Affirming to Cultivate Growth

When we affirm, we choose what to cultivate. As coaches, we can notice and name the brilliant things teachers do. Affirming draws to consciousness things that otherwise might have slipped away. As we raise awareness about these certain things, we open the space for conversations. Here are two examples:
 
“You know what I heard you doing when you conferred with Liza? You asked open-ended questions to deeper her understanding.”
“I see you know about rhetorical reading. When you asked the class to look for the patterns Cisneros used in her description, you helped them to read like writers.”
 
When we affirm, it’s helpful to be explicit about both the practice and the purpose behind the practice. In the examples above, the practice is coupled with its outcome, what happened because you did this. These affirmations invite thoughtful rejoinders that sustain effective practices. By shining a spotlight on things the teacher does well, we build their confidence and encourage more of the same. What we focus on grows.
 
Overcoming negativity. When we draw attention to specific practices, we may uncover strengths that teachers have used but are unaware of. This can happen because of an inclination to focus on what isn’t working. Affirmation can counter this negativity bias. Focusing on weaknesses is relatively ineffective, but easy to do. In fact, our brains are hardwired for it. To survive in past generations, one had to be attuned to the negative and ready to respond to it (fight, flight, or freeze). Negative stimuli stick faster than positive experiences. But focusing on deficiencies reinforces unproductive neural pathways in our brains. This “negativity bias” still has benefits in some situations, but it can also cause a view that restricts our recognition of the good.
 
Both coaches and teacher are affected by negativity bias, but using affirmations intentionally can counter this bias. As a coach, you may need to purposefully set aside the tendency to see the negative and, instead, look for positive features to affirm. As you find practices to celebrate and share them with teachers, your affirmations can help teachers reframe their own experiences in a more positive light. Becoming more aware of instructional aspects that are going well shifts teachers away from their own negative biases. The resulting energy readies teachers to move forward productively. The practices cultivated through affirmation grow.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
This podcast about the magic of singing:
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/podcast-38
 
 
Using questions as a teaching tool:
 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776909/
 
 
Doing an emotional check-in with students:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/social-emotional-states
 
 
Strengthening principal/coach partnerships:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/5-things-coaches-and-principals-can-do-right-now-for-a-better-partnership
 
 
How to create a class website in 30 minutes or less – really!
 
http://theedublogger.com/2013/08/29/class-website/ 
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Affirmation in a Post-Pandemic Return to School

As we prepare to return to what we hope will be a post-pandemic school year, everyone will benefit from affirmation.

We need reassurance that we’ll find the path, even though it will look different from pre-pandemic times. We have learned so much in the past 16 months. How can coaches help teachers hang onto the best of that? One way is to affirm what we have seen working, and to use affirmation in an ongoing way to affirm what we see working in our new context. 

Let’s not pretend that it won’t be new. During writing camps for elementary and secondary students this summer, I heard teachers describe their students’ insights and challenges, both of which seemed magnified. The summer camp was a first return to school for many of them, who had signed up for remote learning during the 2020-21 school year. Others had had face-to-face experiences that were disrupted by quarantines and by appropriately-relaxed expectations. How will we return to accountability? What should that even mean? How will we honor the individualized learning that so many students pursued? What technology will we hold on to? What scripts can we let go of?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, and you probably don’t either. But I think we should keep questions like these at the forefront as we return to school. Teachers will be figuring this out. And when we see someone who is navigating these uncharted waters in a successful way, we should acknowledge and affirm. We should share and hope that these positive impacts spread.

Language that affirms the classroom teacher’s knowledge and expertise causes deep thinking and reflection.*  When coaches attend to the positive, life-giving elements we see, we galvanize energy and ready teachers for ongoing success. The energy gained can be directed toward sustaining positives and revising aspects that are going less well.

As we prepare to return to school in a post-pandemic world, let’s prepare to explore the strengths, successes, and possibilities of teachers and students. It’s time to get out the rose-colored glasses.

National Council of Teachers of English (2020). Elevating Student Voice: The Role and Importance of Literacy Coaches for K–12 Teachers. https://ncte.org/statement/elevating-student-voice/.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
How coaching and teacher are alike:
 
https://itsaboutmakingspace.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/coaching-is-teaching/
 
 
Eight spaces for your coaching room (if you’re lucky enough to have one!):
 
http://buzzingwithmsb.blogspot.com/2021/07/what-goes-in-coaching-office-space-ep.html
 
A podcast about SEL:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/podcast?utm_source=newsletter20170218/
 
Thinking about language: School loss, not learning loss:
 
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2021/01/getting-clearer-schooling-loss-not-learning-loss/
 
This video with a perspective about post-pandemic schools:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LC4YFenynI
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com
 

Notice & Affirm

When coaches affirm, they shine a spotlight on things teachers do well, building their confidence and encouraging more of the same. This creates positive energy, broadens thinking, expands awareness, increases abilities, builds resiliency, bolsters initiative, generates new possibilities, and creates “an upward spiral of learning and growth.”* With such a list of positive outcomes, affirming is a coaching move that should be incorporated all along the way.
 
In contrast, it’s relatively ineffective to focuses on weaknesses, but easy to do so. In fact, our brains are hardwired for it. To survive in past generations, one had to be attuned to the negative and ready to respond to it (fight, flight, or freeze). Negative stimuli stick faster than positive experiences. But focusing on deficiencies reinforces unproductive neural pathways in our brains. This “negativity bias” still has benefits in some situations, but it can also cause a view that restricts our recognition of the good.
 
Both coaches and teacher are affected by negativity bias. As a coach, you may need to be intentional about setting aside the tendency to see the negative. You may have to purposely look for the positive. As you find practices to celebrate and share them with teachers, your affirmations can help teachers reframe their own experiences in a more positive light, shifting away from their own negative biases. The resulting energy readies teachers to move forward productively.
 
For example, Sarah is a first-grade teacher who listens carefully to student responses and uses those responses to build students’ understanding. When I mentioned this to Sarah, she smiled shyly and was humbly pleased, but surprised! Sometimes negativity bias may blind teachers to their own genius!
 
Affirmation increases feel-good hormones and creates clusters of positive thought neurons. “We can focus on what isn’t working and do less of it, or we can focus on what is working and do more of that. If we start with what is working, we galvanize energy to make change.”** As teachers discover their successes and strengths, they generate new possibilities for moving forward.
 
*Tschannen-Moran, B. & Tschannen-Moran, M. (2020). Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time. John Wiley & Sons, p. 109. 

 
**Aguilar, E. (2018). Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators. Jossey-Bass, p. 176.

 This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Coaching new teachers to success:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategies-help-new-teachers-thrive
 
 
5 Risks New Teachers Should Take:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/new-teacher-risks
 
 
Using the jigsaw method for cooperative adult learning:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/foster-cooperative-adult-learning-with-the-jigsaw-method
 
 
Lesson Plans for establishing classroom rules – especially important for students just returning from virtual settings (grades 2 & 3 but easily adapted – be sure to click on different tabs to get all of the information!):
 
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/creating-class-rules-beginning-136.html
 
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/loud-here-teamwork-classroom-218.html?tab=1#tabs
 
 
Classroom storage ideas on Pinterest:
 
http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/classroom-storage-ideas/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com