Interactional Trust for Coaching

Interactional trust is a core prerequisite for effective instructional coaching. Such trust fosters respect and understanding, allowing coaches and teachers to work as true partners,  Interactional trust establishes the foundation for open communication and collaboration.
 
Interactional trust has at least three components: Capability trust, Confidence trust, and Communication trust. Let’s unpack each of these important aspects.
 
Capability Trust
 
Working together effectively requires relying with confidence on another person. Capability trust is built as we work shoulder to shoulder. Capability trust is two-way. Teachers trust our ability and capacity and we trust theirs. A teacher is open to working with a coach who they view as caring, and they are open to ideas from a coach they view as knowledgeable and credible.
 
Conversely, effective coaches trust the teacher to have insights about her own needs and those of her students. We respect teachers’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgement. Asking teachers to make decisions rather than telling them what to do is an encouraging approach that exhibits trust in the teacher’s ability. We also build capability trust as we affirm. Through affirmations, coaches build alliance with teachers. Validation builds emotional capital. Capability trust creates a positive, trusting climate for coaching interactions.
 
Confidence Trust
 
Confidence trust is a feeling of assurance and dependability. When coaches build confidence trust, teachers feel confident that the coach will act in their best interest. They are assured that the coach is on their side. Our colleagues can be sure of us when we are consistently generous in our assumptions about their efforts.
 
Confidence trust is built through honoring agreements, through showing up as expected, through being consistent. To build confidence trust, coaches need to set appropriate boundaries for themselves and others so that everyone involved can realistically do what they say they’ll do. We can be generous while managing expectations.
 
Communication Trust
 
Coaching connections are built through open conversation. Honest and constructive dialogue is possible only when communication trust exists. When communication trust is created, teachers can be transparent about their needs and goals, and coaches can provide candid feedback without it being misinterpreted as criticism. Where there is communication trust, colleagues develop an understanding of each other’s views, strengths, and needs.
 
Communication trust creates a safe space for teachers to share challenges, admit uncertainties, and take risks in their teaching practices without fear of judgment. They are more likely to experiment with new strategies and learn from failures.
 
Communication trust is fostered through sharing information, telling the truth, admitting mistakes, maintaining confidentiality, and speaking with good purpose. Open questions and listening sustain this trust.
 
Interactional Trust
 
Building and sustaining capability trust, confidence trust, and communication trust helps teacher-coach interactions thrive. Coaches are more likely to be sought as trusted colleagues with the assurance of interactional trust.

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

Help students overcome stereotypes by connecting with real people through stories:
 

https://www.middleweb.com/51484/inspiring-understanding-using-personal-stories/

Photos sure to spark interesting conversations (and attention to detail):
 
https://brightside.me/article/100-best-photographs-without-photoshop-46555/

 

Breaking grammar rules to teach them:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/breaking-grammar-rules

 
ABC’s of Effective Coaching:
 
https://twowritingteachers.org/2018/08/02/the-abcs-of-literacy-coaching-reminders-for-the-start-of-a-great-year/
 
 
A shared text experience for adolescents:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/first-shared-text-fishing-for-many-meanings-with-adolescents/
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: NOV2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
 

Coaching with Team Observations

Coaches are often working with teams of teachers, as PLCs, other grade-level teams, or departments, and team observations can be an efficient and effective way to amp up teachers’ learning. If the coach models a lesson, all the teachers on the team are freed up for a different experience
 
During a modeled lesson, teams of teachers can take multiple perspectives: They can lean in close to look and listen as students learn. They can shift their focus to the coach to think about instruction moves. They can watch one small group of students as they interact without having to manage all  the groups, like they do when teaching. When the coach teaches and the teachers observe, they get to choose their focus, and how and when to shift it.  
 
The modeled lesson can happen in the classroom of one of the teachers on the team, with the others observing. This offers teachers the chance to see the lesson in a context quite similar to their own.
 
An obstacle to overcome is how to free up the other teachers: What will their students be doing while they observe and converse? In addition to finding coverage in the school or through a substitute teacher, there are other creative ways to enable the team’s participation (using buddy reading, peer tutoring, “specials” time, etc. Click here and I’ll send you a whole list of options to consider!).
 
A team observation structure has the benefit of maximizing your coaching time, since you are working with more than one teacher. The collaborative nature of the structure can also be a benefit, with teachers sharing their learning with one another. Finally, there might be increased accountability, as teachers check in with one another about implementing what they have learned together.
 
Although the pre- and post-modeling conversations may range across a wider variety of topics of interest to the group, each individual can still select their own learning target, with others on the team supporting their inquiry. With the only drawbacks being the timing, a less-individualized approach, and some potential mismatch across classroom contexts, team observations are a variation worth considering.
 
