means providing structure and actively supporting students' performances and reflections. Gilkey moved from group to group, checking on progress, monitoring students' practice, and suggesting questions to explore. At the video monitor, Gilkey helped a group improve its interviewing technique. Gilkey had students work on maintaining eye contact and posing the initial question without looking down at the prompt sheet.
Work occurs over extended blocks of time .
Serious intellectual activity doesn't usually fall neatly into 50-minute periods for a set number of days. Thus, complex tasks put pressure on the conventional small blocks of instructional time. Gilkey's project began in January 1993 and was expected to continue through the rest of the school year. In fact, at the time of our visit, Gilkey was contemplating extending the project into the next year by teaching a mixed 5th and 6th grade class, allowing him to continue working with a core of students from the first year of the project. In the Local Heroes Project, technology itself is not the driving force behind the learning.