Necessary and Unknown: What to Teach - and What Not to

Coaching conversations sometimes focus around a scope and sequence of instruction: What to teach now and what to teach next.  Sometimes there is a pacing guide involved; in some schools, this is a strict page-by-day requirement; more generously, it is what its name implies: A guide that can be adjusted to meet the needs of students. In any case, we hope that a scope and sequence is guided by developmental trajectories of how students learn. This knowledge is invaluable as teachers consider which skills to teach to individual students and to whole classes. But let’s caution teachers to use knowledge of developmental processes in conjunction with ongoing formative assessment to determine instructional next steps. Instruction should target only what is necessary and unknown.
 
I heard this concise guideline (Teach only what is necessary and unknown) at this year’s ALER conference in an excellent presentation by Mary Roe about the Science of Reading. But it reflects my long-held beliefs about rigor and relevance.
 
As a classroom teacher, I worked with students who might have been labeled “high-risk,” because of family income levels, language knowledge, etc.  For me, this translated into “high responsibility” for ensuring that every minute counted, Yes, that meant bell-to-bell teaching and efficient transitions, but more importantly, it meant that instruction was intentional.  Intentional instruction is focused on what is essential for students to know, understand, and be able to do.*  Intentional instruction means that each lesson targets an ever-escalating zone of proximal development. Teachers can do this only if they know what their students already know – thus, the focus on formative assessment that includes both formal evaluations and lots of kid-watching.
 
The conversation about necessary and unknown arose multiple times this week,  I talked with a parent whose second-grade son has independently read the first 3 Harry Potter books but is sitting through whole-class phonics instruction every day and developing behavior problems because of boredom. Not only is Nick already a reader, he already has solid phonics knowledge (this can’t be assumed). Classroom phonics instruction does not fit the “unknown” criteria for Nick.
 
A similar concern arose this week when an applicant for an open faculty position emphatically described the need for every child to have explicit, systematic phonics instruction, “even if they were already a reader.” While it is true that every child benefits form extensive phonics knowledge, it is not true that every child needs to be marched through the paces of daily whole-class phonics instruction. They may already possess this knowledge. Let’s test and see!
 
Sandy, a veteran first-grade teacher I was talking with this week was well-aware of the “as needed” concept. Again, the focus was phonics instruction, and again, there are students in the class that don’t need it. As we talked, Sandy focused on Christy, who she knows already has the knowledge taught in the weekly phonics lessons prescribed by her district. In addition to targeting Christy’s needs during small group instruction, Sandy was thinking with me about which parts of the literacy block Christy could appropriately participate in to maintain social participation and whole-group experiences while moving her own learning intentionally forward. Since Christy is an independent technology user, Sandy is thinking of valuable extensions and projects that will engage Christy’s interests and help her grow as a learner. Such differentiation isn’t easy, but it is important. Ask Nick’s mom.
 
Although the examples that surfaced for me this week focused on phonics instruction, the necessary and unknown principle applies across the curriculum. Don’t teach use of active verbs to writers who already do it. Don’t drill students on mathematical equations they can already solve. Don’t assign “main idea/detail” worksheets to students who clearly understand these concepts, even if that worksheet is the next one in the resources or the next step on the pacing guide. Whether a student is considered advanced or at risk, the necessary and unknown principle guides responsible teaching.  Teaching what is necessary and unknown is high-responsibility teaching, and coaching teachers to take this stance is high-responsibility coaching.
 
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*Here I am mainly discussing skills. Of course, students’ interests should play a major role in determining content.
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This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Make plans for flexible grouping:
 
https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/use-flexible-grouping-classroom/
 
 
Supporting students in monitoring comprehension:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/building-a-reflective-community/
 
 
Affirmation stations for staff:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/build-a-culture-of-appreciation-with-affirmation-stations
 
Beyond author’s chair: Ways for young writers to share their work:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/writing-share-structures/
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/a-variety-of-share-sessions/
 
 
Building capacity with warmth and wisdom:
 
https://ccira.blog/2021/11/23/the-ted-lasso-effect-how-to-build-capacity-with-warmth-wisdom-and-walk-throughs/
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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In the Balance: Coaching with Affirmation and Praise

When coaching success hangs in the balance, it’s smart to weigh in heavy on the side of affirmation and praise. Although the Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) Model demonstrates a transition from more-supportive to less-supportive coaching moves, none of these moves stands in isolation. Coaches balance the five coaching moves (modelling, recommending, questioning, affirming, and praising) in response to teachers’ needs. These needs are shaped not just by their pedagogical repertoire, but also by their personalities.
 
