Circles within Circles

Circles within circles…That’s what I was envisioning as I prepared for a debrief conversation with Leslie. There were some specific things I hoped to talk about (directions and procedures), but I didn’t want to jump right to those topics. I wanted to provide a comfortable context before digging in. So I thought about nested circles.
 
It was a Thursday, so I began by asking how the week was going, establishing a broad context – painting a big outer circle for our conversation. The week was going better than expected, Leslie said. After three snow days with remote learning last week, she had anticipated that classroom routines might be off, but students, for the most part, came back ready to learn. That positive start gave our conversation solid footing.
 
Next, I asked about the day. What was something she wanted to celebrate? I added a caveat – I wanted to hear about something I hadn’t observed, so we weren’t zeroing in yet. Leslie gave some highlights of a math lesson that she felt went well.
 
Now that we were well-grounded in positive aspects of the day and week, it felt comfortable to ask the rather pointed question I’d prepared about the lesson I’d observed. After she and I both commented about a few of the positive aspects of the lesson, we were ready to drill down to an area ripe for growth. So I glanced at the question I’d rehearsed in advance and said, “As you reflect on the transitions before and during the lesson, what tweaks might you have made – now that you’ve seen how it all played out?”
 
Leslie told me how she’d been reflecting on the need to give more of the directions while her first-grade students were still seated on the carpet together. I agreed, telling her I’d noticed that she ended up repeating some instructions as she moved from student to student after they began working, so giving those directions while they were all attentive could have been more efficient.
 
When I asked, “Anything else? Do you have other ideas for smoothing out transitions?” Leslie came up dry. Because I felt that retrieval of materials had caused some confusion and delayed students’ ability to get started on the project, I retraced the time students spent with this task. “It seemed like during that delay in getting started, some students forgot their task,” I said, so having smoother choreography for getting the needed materials could give them a stronger start for their project, too. Communicating instructions and choreographing retrieval of supplies impacted each other and the work students did.
 
Our brief conversation had ranged over many ideas, so I wanted to make sure we got specific before concluding. I gave Leslie a 3X5 card and asked, “Of all the ideas we’ve talked about, what’s something you want to hold on to?” Leslie jotted a thought on the card that she could put on her desk as a reminder. She read it aloud to me, and I made a note so I could ask her about it next time we met. Giving complete instructions before students moved was, for Leslie, the core of our conversation.
 
Started broad and open laid a safe foundation for what ended up being a very specific conversation. The circles-within-circles image kept me patient as we narrowed our way to a topic that I wanted to be sure we considered together.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Instant mood-boosters:
 
https://aestheticsofjoy.com/2020/10/17/8-quick-things-you-can-do-right-now-to-boost-your-mood/
 
Teaching students to decode media and become truth seekers:
 
https://www.ascd.org/blogs/how-media-decoding-can-teach-students-to-be-seekers-of-truth
 
 
A podcast episode about self-care for instructional coaches:
 
https://buzzingwithmsb.blogspot.com/2021/02/self-care-for-instructional-coaches-ep.html
 
Making feedback to students manageable:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/consistent-feedback-in-writing-workshop/
 
3 mantras for a solid coaching foundation:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/three-mantras-for-a-solid-coaching-foundation
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
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