Instructional
coaches may spend their time filling a variety of roles: assessor, data analyst,
copy maker, assembly planner, substitute teacher, interventionist, behavior
support, and more. The most important role, as validated by research, is the support
given directly to teachers. The more time coaches spend modeling, planning,
observing, and reflecting with teachers, the greater their impact. That doesn’t
mean that all of your time needs to be spent in this way (other activities
are valuable and may strengthen relationships and fill building needs). But the
more you can prioritize the things that matter most, the greater your effectiveness.
As
we turn our attention to the coming school year, it’s time to prioritize the
roles that matter most. Were you given a job description when you began
coaching? If so, what roles are included in that description? And are the
responsibilities listed there the way you actually end up spending your time? If you could write your own job description,
what would you include? (Pause and ask yourself that question!) Can you adjust
your time to make those things happen?
Coaches
make a difference when they support teachers in the goals they have for themselves
or their students. They make a difference when they co-plan with teachers,
drawing on effective practices and valuing teachers’ expertise and knowledge of
their students and the content. They learn and problem-solve alongside
teachers. Coaches make a difference when they model or observe instruction and
then ask questions to guide teachers’ reflection on that instruction. Shoulder-to-shoulder,
coaches and teachers work together to improve student learning.
Now
is the time to get crystal-clear about your values and goals as a coach. Once
you’ve done so, the first person to share these ideas with is your building
principal or district administrator (depending on the scope of your role). It
helps to have a principal-coach agreement going into a new year. If you’d like
examples and a template for creating this agreement, click here.
After
you and your principal are on the same page, consider how you’ll share information
about your role with teachers. Even if you are a returning coach, the start of
a new school year allows the opportunity for redefinition. Sharing a “menu of
support” at a beginning-of-year staff meeting can clarify expectations and get
teachers on board. It’s also helpful to share what you are not – especially that
you are not acting as an evaluator and will not share information for evaluation
purposes. You are there to collaborate and encourage.
Being
clear about the values that guide your work, and the roles and responsibilities
that support these values, will help you communicate effectively and prioritize
your efforts as the new school year gets underway.
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
Ruth
Ayres “Big
Fresh” post this week got me thinking about the value of validation as a
coaching attribute, so I’m adding it to the list of personal attributes we can
enrich this summer and bring to our coaching in the fall.
Ruth
tells of her response after her teenage son let her know he’d gotten his third
speeding ticket in less than 3 months. After he texted the news, along with the
comment, “horrible day,” Ruth responded: “Oh noooooo! That IS horrible.” Her
first step was to validate his feelings.
Validation
shows compassion and helps us connect with others. Validating emotions doesn’t
mean you agree; it demonstrates your understanding without trying to talk someone
out of their emotion. We accept their inner feelings as valid.
Instead
of saying, “Oh, it’s not that bad,” we say, “That sounds hard!” Instead of
saying, “Try to see the bright side,” we say, “You seem upset.” Instead of
saying, “If you hadn’t done that, it wouldn’t have happened,” we say, “I’m here
for you.”
My
husband recently had major surgery. He’s lucky to be alive. But sometimes he
doesn’t feel lucky. Sometimes he feels nauseated, fatigued, and discouraged. I’m
learning to say, “This is hard.” (FULL STOP) Not, “This is hard, but it will
get better.” Those cheery thoughts can be added after he feels validated.
My
daughter calls and tells me about a parenting challenge. “It sounds like you’re
exhausted!” I say, and she says, “Yes!!!” feeling heard.
This
summer, I’m confident you’ll find lots of opportunities to intentionally
validate others’ emotions. Catch yourself doing it. This is good practice. When
the school year gets underway, responding with validation will be a habit you
can hang on to.
During
a reflective conversation this fall, when a teacher describes a student’s behavior
as challenging, you can say, “I can see how you would feel that way.” When you
see a teacher in the hall and she complains about the testing schedule, you can
say, “You sound frustrated!” Then you
can ask questions to clarify, showing that you are listening and trying to
understand.
When
we validate emotions, we show that the person’s feelings are important to us.
We demonstrate care, and the relationship is strengthened. Coaching (when it
works) is a relational activity, so offering emotional validation is an interpersonal
move worth practicing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
You deserve PD for
coaching! Come spend 2 days (Aug. 1 & 2) in Northwest Arkansas with Jim
Knight, Vicki Collet, September Gerety, Afton Schleiff and a host of other
coaches at the NWA Instructional Coaching Conference. Be:
Ignited. Illuminated. Inspired.
For the cost of the included
lunches ($35), you can take your coaching to the next level!