During a coaching session with Angie last week, I felt a keen need for recommending. After reading aloud an emotion-filled science fiction story, Angie went straight to a discussion of vocabulary without providing an opportunity for students to process the story’s meanings and messages. A potentially-memorable discussion was bypassed, and the students’ intense engagement vaporized as Angie drilled in on a few new words to be learned from the story.
 
As our debrief conversation approached, I knew that I wanted to encourage Angie to support students’ authentic response to literature – to allow an aesthetic response first – before other literacy objectives were addressed. There were additional recommendations that might be made that more closely targeted Angie’s self-identified goals, but this one was my focus.
 
When Angie and I sat down together at the end of the day, Angie quickly brought up a few minor changes she would make when she taught the lesson again. I acknowledged these and hoped she would bring up something about the story itself – but she didn’t.
 
I took time to celebrate some of the lesson’s successes:  Angie had read aloud with expression, even including sound effects, and had made connections to students’ experience. These were strengths I wanted to emphasize, because Angie is sometimes anxious and self-doubting.  I wanted to load the conversation positively before addressing what I saw as the most acute need. I considered both Angie’s personality and her pedagogical needs when determining which coaching moves to use, and in which order. Angie needed affirming as much as she needed the recommendations.
 
In a single coaching conversation, several of the coaching moves in the GIR model might be helpful. During the conversation described above, even though recommending was the dominant move – a clear focus for me – for Angie, the reassurance provided as I affirmed what went right was necessary. Angie was open because of the affirmations.  They balanced what could have felt like a weighty recommendation.
 
Will you need to balance the scales in your next coaching conversation? Weighing the teacher’s pedagogy and personality will help you adjust the coaching moves you use.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
This podcast debunks 6 myths about English Learners:
 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep241-6-myths-about-english-language-learners-i-wish/id954139712?i=1000540288582
 
How to create a test that grades itself using Google forms:
 
https://www.teachthought.com/technology/self-grading-assessments-google-forms/
 
How a Sarah Bareilles song inspires writers to be brave:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/supporting-brave-writers/
 
Simple Roll-and-Build counting game for young mathematicians:
 
https://www.teachertube.com/videos/roll-build-507949

That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
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“Who Can Raise Their Hand and Tell Me,” and other Classroom Discussion Dissuaders

In the region where I work, COVID cases are dramatically down, adults and children are being vaccinated, masks are coming off, and we are beginning to understand the work that lies ahead in reestablishing classroom discourse. For multiple school years, students’ speaking and listening have been constrained by distance and fabric, and the authoritative voice of teachers has been amplified by microphones, on the laptop and in the classroom. Student-to-student discussions are a distant memory for some and a new experience for our youngest learners. 

In classrooms now, I hear muffled voices, even from students not wearing masks; most seem timid to speak up. When the potential for a rich whole-class discussion is palpable, I see students hesitate to contribute, insecure about norms for turn-taking and unable to read non-verbal cues that might support the process. There is a lot of work to be done.
 
I am having conversations with teachers about what it might take to reignite healthy dialogue. Now that students can sit within earshot of one another, we are again incorporating think-pair-share and small-group discussions into lesson plans. Importantly, these activities are preceded by clear directions and modeling of what successful student-to-student talk looks and sounds like: We have to talk about eye contact, on-topic conversations, managing disagreements, asking questions, and more. We are including “fish-bowl” modeling, where students huddle around a pair or group as they navigate a conversation, and then we discuss how it went. Students are learning to talk.
 
As I work with teachers, we unearth some red flags – things teachers avoid in order to encourage participation. They minimize:

·       Repeating student answers (instead, they encourage students to “Say it loud and proud).

·       Saying, “Who can raise their hand and tell me?” which sends a message that only students who are planning to respond need to think about the question.

·       Asking questions with one right answer – fine from time to time, but not fodder for a robust discussion. 

