Accelerate Teacher Growth with Relay-Style Coaching Features in SchoolMint Grow

When it comes to improving teachers’ instructional skills, the Relay model of teacher coaching is the gold standard for fostering rapid, measurable improvement in classrooms.

With a focus on action steps and data-driven progress, Relay-style teacher coaching practices (like Get Better Faster and See It, Name It, Do It) offer a structured approach that transforms teaching and student learning.

For schools and districts, sending staff through training and adopting the Relay instructional coaching model represents a significant investment. However, without the right coaching systems, it can be challenging to fully implement and scale this approach across a school district.

This is where a classroom observation and instructional coaching software like SchoolMint Grow can be invaluable to your efforts to improve teacher coaching and overall performance.

Which Relay-style teacher coaching features are available in SchoolMint Grow?

Designed with input from Relay schools as well as the organization itself more than 10 years ago, SchoolMint Grow (formerly known as Whetstone Education) integrates Relay-aligned features to bridge the gap between professional development and day-to-day application.

Read on to discover which Relay-style features are available in SchoolMint Grow!

1. Get Better Faster Action Step Bank

Save your leaders valuable work time by enabling the Get Better Faster Action Step bank.

Rather than having to reference external materials to find the Relay coaching language, coaches can click on the dropdown and see the entire Scope and Sequence of Get Better Faster Action Steps:

Above: Creating an Action Step within SchoolMint Grow with examples, such as M2. Confident Presence: Confident stance: when giving instructions, stop moving and strike a formal pose.

Once the user has selected an Action Step, leaders can assign steps with just a click, then edit the Action Step to fit specific needs — or use it as-is.

Want to coach principals as well? The platform supports the Principal Scope & Sequence too, so every level of leadership benefits from Get Better Faster coaching in SchoolMint Grow.

2. Get Better Faster Action Step Tags

Every time you assign an Action Step, you can tag it to the Get Better Faster Scope and Sequence. These tags serve two purposes:

1. The teacher can see the tag right on their Action Step, so they know exactly what phase of the scope they’re in.
2. Data from these tags can be tracked across your campus, or the entire district, so you can see across the board how teachers are moving through the continuum as the year progresses.

Here is an example of how easy it is to tag every Action Step:

Above: SchoolMint Grow prompts users to choose meta-data tags for each Action Step logged.

3. Get Better Faster Report

Data is the backbone of Relay coaching, and SchoolMint Grow delivers powerful insights through the Get Better Faster Report.

This report allows you to:

• Track tagged action steps by phase, month, or individual
• Measure teacher progress across schools or the entire district
• Identify areas where support is needed to keep everyone on track

Use these insights to focus coaching efforts where they’re needed most — and to celebrate growth along the way!

Above: The Get Better Faster report in SchoolMint Grow; this report shows a year’s worth of data for each phase.

4. Observation Feedback: See It. Name It. Do It.

Relay’s Observation Feedback form can be found right in SchoolMint Grow’s Observation feature.

Here’s how it works:

• Use SchoolMint Grow’s Running Record feature to take time-stamped notes during observations.
• Prepare your feedback conversation by clicking on portions of the script and seeing them drop into the box below, where you can edit as needed (see the photo below).
• Prepare and assign the teacher’s high-leverage Action Step.

Above: Example of the See It, Name It, Do It observation feedback form in SchoolMint Grow.

5. Customized Meeting Templates

Districts and schools can customize meeting templates in SchoolMint Grow.

However, you also have the option to enable specific templates that have been designed to be closely aligned with the Relay process (ex., pre-loaded prompts and scripting). These pre-made templates include:

• Weekly Data Meetings
• Planning Meeting Protocols
• Principal and Manager Check-Ins

These meetings include a variety of different features, like the ability for the host and participants to prepare before the meeting, as well as the option for everyone to capture notes and spar on ideas throughout. 

Here is an example of host and participant sparring with their Weekly Data Meeting Know/Show charts:

Above: A know/show chart in SchoolMint Grow.

6. Weekly Data Meeting Report

How effective are your data meetings? SchoolMint Grow’s Weekly Data Meeting Report captures all of the data recorded in Weekly Data Meetings at your school(s).

With this report, you can review whether gaps are being correctly identified and if these meetings are successfully improving student mastery of the content.

Above: Screenshot of a Weekly Data Meetings Report; the user can see the host, participant, data, standard, initial mastery, reteach mastery, reteach data, difference %, and the gap.

See for Yourself How SchoolMint Grow Can Support Relay-Style Coaching

Ready to learn why SchoolMint Grow is the leading instructional coaching system for facilitating Relay-style teacher coaching in your school/district?

Visit our website to learn more and to request a free demo!