Power of the Pause

In last week’s post, we talked about the value of having the teacher choose the focus of the coaching work you’ll do together.  Once a focus for coaching has been selected, the GIR coaching model (see below) can provide a guide for the work you do together, reminding you to gradually increase the teacher’s responsibility and ownership for the things she’d like to improve. 

Not all teachers will need the first (and most supportive) coaching practice – modeling.  With some teachers or focuses, Making Recommendations is the coaching move to lead with as you begin a coaching cycle.  As with choosing a focus, the recommendations you make will be most effective if they grow from the teacher’s specific concerns or comments.  This is why WAIT time is so important during a conversation.  We’ve all heard of wait time, but I like the reminder I read recently: WAIT stands for Why Am I Talking?  This little acronym encourages me to pause, hold my tongue, and really consider what the teacher has been saying before jumping in with a recommendation.  Waiting allows me to listen better, because while the teacher talks, my mind is not rushing ahead thinking about what I’m going to say in response – I know I’ll have time for that once she pauses.  My response is better because I’ve really listened, and because I’ve allowed myself a few seconds to think about what I’ve heard.  The pause pushes my own thinking to a higher level.  That thoughtful pause also sends the message that I value what the teacher has said. 

A children’s book, I Have a Little Problem, illustrates this concept well.  The book begins with a bear looking for a solution to a problem that we (as the reader) don’t know about.  After having unsatisfactory solutions posed by the shopkeeper, the shoemaker, the doctor, and various other townsmen, the bear dejectedly walks out of town and sits on a hill.  There he meets a friendly fly, who takes the time to listen and finds out the bear’s real problem:  he is alone and afraid.  As the fly and bear go off together, we recognize that listening provided a way for the bear’s problem to be solved. 

As with the bear, so with the teacher!  We have probably all been a victim, at one time or another, of a solution that was provided by someone who didn’t really understand the problem.  My goal is to avoid that situation by talking less and listening more during coaching conversations.   The pregnant pause – silence – sometimes makes us feel like no one is thinking.  But in actuality, that pause is usually when the highest-level thinking occurs, for both you and the teacher.  The pause works on both sides of a recommendation.  When we pause after making a recommendation, the pause becomes an opportunity for the teacher we’re coaching to thoughtfully consider how that suggestion might apply in her teaching, with her students.  It demonstrates our faith in the teacher’s own judgment and the insights she has about learning in her classroom.

As you make more space for silence during a coaching conversation, I think you’ll like the outcome.  Sandwiching a recommendation between thoughtful pauses is likely to increase the effectiveness of that recommendation and of your ongoing work as a coach.    

This week, you might want to take a look at a plethora of math resources and a bit about reading:

Here’s a free online game for developing number sense with fractions:

http://play.centerforgamescience.org/refraction/site/

Here’s a video of a kindergarten math lesson using a game to develop number sense:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/mingle-count-a-game-of-number-sense?fd=1

An interesting series of articles about the importance of math in the classroom:

http://nrich.maths.org/2489

(Explore the colored buttons on the top menu to find wonderful low- and high-tech math games for any grade.)

Ideas for helping students document their reading (and other great comprehension suggestions):

http://chartchums.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/so-your-students-are-starting-to-read-chapter-books/

An article about the power of rereading:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view-print.php?id=41

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Choosing a Focus for Coaching

Improvement Begins with I.

Arnold H. Glasow

Coaching is about improvement.  Coaches wouldn’t exist if somebody didn’t want something to change.  But coaching works best when the somebody who wants something to change is the same person as the one who is supposed to be doing the changing!  In teaching, that means instruction is most likely to improve if the teacher owns the desire for change. 

My experience is that it’s often the best teachers who are most interested in improvement (there’s a message in that!).  We shouldn’t be deterred from working with these outstanding teachers.  As Charlotte Danielson has said, “Because teaching is so demanding and complex, all teaching can be improved; no matter how brilliant a lesson is, it can always be even better”*

Whether we’re working with expert teachers or novices, having them choose the focus for our coaching cycles makes coaching more effective.  Brenda Powers** suggested that working on a problem someone else hands you is “not going to add much zest or pleasure to your teaching.”  If a teacher is working on something she cares about it’s always going to be a better problem to think about than anything suggested by somebody else.