These teachers are working to overcome the monologic world created when microphone necklaces amplified their masked voices through speakers on classroom walls. They are not just aiming for pre-COVID levels of discussion – they are aiming for genuine discussion among students (small-group and whole-class) with students sharing varied perspectives and contributing to each other’s learning. It is not going to be easy work. Habits of receptive learning and complacency have crept in that must be pushed back to make way for conversations that will expand understanding. As students’ faces are uncovered, we see how discussion has suffered and what it might take to recenter student voices in the classroom. 

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
5 steps to more meaningful conversations:
 
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211109-what-we-get-wrong-about-conversations
 

8 ways to help students learn more from each other than from you:
 
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/5-adjustments-students-learn-others/
 
 
4 engaging writing tasks for high school students:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-engaging-writing-tasks-high-school-students
 

Using invitational language and empowering student choice:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/extending-invitations-in-workshop-ways-to-empower-student-choice/
 

How to create word nerds:
 
https://ccira.blog/2021/11/02/my-name-is-lori-and-i-love-words/
 

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Name Your Strength: Coach Self-Fulfilling Prophesies

I love the “Expert Wall” I saw in a first-grade classroom. Children had named their strengths, and they became resources for others in the class.  Sergio had listed soccer as his strength; classmates wanting information about soccer knew to come to him. Estelle was good at math, and Harvey’s entry said he knew all about dinosaurs. Children became confident in their named strengths as their insights were acknowledged and requested. They were praised and the praise turned inward – these named areas of expertise became self-fulfilling prophesies as the children sought to authentically fill their “expert” roles.
 
Although teachers generously view others through a lens of optimism and strength, their self-analyses may not be so charitable. They may lack the first-graders’ confidence to name their strengths.
 
I read recently about a way to encourage teachers to create self-fulfilling prophesies, and I decided to give this idea a try – by asking them to write aspirational letters of recommendation for themselves.
 
Before introducing the letter idea, I asked the team of teachers I was working with to think of one of their favorite teachers: to picture him or her and take a minute or two and write down words that described that teachers. Then I asked them to think more broadly, taking another minute or two to write words that describe an effective teacher. Next, I had them list qualities they want to be known for as a teacher. Finally, I suggested they consider what they would like the principal to be able to write if they were asked at the end of the school year to write a letter of recommendation for them. I gave an overview of what I thought might be the benefits of such an exercise. Then I gave them some prompts and had them jot notes in response to:

• My biggest strengths are . . .  

• If asked, I want my students to say this about me . . .  

• My goal is to . . .  

• When the principal is visiting, I hope she notices . . .  

• I want to be known for . . .  

• As a teacher, I aspire to be . . .  

• I will contribute to the school community in these ways . . .

I encouraged them to use these ideas to write an aspirational letter of recommendation for themselves, using the third person (she/her/their name).  I asked them to describe the teacher they hoped to be by the end of the school year and to send that letter to me if they were comfortable doing so. I suggested that writing the letter might help them recognize their current strengths and set some new goals, and sharing the letter with me would help me coach them toward these strengths.
 
This week, after they had completed their letters, teachers seemed happy and positive as they talked about the experience. It gave them a boost to think about areas where they were strong and helped them consider how they would get to their aspirational goals. They said they thought things through in ways that they probably wouldn’t have if they hadn’t been asked to write the letter.
 
I loved reading the letters! Having teachers name their strengths, whether current or hopeful, helped me understand what each teacher values. Like the first-graders who grew into their named strengths, I’ll be ready to coach teachers toward the attributes they aspire to. And I’ve already started thinking about the aspirational letter of recommendation I’ll write for myself, hoping to name my own self-fulfilling prophesies!

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Strategies for strengthening teacher-coach relationships:
 
https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/how-good-coaches-build-alliance-with-teachers
 
 
A stance of confident humility:
 
https://barkleypd.com/blog/confident-humility-and-coaching/
 
 
A reminder for coaches to be active listeners:
 
https://simplycoachingandteaching.com/blog/2021/10/05/better-listener/
 
 
5 ways to help students ask better questions:
 
https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/5-ways-help-students-ask-better-questions/
 
 
Why the 5 paragraph essay is a problem:
 
https://blog.heinemann.com/why-the-five-paragraph-essay-is-a-problem-now-and-later
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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Lean In to Question: Coaching Outside Your Content Area

What do you do when you’re an instructional coach for a chemistry teacher and don’t remember chemistry? If you don’t have the content knowledge – or pedagogical content knowledge – for the subject, it changes how you coach.
 