As a coach, I know how hard it is to
find PD that is just for you. Well, this is it! I'm excited to have
received a grant to sponsor the conference, and I hope you'll join us!
Register here:
https://tinyurl.com/CoachingConf2023
Check out this flier for details and reach out to me
(collet@uark.edu) with questions and suggestions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
Are
you willing to give up perfectionism?
As
the next post in our summer series for developing personal attributes you can
take into your coaching, I hope you’ll consider trying to free yourself from the
ropes of perfectionism. If you’re the kind of driven individually who often
ends up in an instructional coaching role, I’m not sure it’s entirely possible.
But I think it’s partially possible, and I think it’s worth a try.
Perfectionism
has different roots. It might grow from being a high-achiever who believes in
continuous improvement. Nothing wrong with that, but don’t let it get out of
hand.
Perfectionism
might grow from concern about others’ opinions. This one is less-healthy, to be
sure. I’m not a psychologist, but I know that worrying about what others think
of me constrains my actions. I don’t think of myself as overly-driven by others’
opinions, but lately, as I’ve been stopping to notice, I realize that it’s an
insidious habit that I somehow ended up with without trying. I’m trying to
catch myself feeling judged by others or doing things a certain way because of
what others will think. I’m trying to let those feeling go.
It's
been kind of freeing to wear the same comfy short several days in a row. To
walk around with my hair up in the heat, even though all the clips I used don’t
really keep it there. In my Instagram posts, I’ve reminded myself that done is better
than perfect. When I spilled something while hurrying from the kitchen, I
grabbed a towel and said, “Oh, well.”
Don’t
get me wrong – I still have a drive to make progress – to be on an upward
trajectory for the things that matter. But I’m trying to give myself grace and acknowledge
that it’s not a straight path and that mistakes are opportunities for learning.
When I realize I’ve made a mistake, I try to give a little internal cheer: “Hooray!
Here’s an area where I can grow!”
How
do we take this ease with failure into our coaching role?
Be
willing to admit mistakes. This might sound like, “I’m still learning about
that” or “I’m working on doing better at that.”
You don’t have to be all knowing. “What a great question!” you might
say, “I don’t know, but I’m interested in finding out!”
If
you model in a classroom, be sure both pre- and post-conversations include the
idea that we will learn from both the things that go well and the
things that don’t. We all learn as we go by reflecting on successes and
less-successful aspects of a lesson. When a coach models in the classroom, the
teacher sees both the competence (and incompetence?) of the coach and her
willingness to take a risk and learn and think alongside the teacher. When
modeling, don’t feel like your lesson has to be perfect.
Movies
and popular media are replete with Super-Teachers: Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society,”
Hillary Swank in “Freedom Writers,” Edward Olmos in “Stand and Deliver.” These
caricatured teachers present a polished, uncracked model of teaching and
teachers that is not only unachievable but disheartening. It promotes feelings
of inadequacy. Failure, however, is part of the real-life of teaching, and
those we mentor and coach deserve to see us working through this process.
They
deserve to see us model the ambiguity and risk-taking that is part of teaching.
They deserve to see that sometimes taking risks ends in mistakes, in debacles,
in failure. And that learning from failure isn’t a quick and easy process. If
we don’t show them this side of teaching, we create a false ideal. If we hide our struggles, we perpetuate the
feelings of inadequacy these false ideals create.
We
have probably told our students repeatedly that mistakes are part of learning.
Are we explicitly describing and modeling this for those we coach? Do we model
a willingness to take risks and try new things? Do we let our colleagues see
the struggle by inviting them in when we try something new? By thinking aloud
as we reflect on a disaster? By describing some of the reasons part of the
lesson went awry? When we describe our analysis, we demonstrate our thoughtful
review of the situation. Was it the planning and preparation that was lacking?
Or something about the execution? As we reflect, we demonstrate how drawing on
our experience helps us revise our instructional plans so that things go better
the next time. We model the notion that being a good teacher is about being
able to reflect and adjust.
Teachers
need to see other teachers fail. More importantly, they need to see how we
respond to failure. As we model a cycle of failure, reflection, and revision,
we demonstrate that teaching requires us to be pliable and that challenges are
a part of real-life teaching.
Those
you coach will likely breathe a sigh of relief as you unveil your own errors.
They will feel a little more confident in their own ability to rebound, knowing
that those kinds of things happen to other teachers, too. Disasters are a part
of our working life. Every teacher struggles now and then with instructional
design. We all have lessons that flop. Modeling how to learn from them is an
important part of our role as coach.
