My Coaches' Couch: Coaching Team Leaders

Are you and the teachers you work with feeling a bit overwhelmed by the novelty of the new school year? As we prepare to jump in, whether virtual or face-to-face, there are new guidelines to navigate along with our new students. Yesterday, I got two consecutive emails about reopening procedures – long emails with embedded links that took me to even longer documents. I had to close my inbox and take a deep breath. It was just too much for that moment.

How will you manage the newness? How will you facilitate all the upcoming team meetings and still manage to do anything else? One of the ways we can deal with overwhelm is through delegation – handing it over and then letting go. If your school is organized in teams, you already have structures in place for delegation. Part of your role as coach is to coach team leaders.

Think of how a team leader meeting could serve you, your teams, and your school at the onset of the year. Not only is it a time to share information that can’t be digested through an email, it is a time to model facilitation practices, be transparent about what you do, and share a bit of coaching wisdom.

For example, if you have a “Return to School” document, at a meeting with team or department leads, you could jigsaw the document and have the “expert groups” who read each section create an infographic using Pictochart or Visual.ly. Team leads may be excited that they have these infographics to share with their teams – but point out that it was the process of creating and sharing them, not the product, that got them familiar with the “Return to School” document. Being transparent about why you do the things you do during a meeting is an important part of your work with team leaders. Encourage them to “go and do” what they have seen and done. Sharing structures for facilitation empowers team leaders to work effectively in your absence.

Your work preparing team leaders can also include coaching about coaching! What coaching practices have you found to be most effective when working with teams? Do you make an effort to listen more than you talk? To ask open-ended questions? To affirm worthwhile ideas that may otherwise be lost in the shuffle? Modeling and being transparent about these practices is important, but, just like in the classroom, explicit instruction and opportunities to practice will bring the point home.

The start of the school year is an important time to meet with team leaders, and it can also be a good time to get additional meetings on the calendar. Quarterly meetings with team leads, with follow-up individual check-ins along the way, are opportunities to multiply your efforts. Although you’re not trying to create a bunch of “mini-me’s” in the building, supporting the efforts of team and department leaders empowers teacher leaders to get their jobs done.

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

This podcast describes why it’s important to prepare for the upcoming school year by shoring yourself up mentally, emotionally, and physically:

https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/my-manifesto-for-the-coming-school-year/

Getting the most from virtual author visits:

https://ccira.blog/2020/07/21/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-a-virtual-author-visit/

Heard about bitmoji? Here are the basics:

https://blog.teachboost.com/getting-started-with-bitmoji-classrooms

Here are some bitmoji ideas for instructional coaches:

https://www.kathyperret.org/2020/06/16/bitmoji-ideas-for-instructional-coaches/

Books about preserving memories (students have some unique ones to capture this year!):

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/closing-the-year-and-making-space-to-remember/

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