Friday, September 6, 2013

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:


Top 10 Ways to Turn Your Students into Enthusiastic Readers:


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


Podcasts with book recommendations:



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


That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching! 

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