During a coaching-the-coach session, I talked with Elias, an instructional coach who is responsible for all content areas in his high school. He’s a former English Language Arts teacher, and it’s been a long time since he did any trigonometry or calculus, but he’s working with the math teacher. It’s been a long time since he balanced any chemical equations, but he’s working with the science teacher. He is also working closely with an ELA teacher, and he feels pretty confident in that role! We talked about how Elias’s own background knowledge and experience are impacting his use of the GIR model for mentoring and coaching (below).
 
Elias wouldn’t want to stand up in front of a group of high school seniors to model a lesson on infinite sums in the calculus class, even though he is confident with instructional strategies that would work well in that lesson. Instead, Elias found a video clip online where students were working in small groups to compare their different problem-solving methods. The structures that the teacher in the video had in place were ones that the math teacher could incorporate. The video provided a model. Elias also made recommendations about creating heterogeneous groups for the lesson, recognizing that learning would be enhanced by students’ differing approaches to solving the problems.
 
When working with the chemistry teacher, Elias leaned into the coaching move of asking questions. During their planning conference, he prompted with questions like, “How will this lesson connect with what students did yesterday? “How will you grab students’ attention in a purposeful way?” and “What support might students need to be successful?”  Elias knew that asking these questions would be productive; he didn’t have to be an expert in the content to be able to support the planning of an effective lesson.
 
Of course, Elias finds lots of opportunities to affirm and praise teachers in all academic areas. It’s easy to spot effective instruction, even if you haven’t taught the content. When coaches watch students, they know what is working.
 
The GIR model is a flexible guide for instructional coaching – pliant enough to be useful whether or not you are experienced in the subject being taught.
 

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Read this to consider why it’s helpful to do assignments before assigning them and all the places for agency and professionalism in what you think might be a complete, packaged curriculum!
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/doing-the-writing-in-a-unit/
 
This learning/PD/collaboration tool – Box It Out:
 
https://www.thecoachingsketchnotebook.com/2021/09/a-new-tool-for-pd-box-it-out.html
 
 
Learning walks with teachers as a coaching practice:
 
https://ashleytaplin.com/2021/09/17/instructional-scouting-a-new-practice-for-learning-walks/
 
Student authority during classroom discussions:
 
https://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies/2021/10/classroom-discussion-the-importance-of-student-authority/
 
 
Problems with the 5-paragraph essay:
 
https://blog.heinemann.com/why-the-five-paragraph-essay-is-a-problem-now-and-later
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com

 

No Disguises! Make Coaching Recommendations the Real Deal

October has arrived, and with it, fun thoughts of masks and costumes! However, when it comes to coaching, disguises don’t pay off. So be on the alert for your own disguises as you ask questions during a coaching conversation.
 
Making recommendations seems to come easily to most coaches, and as we work to incorporate questioning as a coaching move, sometimes there’s a temptation to ask questions that are actually thinly-masked recommendations.  Consider the following coaching language:
 
Recommendation:
 
“You could have students use the rubric to assess their own papers.”
 
Recommendation disguised as a question:
 
“What would happen if students used a rubric to assess their own work?”
 
Question:
 
“What would have to change for students to work more for themselves and less for you?”
 
If a coach asks, “What would happen if students used a rubric to assess their own work?” this thinly-disguised recommendation could feel disingenuous, because the coach isn’t really looking for input. If a recommendation is needed, give it. 
 
However, if the teacher is ready to take on more responsibility, ask a question.  When the coach asks, “What would have to change….,” she is genuinely looking for ideas from the teacher.  The question opens the teacher’s thinking to new possibilities rather than funneling her thinking to a single, pre-determined choice.  Authentic questions like these help teachers think flexibly about the decisions they make as they design instruction.  Questions can shake us from our comfort zones as we ponder present practices together and discover new ways to think about our work.  Asking questions creates thoughtful conversations that can lead to lasting change and professional growth.  When a recommendation is called for, share it clearly; a recommendation disguised as a question feels like a trick, not a treat.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Beyond universal screeners: anecdotal records as data:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/balancing-assessments-through-better-classroom-notes/
 
 
Read this to consider: why it’s helpful to do assignments before assigning them and all the places for agency and professionalism in what you think might be a complete, packaged curriculum!
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/doing-the-writing-in-a-unit/
 
 
This learning/PD/collaboration tool – Box It Out:
 
https://www.thecoachingsketchnotebook.com/2021/09/a-new-tool-for-pd-box-it-out.html
 
Secondary students describe what makes a good teacher:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHapv0Tv7vM
 
 
5 steps for fact-checking:
 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-steps-to-fact-checking-digital-literacy-in-action/id1201263130?i=1000527085151
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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To Do: Making Positive Recommendations when Coaching

This week, the coaches I met with were grumbling a bit. Academic Year 3 of the pandemic is wearing us down, and we’re approaching October, which research suggests is a low month for teachers, so I understand where they were coming from. These weights were affecting our work, however, in a way that I felt we could easily change.
 
