Friday, February 6, 2015

Soup's On! Essential Ingredients for Coaching


Coaching is collaborative work and it’s the culmination of the GIR coaching model. All along the way, we are co-laborers with teachers. Although collaboration looks different depending on the people and the task, there are a few essential ingredients:

Trust: Working together means relying with confidence on another person.

Time: When a collaborative task is undertaken, build a schedule for the work. Get times on the calendar.

Talk: Communication is key to teamwork. Assumptions left unspoken have potential to damage the relationship and the work.

Flexibility: Being willing to adapt as you go along keeps you open to opportunities.

Risk: Agree that you will try something. If it doesn’t work, you will try something different.

Commitment: There will be rough spots. Recognize this beforehand and commit to persevering.

These essential ingredients are a base for collaborative work. Add other ingredients to meet the specific needs of the people and task, and you’ll have the recipe for an effective partnership.


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

Test prep to believe in: Increasing kids’ “mindfulness” has lots of benefits – including better test scores:



Lesson plans for argumentative writing using letters to the editor:



An article about letter-to-the-editor assignments:



Are your students missing the warrants needed in argumentative writing?  Take a look at this blog post: 



The Wingman: Drawing in the less-vocal participant:



Thoughts about personalizing professional development:



That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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