When
you were watching the Olympics this month, did you get some practice making
judgments? Even though I don’t know much about diving, I love watching the graceful
moves the divers execute between board and water, and I get caught up in the
experience. In my enthusiasm, I start shouting out scores as soon as the diver
hits the water. I comment on how tight the tuck was or how smooth the entry
was, making my evaluation before the judges post their scores. Sometimes I’m
close to the actual scores, and sometimes we’re miles apart. It’s laughable
that after a few minutes of watching I have become an arm-chair expert, when in
reality I know almost nothing about what is going on!
Sometimes
the same thing happens when I visit a classroom. It is easy to jump to judgment
after spending a few minutes in a classroom. Easy to notice what is not
happening. Easy to feel myself expert when I know almost nothing about what I
am really seeing. When I find myself jumping to judgments, I remind myself to
observe first, listen next, and judge last. Observing means I am using
my eyes and ears to notice and note what is happening. Listening means that, during debriefs, I start
by asking rather than telling and by take an inquiring stance. After I have
noticed and wondered, any evaluations I make, and any recommendations that grow
out of those evaluations, will be more grounded.
Making
judgments is easy when I have only surface-level knowledge. Understanding
deepens when I know more about what is going on beneath the surface. When I am quicker
to listen and slower to judge, my coaching is more likely to hit the mark.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
Planning for what really matters:
The importance of
building agency at the beginning of the school year (video with Kim Yaris):
Gradual release of the
classroom library at the beginning of the school year:
Lessons for using mentor texts to teach memoir:
An
inspirational video about mentoring:
That’s it for this week. Happy
Coaching!
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