(For those of you wondering how my lesson in a 7^th grade classroom went, it had to be postponed. I’ll update you later!)
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Teaching when a student’s learning gets hard:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/when-theyre-hard-to-teach/
 
 
Using digital storytelling to boost literacy engagement:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/video-storytelling-high-school
 
 
Ideas for incorporating literature (fiction and non-fiction) into history class:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/35728/turning-historys-stories-into-classroom-gold/
 
 
Do you ever feel lonely as a coach?  Here are some ideas for combatting that loneliness:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/the-loneliness-of-coaching
 
 
How to’s for a group work that really works:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/group-work-really-works
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: NOV2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
 

Coaching Vulnerability

According to Brené Brown, vulnerability is about showing up and being seen when there are no guarantees. Being vulnerable builds connections and leads to progress. I hope so, because next week I’m taking what feels like a big, vulnerable step in my coaching work.
 
It’s been a long time since I taught a class of 7^th graders (which used to be my most feared age). But I’ll be doing it on Tuesday, hoping to build connection with their teacher, Ana, and move our coaching work forward
 
I’ve written about Ana before. This year, I have the opportunity to coach her as part of a special project. Slowly, slowly, I think I’m building her trust. When she finally let me observe one of her “rowdy” classes, I felt I was moving in the right direction. But this week, when I suggested I observe the class that she says is “such a mess,” I saw panic in her eyes. So I backed off and said I’d reach out later.
 
When later came, I felt like asking to observe that class would risk our relationship. So instead, I offered to teach. I had just submitted a conference proposal for a teaching strategy that I hadn’t tried with middle schoolers, so I said it would be really helpful to me if she’d let me borrow her class to try it out. She quickly agreed.
 
So, today I’ll prepare for a lesson that I hope builds relationships and opens opportunities. I’ll send the lesson plan to Ana for her feedback, since she’s the expert on her class. I’ll ask her to watch out for certain things that I really want to know about as I teach the lesson. We’ll talk about it afterward, hopefully leading to insight for both of us.
 
When coaches model in another teacher’s classroom, we make ourselves vulnerable. We show that we are risk-takers, just like we hope the teachers we are working with will be. Vulnerability strengthens relationships. As we model risk-taking, we invite change. We can model the vulnerability and openness that we hope to see in the teachers we work with.
 
I’m hoping that being vulnerable myself will encourage Ana to be more vulnerable. As an early-career teacher, that may be hard for her. It seems she is always trying to prove or defend herself when no explanation is necessary. So, I’ll be vulnerable and be seen. I’ll be my real, slightly-nervous self when we talk before I teach her 12-year-olds. That’s the age I taught as an early-career teacher, so it does make me shake in my shoes!  I’ll show up as my imperfect self and do the best I can. It will surely give us something to talk about!
 
I’ll let you know how it goes.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Ways to use ChatGPT to save time as a teacher:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-ways-chatgpt-save-teachers-time/
 
 
Emoji book talks in middle school:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/emoji-book-talks/
 
 
How to eliminate overwhelm (in this 25 second video!):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPNb7pemWfs
 
 
Teaching children to fail well (with Brené Brown):
 
http://time.com/4025350/brene-brown-on-teaching-kids-to-fail-well/
 
 
Why kids need book clubs – and how to make them happen:
 
https://ccira.blog/2024/10/29/building-novel-connections-how-to-center-book-clubs-in-todays-literacy-classrooms/
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: NOV2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!

Instructional Coaching as Horizontal Leadership

Instructional coaches are school leaders who work side-by-side with teachers to improve student learning. Coaching is horizontal leadership that emphasizes collaboration and shared decision-making. It is not a vertical, top-down structure that depends on title and power to create change. Coaches link arms with teachers; they don’t lead from above. Echoing good teaching, they are a guide by the side, not a sage on the stage.
 
Sometimes, as a coach, we are out in front, beckoning; but we are never above, demanding. Instructional coaching is a role that depends on reciprocity and trust rather than hierarchy. It is not a top-down structure. But what does this mean on the real?
 
Empowerment
Horizontal leadership means creating a relationship of empowerment. Teachers feel encouraged to contribute their unique expertise and have an active voice. When teachers feel personally attached to work in this way, they come up with new, innovative solutions. When teachers feel empowered, they are willing to take a risk and give these new ideas a try.
 
Collaboration
Instead of hierarchy, we have networks, relationships, collaborations, and communities. Although coaches may have gotten the position because of their knowledge and experience, to be successful, we shift from know-it-all to learn-it- all. Coaching is a mutual learning venture.
 
Reciprocity
In effective teacher-coach relationships, ideas flow easily both ways. Rather than jumping in to share our ideas first, though, in order to overcome biases about vertical leadership, as coaches, we may need to hold our ideas and talk later, so that teachers are encouraged to lead out with their own thoughts. Reciprocity requires humility on the part of the coach, seeing the merit in others’ ideas.
 