Instructional frameworks can be helpful in determining a coaching focus.  I like Charlotte Danielson’s work.  Although her Framework for Teaching is now being used extensively as an evaluation instrument, the title of her book is Enhancing Professional Practice – and that’s just what we as coaches want to do.  She talks about teaching in terms of four areas, or “domains”: Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities.  I find that the descriptors of proficient and distinguished practice align well with research about effective instruction and with my own experience.  During an initial coaching conversation, the framework helps us choose a narrow, manageable focus for our work.

As coaches, our work is improving teacher effectiveness – and that is just the work that many teachers would like support with.  In these times when the stakes are high around teacher evaluation, coaches’ support in helping teachers improve their practice is a valuable commodity.  While some bemoan the emphasis on teacher effectiveness, I believe that, if our framework for evaluation is appropriate, it will be a good thing for kids.  And it might just open a door or two for you as a coach.  Once you step inside that door, allowing the teacher to choose the focus (putting the “I” in “improvement”) will heighten the value of your work together.   

* Danielson, C. (2012).  Observing Classroom Practice. Educational Leadership, 70(3), 32-37

**Choice Literacy Newletter, 8/31/2013.  Downloaded from choiceliteracy.com. 

This week, you might want to take a look at:

The Danielson teaching framework rubrics, available free at: 

danielsongroup.org/userfiles/files/downloads/2013EvaluationInstrument.pdf

Other teacher effectiveness resources from Danielson on her site at:

danielsongroup.org/

Listen to this informative podcast about close reading:

choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1851

A blog post about what close reading isn’t:

christopherlehman.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/blog-a-thon-post-1-what-closereading-isnt-or-at-least-shouldnt-be/

A video about using counting collections in grades K-2:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/counting-by-ten-lesson

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Asking Permission

This week I was traveling, and due to weather delays I spent a lot of time in airports.  During one of my stints in the gate area, I overheard a conversation between two women who I quickly determined were coaches in the business sector.  I hadn’t been intending to eavesdrop, but once I figured this out, my ears perked up.  I wondered how coaching done in the business world compared with what we do in the educational arena.  These coaches talked about their work with team members, project managers, and upper-level management. 

One of the women was a more seasoned coach, and she was giving advice to her colleague who had recently moved into the coaching role.  The new coach talked about how management was very supportive of coaching, told team members what her role was, and set the expectation that she would be working with them.  (This made me think about our principal/coach agreements – see last week’s post.)  But the new coach expressed frustration that she didn’t feel as welcomed as she would have liked.  She thought that, since the managers said it must be so, she could step right in and do her job. 

The experienced coach suggested a tiny tweak that she said would make a huge difference:  she talked about the importance of asking for permission before stepping in.  This veteran coach explained that she’s noticed a significant mind-shift when she asks, “Can I offer my thoughts?” and her colleague says, “Yes.”  Even though nothing has really changed (the manager still requires the coaching), asking for and receiving permission to coach seems to flip a mental switch, making the listener more receptive.  The seasoned coach said she even does this with her husband (great practice!).  When her husband is telling her about a situation, she pauses and asks, “Do you really want my opinion?” before plowing ahead with advise.  If he says, “Yes,” then she gives it and he listens.  But sometimes he says, “No, not really” – and she leaves it at that.

The experienced colleague pointed out that, after getting permission to coach, it’s important to give team members some value that they can see right away.  “It’s hard to sell them on change,” she said.  “They would rather just sit in their cubes and do the same thing they’ve always done.”  For coaching to work, the coach has to offer something that will be immediate and obviously useful as an introduction.  That paves the way for future work.

As you consider how the advise of this business coach applies in your context, you might coin an “asking permission” question that feels natural to you, and then think about how you will follow up with value-added work.   Can you share an efficient way to analyze assessment data?  Or a tool for quickly setting up a class website (see below)?  Is there a video clip that is sure to be a hit at Back-to-School night?  A procedure for peer editing that will make revision more effective and lighten the teacher’s paper-grading load?  Such early wins will pay big dividends. 