We were talking about the coaching move of making recommendations, and I noticed that most of the ideas for recommendations that were being shared were coming in the form of don’ts.
 
“Don’t call on a student before asking the question.”
 
“Stop reading from the teachers manual during the lesson.”
 
“Quit calling on the same student all the time.”
 
These recommendations were all in the negative: Things a teacher should stop, rather than things they should start. They were a “to don’t” list rather than a “to do” list.
 
What if instead we said:
 
“Ask everyone to get an answer in their head before you call on someone to respond.”
 
“It might be helpful to write key questions on sticky notes and put them in the book you’re going to be reading aloud.”
 
“The Dojo randomizer could help you get a variety of students talking.”
 
There may, of course, be times when something is happening that needs to be directly addressed; however, in most cases, we can avert a negative behavior by suggesting a positive one. In a coaching conversation, this keeps the tone more upbeat and the communication more collegial.
 
If you’re feeling frustrated with a teacher’s practice or just plain having a negative day, pay attention to your recommendations. Replace “stop” and “quit” with something the teacher could do instead. Creating a “to do” list rather than a “to don’t” list is more likely to support instructional improvement.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
This video about grouping to increase eye contact and learning:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/video/what-social-brain
 
 
4 steps to define your coaching purpose:
 
https://simplycoachingandteaching.com/blog/2021/09/08/coaching-purpose/
 
 
Pitfalls and pivots for instructional coaches:
 
https://www.edelements.com/blog/secret-lessons-and-common-pitfalls-from-a-former-instructional-coach
 
 
Picture books about worry:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/reassuring-worried-children-with-picture-books/
 
 
Supporting comprehension of ebooks:
 
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/teaching-interactive-picture-e-books-grades-k-6
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Coaching Attributes

This week, I reached out to teachers asking them the attributes they value in a coach. I wondered which characteristics draw them in and help them be better versions of themselves. I learned a lot from teachers’ responses! 

There were some characteristics that weren’t surprising, but having them come up again and again reinforced their importance: Someone who can see the humor in a situation. Someone who looks at mistakes as an opportunity to grow. Someone who is caring. Someone positive. Someone who is supportive and comfortable to be around. Someone who gives feedback in an encouraging way – who confronts when needed, but does it with grace.   

The idea of respect and trust came up over and over again. Someone who shows trust in me. Someone who values my input. Someone who respects me. Someone who works alongside me. Someone who recognizes and appreciates my contributions.

There were also some themes describing what not to be and do. Teachers don’t want a coach who is high-anxiety, someone who gets easily frustrated, or someone who is a natural complainer. They don’t want a coach who continually points out the negative.  

Some interesting ideas came up when I asked teachers about their own personalities and how that related to attributes they wanted in a coach. Teachers often valued attributes in their coaches that the viewed as positive in themselves. If they saw themselves as organized, they wanted a coach who was organized. If they saw themselves as flexible, they wanted a coach to have that characteristic. From these comments, I recognized that it could be helpful to listen to what a teacher perceives as her own strengths and mirror them.
 
Alternatively, sometimes teachers mentioned valuing someone who was different in ways that balanced personal attributes they wanted to adjust. For example, a teacher who described herself as shy wanted a coach who would pull her out of her shell. I found it interesting that a teacher who felt he was too strict with students wanted a coach who would help him “loosen up a bit.” From these comments, I recognize that it can be helpful for me to tune in to what a teacher perceives as a weakness and be a counter-balance, pulling him through the area of need with my own modeling.
 
Reflecting on the responses I got when I asked teachers about the attributes they value in a coach has given me a laundry list of things to self-assess for and work on. I think it’s a question I’ll ask regularly as part of my quest to become a better version of my coaching self!  

