Log on to our very first #ILAchat this week! With a focus on literacy coaching, our experts will answer questions on how to be an effective coach, successes of coaching and potential pitfalls to avoid.

With the rise of teacher leaders, many educators find themselves playing more than one role in the classroom. In addition to daily duties, they are working as a coach for their own classes and for colleagues. Experts weighing in on Thursday’s Twitter chat will share some tricks of the trade and guidance on what being a coach is all about.

Kathy Perret (@KathyPerret) is an educational consultant focused on enhancing learning opportunities and growth for instructional coaches, teachers and administrators. Her specialty areas include leadership team development and facilitation, literacy and technology integration.

She is the co-moderator of the weekly #educoach Twitter chat focused on Instructional Coaching.  Kathy is the author of the popular educational blog, Learning is Growing , where she shares her passion for empowering and inspiring educators so they can impact student learning. She also offers trainings and virtual coaching sessions.

Elena Aguilar has worked in public education for 20 years. She has been a classroom teacher, a site-based instructional coach, a leadership coach for principals and administrators, and the manager of a team of coaches. The majority of her work as an educator was in the Oakland Unified School District.

Aguilar (@artofcoaching1) is a consultant and works with schools, districts, and educational organizations across the country. She is also the author of The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for Transforming Schools (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and is working on a book on coaching teams. She writes for Edutopia and EdWeek Teacher.

Join @ILAToday in the #ILAchat at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, Feb. 12. Be sure to use the hashtag so you don’t miss a single post!