Although I still can’t say I was grateful for the rain delays I experienced this week, I feel lucky to have caught this conversation.  You never know what wisdom you’ll pick up while waiting at an airport gate!

This week, you might want to take a look at:

How to create a class website in 30 minutes or less – really!

http://theedublogger.com/2013/08/29/class-website/ 

Classroom management strategies: 

http://www.ernweb.com/public/1004.cfm?utm_source=+Classroom+management+art+2013-14&utm_campaign=resend+classroom+management&utm_medium=email#.UiZfI9Qo7IU

“Inside Mathematics” is a great website with lessons and professional development for the standards (by grade level).  Here, check out videos of classroom lessons that capture kids’ thinking:

http://insidemathematics.org/index.php/exemplary-lessons-integrating-practice-standards

A Pinterest Board  with articles and resources to share with families about the importance of reading and play:

 http://pinterest.com/mrsmere/parent-pages/

A video with ideas for giving students roles so that reluctant participants become engaged in group work:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/strategies-for-engaging-students?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Here’s a pinterest board with ideas for classroom seating:

http://www.pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/take-a-seat/

  

That’s it for this week!  Happy Coaching!

The Same Song

The family I grew up in has three girls – myself and my two sisters.  Although we now live in different states, a couple of weeks ago we got together, and we all brought our flutes – instruments that have been rarely used since our high school days.  We thought it would be fun to play together again.  We flipped through some old music, recognizing familiar tunes.  Every page or so, one of us would call out, “Let’s play that one!”  Then we’d all lift our instruments, count out the beat, and begin to play. 

We were enjoying our melodic walk down memory lane when unfortunately we started a song that was not music to our ears.  It sounded so bad that we stopped, mid-measure.  “Where were you?” I asked, thinking we had somehow gotten out of sync.  Indeed we had!  Although two of us pointed to the same spot on the page, my other sister pointed to some notes – on the adjacent page!  We were not even playing the same song!  No wonder it sounded awful!  After laughing until our sides hurt, we pulled ourselves together and started playing again – making sure we were on the same tune. 

I thought about that experience this week in conjunction with setting the stage for coaching.  I’ve noticed how important it is for the principal and coaches to be singing the same song.  Mixed messages about coaching can undermine the relationships of trust you are trying to build with teachers.  Ideally, you and your principal should see eye-to-eye about who will be coached.  The most successful models I’ve seen are the “All In” model and the “By Invitation Only” model.  In the “All In” model, the principal sets the expectation that all teachers will participate in coaching sessions at some point during the year, either individually or as part of a small group.  The “By Invitation Only” model is what the name describes – the coach is invited into the room at the invitation of the teacher.  This model works well when the coach has already built strong relationships, and it requires credibility and trust.  Both of these approaches have the benefit of avoiding the stigma that coaching happens to someone who needs to be fixed.  We want to build the understanding that teaching is about continuous improvement, focusing on students’ needs, and making ongoing adjustments to practice.

Be sure you and your principal are singing the same tune about what your coaching model will be.  Next week’s post will talk about other aspects of the Principal/Coach agreement.  Whether this is a formalized document or just an informal declaration of expectations, it is an important part of getting the school year off to a smooth start.

Since this week starts off with International Literacy Day, you might want to take a look at:

Ideas for celebrating the day (with connections to the upcoming movie release of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) at:

http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/cloudywithachanceofmeatballs2/literacy/media/digital_ILD_activity_kit.pdf

Top 10 Ways to Turn Your Students into Enthusiastic Readers:

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/top-ten-ways-to-turn-your-classroom-into-a-hotbed-of-enthusiastic-readers-by-megan-ginther-and-holly-mueller/

A video showing how literacy and technology work together in the science classroom:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/problem-solving-with-technology--2?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Podcasts with book recommendations:

            For young readers:  http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/podcast-series/chatting-about-books-recommendations-30130.html

            For adolescent readers:  http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/podcast-series/text-messages-recommendations-adolescent-30214.html

A Pinterest Board with great recommendations of non-fiction for kids:

http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/great-nonfiction-for-kids/

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!