Friday, August 10, 2018

Refueling


For many of us, the start of a new school year is nipping at our heals, bringing questions to coaches’ minds about what to do with assessment data, whether we need coaching agreements, and how to use various face-to-face and online platforms.  With so much on our plates, it’s important that we don’t wear a badge of busy-ness that prevents others from approaching us with questions and requests. 

How do we replenish and center ourselves so that we can help to fill others?  This question was on my mind this week as I had a FaceTime meeting with a teacher-leader (I’ll call her Jerri) who seemed burned out and dragged down – not a good spot for August 10, with the school year about to get underway.

As I coached this woman who is an amazing coach herself, my mind was racing for what she might do to re-energize.  I hope the questions I asked and the thoughts I shared were helpful to her, and I hope they might be helpful to you, too, as the year gets underway.

Do What Fuels You

During our conversation, Jerri mentioned the self-reflection she has been doing; she realizes that what really brings her joy is teaching – and that has sometimes been missing from her current job description.  If it is missing from yours, too, and would help you to fuel, think about how you can build opportunities for teaching into your calendar early in the year.  Offering to model a new practice gives you that opportunity, but if you really need some kid time to boost your joy-o-meter, you don’t have to wait for the perfect modeling opportunity.  Let a few colleagues know that you need your teaching “fix,” and offer to drop in while the teacher attends an IEP meeting or leaves early for an appointment. 

Kid time is just one way to get re-fueled (and re-tooled) for the coaching job.  Pause now and consider what it is that renews your energy.  Take time to admire the sunset, read a few pages from a novel, or cuddle with a toddler.  You owe it to yourself and to the teachers you’ll coach to start the year with a full tank.

Take a Deep Breath

One of the most centering things I do during a busy day is to take a deep breath.  When I pause to steady myself, fill my lungs with air, and exhale slowly, I have more capacity to deal with the current situation.  Deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to the brain and stimulates the nervous system in a way that promotes a state of calmness.  It quiets the mind.

Enter a Room Mindfully

Lisa Lucas, author of Practicing Presence, suggest the habit of pausing in a threshold to enter a room mindfully.  I have used this pause to focus my attention, to leave behind what I was doing and focus on what I am doing.  The threshold pause helps me be more aware of important aspects of the environment I am entering.

Be Present

The children’s book, What Does It Mean to Be Present gives examples we adults can apply.  Being present means listening carefully, appreciating what you have, waiting patiently, and “treating each new experience as an opportunity.”  It means being grateful and savoring each bite of the day.  It means “being still enough to hear your inner voice.”

Do Nothing

Our quest to be efficient and productive may be destroying our creativity.  Time fillers are at our fingertips – a quick scroll through Facebook or repost on Twitter fills the pause at the copy machine, the stop at the red light.  But those pauses, those brief moments to connect with our own thoughts, can be the time when inspiration comes. Give your genius time to grow by occasionally and intentionally doing nothing.

Prioritize

Somewhere along the continuum between “doing what fuels us” and “doing nothing” comes the need for prioritizing.  Steven Covey, whose books on highly-effective people have now trickled down to children, recommends gauging importance and urgency to put first things first.  If we routinely give attention to the non-urgent but important things, the occurrence of urgent unimportant things decreases, and we are able to use our time more productively and feel better about the things we do accomplish.

Although some of these things came to mind during my conversation with Jerri this wee, I only thought of others when I gave myself time to ponder, time to take a deep breath, and time to write (which fuels me!).  So I’ll revisit this topic with Jerri when I see her next – or hope she is reading her way through this post and feeling re-energized!  It is only when we are filled that we have something to give.


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

Tips for new (or reminders for returning) coaches:



A podcast on going public with our practice (click and scroll down):



Coaching about classroom culture:



Celebrating how very child is a reader (even before they read words):



Another Steven Covey habit that applies to coaching – Seek first to understand:



That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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