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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