There’s
just not enough time in the day for all the conversations we’d like to
have! I ran into this problem as I
worked with Meg this week.
Meg
is an early-career teacher who is still struggling with classroom
management. Although she has adopted
some effective approaches and worked to increase the engagement factor in her
lessons, some students are hanging on to their old, disruptive habits. I was able to stop by her class this week,
but there wasn’t a chance for us to get together and talk about it. Still, I
wanted to share some ideas with her before the context grew cold. So I decided to email.
Email
can be both boon and bane when coaching.
The ease of access and ability to communicate asynchronously are big
bonuses. But these serial conversations
don’t give us the opportunity to read the body language of the receiver, and
the teacher may not get a clear idea of our intent and tone without the
face-to-face. Still, from time to time it seems like the best choice.
When
constructing my part of an email coaching conversation, I have the advantage of
really thinking through my words and the response they may elicit. That is a benefit that can carry a lot of
weight! So I compose slowly and
thoughtfully, then reread from the recipient’s perspective before pressing
“send.”
Below
is the email I sent to Meg after stopping by.
I’ve annotated it so you can see what I was thinking as I put my words
together. (Click on the image to see it bigger.)
Thankfully,
the email was well-received. Meg replied, “Yes, that does make sense. Less
discussion on the front end is a good idea. I will be sure to do that this
week. Thanks for the feedback!
Meg
and I had a chance the next day to sit down together and discuss Meg’s
concerns. We named a problem that was occurring: Lessons were getting waylaid as she dealt with
individual student’s needs. Meg set a goal to handle these more
effectively. I felt like this was an
appropriate goal, and I promised to check back.
Today,
while I was popping into classrooms, I saw an expert teacher manage these same,
potentially-disruptive issues seamlessly. I noticed what she was doing and sent
Meg this email:
Because
I’m a bit of a word nerd, I like thinking about the impact the words I choose
will have. Words are filed with
connotations, and these connotations make a difference in the way our ideas our
received. Especially in emails and other
forms of serial communication, it pays to handle words with care.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
Ideas
for cooperative learning (from Jim Knight):
Mentor texts for essay writing:
Austin’s butterfly, peer feedback, and
revision (with Rick Wormeli) :
What is number sense and why is it
important:
Lessons for social-emotional learning:
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
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