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Name your strength:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/self-fulfilling-prophecies-recommending-yourself/
 
Using pop culture to teach writing (10 minute podcast episode!):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpZSIPvkZsE
 
Have you used Kahoot?  This video (1 minute and 40 seconds!) describes how to use a blind Kahoot to introduce new material:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwGE758uWuc
 
 
How to support those who mentor new teachers:
 
https://www.niet.org/newsroom/show/feature/support-teacher-mentors
 
 
Ideas for culturally-sensitive communication:
 
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/publications/critical-practices-for-antibias-education/family-and-community-engagement
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Listen First

Yesterday, I was strongly reminded of the value of listening first in a coaching situation.
 
In last week’s post, I described the disrupted experience my student-teaching interns have had during their COVID teacher-preparation experience – cancelled practicums meant these interns stepped into student teaching with almost no experience in the classroom. Coupled with that, the majority of them are in kindergarten classrooms, and their mentors reminded me that many of these kids were still three years old when COVID began. They’ve spent much of their young lives socially distanced, and this seems to be reflected in their classroom interactions. I reminded myself to be aware of these issues as I started the first round of interns’ formal evaluations.
 
My experience in Leslie’s classroom seemed to confirm my fears. Students were complaining about each other, telling on their peers, needing frequent reminders to participate, Many students disregarded Leslie’s requests. Kids pulled them arms inside their shirts and flapped the sleeves around, and several were laying down on the carpet where the group was seated, During the short lesson, Leslie had students move from the carpet to their desks several times, in what appeared to be an attempt to keep them engaged – but it backfired as students became more distracted from the content. Admirably, Leslie’s voice was firm and calm throughout, but most of her talk was directed toward student behavior rather that teaching content.
 
I had observed this lesson at 11:30, and after school I was driving back to meet with Leslie so that we could discuss the lesson. As I drove, I reminded myself of all the things that were working against Leslie. I knew I should acknowledge these. I wanted to make sure the feedback felt manageable. I decided on just one recommendation I could make that would have the most impact (“Increase the proportion of instructional talk to management talk”). Thankfully, I also reminded myself to listen first.
 
As Leslie and I walked together into a room where we could have a conversation, I asked, “How was the day?” The floodgates opened, and Leslie told me about a situation that had unfolded due to one student in the class who consistently exhibited challenging behaviors. To protect privacy, I won’t go into details, but it was clear that the other children in the class felt unsafe until the child was removed from the classroom, and the situation was traumatic for the student teacher and mentor as well.
 
After the child with challenging behaviors was gone, the mentor and intern had a conversation with the rest of the class about what had happened, trying to restore calm. It was time for recess then, so they went outside.
 
“When did all this happen?” I asked, as Leslie’s description of the situation came to a close.
 
“Right before you observed,” Leslie said. They were just coming in from recess as I joined the class.
 
When I had observed that morning, I had no knowledge of what had recently transpired. As I reflected on the observation, I hadn’t known about the incident that had so impacted students. Now, I recognized that what I had seen had likely been more of a reflection of the morning’s events than the intern’s teaching skill. I backpedaled on my planned recommendation and instead empathized. Leslie talked about how thrown off she had been by the morning’s events, and how atypical her students’ behavior was during the lesson I had observed.
 
Although I’d been in her room for a few minutes previously, I didn’t really have a sense of the typical classroom climate, so I asked.  Leslie told me about routines that were beginning to be established, and she described some hopes for the future. It was a very different conversation than I had anticipated. I can’t say we moved the work forward too much, but what would have happened if I’d launched into my recommendation without listening first? I think I’d be undoing damage to the relationship for some time to come.
 
I’ve written so many posts about listening. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you may be tired of them. But, as for me, I could always use another reminder about this important skill. Over the course of the coming year with Leslie, she and I will reap benefits because I listened first.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Professional growth partners pair teachers for ingrown PD:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLBVJfQHQoQ
 
 
Helping anxious students re-adjust to social settings:
 
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58462/how-to-help-anxious-students-re-adjust-to-social-settings
 
 
This podcast about the importance of Maslow’s fourth tier:
 
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/maslow-esteem/
 
Why teachers should be asking more questions in their classroom:
 
https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/always-on-inquiry-asking-more-questions-classroom/
 
Why kids shouldn’t sit still in class:
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/well/family/why-kids-shouldnt-sit-still-in-class.html?_r=0
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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