This
week I am in Haiti with 30 amazing educators who are part of a teaching
exchange. It is my second experience participating in a professional learning
experience with Haitian educators, and, like last year, I will be going home
with new insights and more humility.
One
memorable experience happened on the day we asked teachers to chart questions
or challenges related to classroom management, since that was an area they said
they wanted to address during the exchange. Working with grade-level peers,
each group wrote three questions about challenges they were facing. Then we
asked them to come up with two possible solutions for each challenge. At first,
many of them looked at us with bewilderment. “You thought someone else would be
providing these solutions, didn’t you?” I asked, reading the surprise on their
faces. There were many nodding heads. “Well,” I continued, “the very best
people for solving these problems are sitting around the table with you. You
know your students, you know your situation. You can come up with solutions. Be
creative. Think of the impossible solution and it might lead you to the
possible.”
As
these teachers collaborated, I realized some coaching truths. Often, the best
answers will come from the teacher herself, or from the teacher in
collaboration with her team. I can ask questions to support their problem-solving,
but they know their own context best. They also know their own capabilities, what
factors are within their control, and what they are actually willing to try. Often,
I can best support a teacher by reflecting her own thinking back to her as she
becomes clearer and clearer about solutions.
When my Haitian friends were working, the
group of first- and second-grade teachers identified a problem of “students
who don’t want to write.” When I stopped by their table, they were sure they
could not come up with a solution. “We’ve tried everything, we don’t know what
to do,” they said. “Let me ask you a question,” I responded. “Can any of you
think of a time when you’ve ever been successful with getting even one student
to write who didn’t want to?” After a thoughtful pause, one of the teachers
said, “I started out by writing with them, and then they were ready to go on
their own.” “You have one possible solution!” I said. Asking questions had
moved this group beyond their stuck spot.
I
also realized that sometimes we have to explore the extreme and be willing to
dream before we can pull back to the realms of the possible. Only when we
consider factors that might be outside of our control do we realize how much
power we really have. As the Haitian fourth- and fifth-grade teachers consider
problems of absenteeism, some of the solutions they listed might be beyond the
realm of possibility (like providing health care for students whose illnesses
kept them away from school), but others (like forming a committee to check in
with students who were absent twice in a row) seemed more feasible.
Listening
to teachers in a country so close to the United States but distant in so many
ways, I heard them problem-solve about some of the same issues discussed in
faculty lounges in the U.S.: unmotivated students, tardies, students who talk
too much, lack of resources. Although the causes of these challenges are
different and more heart-breaking, solutions can be found in the same way:
thoughtful support and collaboration.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
This Jim Knight video about creating
relationships to build classroom culture:
Podcasts from a variety of education
experts:
Using Twitter in 5th grade
reading workshop:
If you are fretting about the piles of student
writing you’ll have to grade once school begins, here’s an idea to improve the
feedback process and get rid of the piles!
Pinterest
ideas for beginning the school year:
That’s it for this week. Happy
Coaching!
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