When
failures happen, we don’t just recover, we discover, seeing teaching as an
ongoing learning journey. Ambiguity is part of learning. The way we view the
things that go wrong is more important than how often or how badly things go
wrong. Teaching is never perfectible (it will never be perfect!), but it is improvable.
Teachers need to see others fail. So don’t be afraid to let them see you
struggle. As coaches, we need to be public but not perfect.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Treat YOURSELF to
PD for coaches! Come spend 2 days (Aug. 1 & 2) in Northwest Arkansas with
Jim Knight, Vicki Collet, September Gerety, Afton Schleiff and a host of other
coaches at the NWA Instructional Coaching Conference. Be:
Ignited. Illuminated. Inspired.
For the cost of the included
lunches ($35), you can take your coaching to the next level!
As a coach, I know how hard it is to
find PD that is just for you. Well, this is it! I'm excited to have
received a grant to sponsor the conference, and I hope you'll join us!
Register here:
https://tinyurl.com/CoachingConf2023
Check out this flier for details and reach out to me
(collet@uark.edu) with questions and suggestions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
This
post adds to the series about personal attributes that you can enrich this
summer and bring to your coaching in the fall. This week, I’ve been thinking
about the “sweet spot” for goals – that place where there is just enough
stretch to be challenging but not frustrating. Let’s consider the “sweet spot”
principle from a personal perspective, then consider how it applies to coaching
work.
I
want to begin with the premise that LIFE, as we live it, should
be enjoyable! We don’t have to wait until we get to some uncertain distant
point to be happy. We can find joy in the journey. This is also true, more
specifically, as we consider personal and professional goals.
Think
of a goal you have set for yourself this summer. If it isn’t quite named yet,
that’s fine – just think about something you are hoping to do or learn. Now,
how can you achieve that goal and have fun along the way? Fun doesn’t have to
mean easy: people are made to learn and grow and develop – they are not made to
be stagnant. Choosing the enjoyable path toward your goal means stretching
enough so that there’s achievable challenge. This is invigorating! Working hard
can be satisfying. We may have to sacrifice, try something new, or push uncomfortably
at times as we work toward our goal. For example, If I want to get my next book
done, I may have to write at times when I don’t really feel like it – I may have
to make myself feel like it! If I want to be more physically fit,
I know I’ll have to lift weights that are a bit heavier than what’s
comfortable. Growth requires challenge. But…
As
soon as the challenge crosses over into frustration, impatience, or judging myself
for not achieving my goal or getting there fast enough, I know I have not set
an appropriate goal, or I have not chosen a good path to get there.
We
all have a sweet spot – and it is different for each individual and for each kind
of skill or knowledge that we want to develop. When we’re in that sweet spot,
we have small wins, and we are motivated to keep trying. It’s worth it to stay
in the sweet spot, even if it seems like it might take longer to achieve our
goals. When we are operating in our sweet spot, we can persist and stick it out
for the long haul. We can become the person who lives or
does the thing, rather than just experiencing it temporarily before returning
to our former ways.
Now,
let’s think about helping others achieve their goals. There’s a
difference between nudging someone in a way that is invigorating to them – that
is exciting and causes them to want to keep going – versus pushing so hard that
they’re frustrated.
When
we think about how to help teachers learn and grow and develop skills and
knowledge, we want to keep them in their sweet spot. We want the process,
overall, to be enjoyable and we want it to be challenging enough
so that teachers aren’t bored or stagnant with the work we’re doing together.
Teachers will have their own professional goals, and we can help them achieve
them by offering support within what Vygotsky called the zone of proximal
development – where they can accomplish something with support that
they would not be able to do on their own. I’ve seen teachers grow into
more-effective question-askers; I’ve seen them use read-alouds more
effectively; I’ve seen writing workshop become a smooth and effective process –
all with a bit of stretch and the encouragement and support of an instructional
coach.
As
you keep yourself and the teachers you work with in the sweet spot on the road
to achieving goals, hopefully you’ll all find yourself enjoying the journey!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Treat YOURSELF to
PD for coaches! Come spend 2 days (Aug. 1 & 2) in Northwest Arkansas with
Jim Knight, Vicki Collet, September Gerety, Afton Schleiff and a host of other coaches
at the NWA Instructional Coaching Conference. Be:
Ignited. Illuminated. Inspired.
For the cost of the included
lunches ($35), you can take your coaching to the next level!
As a coach, I know how hard it is to
find PD that is just for you. Well, this is it! I'm excited to have
received a grant to sponsor the conference, and I hope you'll join us!
Register here:
https://tinyurl.com/CoachingConf2023
Check out this
flier for details and reach out to me (collet@uark.edu) with questions
and suggestions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