Trust
Trust is built through two-way vulnerability. It’s refreshing to take off the know-it-all mask, and it builds trust. Trust is built when you work in ways that empower teachers and encourage collaboration and reciprocity. Authentic relationships are built when teachers’ ideas are valued.
 
Being a horizontal leader in a top-down organization requires a mind shift. Schools and districts usually have a defined vertical structure, so leading horizontally is not the norm. Teachers (and you!) may have an unnamed, unexamined bias toward leading from above that takes effort to untangle. This is especially complicated if you are feeling constrained in your coaching role because of vertically-structured leadership expectations.
 
If traditional vertical leadership seems to govern you and the teachers in ways that constrain. check in with yourself. Are you imagining boundaries where there is permeability? Are you (or teachers) feeling monitored where there is no surveillance? I’ve often had teachers tell me they could not do a certain thing or had to do a certain thing; when I checked in with the principal, I found that was not the case. Sometimes we build walls where they don’t exist. Horizontal leadership is about bridges, not walls. It’s about reaching across, not down. School organizations are healthier when built on empowerment, collaboration, reciprocity, and trust.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

3 Ways to More “Aha” Moments in Coaching:
 
http://www.growthcoaching.com.au/articles-new/3-ways-to-more-aha-moments-in-coaching
 
 
Helping writers consider perspective:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/beyond-personal-narrative-a-change-in-perspective/
 
 
Redos and retakes:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=192M61YJJKY
 
 
A podcast episode on norms that can lead to teacher burnout:
 
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/school-norms/
 
 
This video about grouping to increase eye contact and learning:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/video/what-social-brain
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: OCT2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!

Coaches as Listening Partners or Thinking Partners?

Whether it’s unloading after a challenging day or talking out loud to find their own solutions, sometimes all a teacher needs is a listening partner.
 
Coaches take their cues from the teacher to determine the most helpful stance. If a situation seems emotionally charged, being a listening partner helps to de-escalate feelings. When my veteran first-grade teacher friend had “the most challenging group in (her) 27 years of teaching,” she had plenty of her own ideas for supporting students, but the support she needed for herself was someone to hear her.
 
I was also primarily a listening partner when Brittani, a more novice teacher, thought through students’ formative data on the math lesson she had just taught. As she vocalized the misconceptions she saw on their papers, she made connections to points in the lesson she’d taught and started formulating a plan to reteach. I did a lot of nodding.
 
When teachers need a listening partner, follow these five steps:
 
1) Listen to hear. Hearing implies a deep level of understanding.  It takes effort. Hearing is an active verb. It requires your full presence.
 
2) Let them know you care. The speaker feels understood and valued when empathy is expressed. “That sounds hard” acknowledges emotions.  
 
3) Thank them for trusting you. When teachers feel safe enough with you to do an emotional dump, share shortcomings, or express half-formed thoughts, acknowledging the trust this took affirms the relationship.
 
4) Reflect back what you heard. Paraphrasing validates the emotions and ideas the teacher has expressed. It also helps the teacher examine their own experiences.
 
5) Ask what they want to do. This open-ended question helps the teacher move past the initial download and potentially unpack the situation.
 
After listening, your response might sound something like, “That sounds hard. Thanks for trusting me with those feelings (thoughts). It sounds like you….What are you thinking you might want to do?
 
If it seems appropriate to offer ideas, you can ask, “Do you want to hear my thoughts?” If you get an affirmative response, you can then shift to “thinking partner” stance. But when emotions or ideas run high, be a listening partner first.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Cultivating a Coaching Mindset:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/learning-from-lasso-cultivating-a-coaching-mindset-in-new-literacy-coaches/
 
This short video about learning synthesizing with construction paper and glue sticks:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/video/synthesize-information-from-multiple-sources
 
 
This podcast episode with 5 conditions for effective formative assessment:
 
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/effective-formative-assessment/
 
 
Brené Brown on teaching children to fail well:
 
http://time.com/4025350/brene-brown-on-teaching-kids-to-fail-well/
 
 
How to stay in the profession:
 
https://ccira.blog/2019/09/24/teacher-lost-and-found/
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: OCT2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!

Asset-Based Coaching for Reluctant Teachers

Ana was so unsure of herself as a teacher that, when she initially invited me to observe in her classroom, it was during the class period when only three students were enrolled. Knowing that Ana’s previous coach had faced excuses and last-minute cancellations and had never even observed Ana’s classes, I counted this a win.
 
It was an even bigger win when, after that first observation, Ana agreed for me to observe one of her larger classes; the one before lunch, not the group at the end of the day, which she said was “a big mess.”
 
I knew that helping Ana feel comfortable with me and gaining her trust was the only way I would ever be of service to her and to her students. An asset-based coaching approach could help, and I was reminded of a success notebooking practice I’d used in the past. It may seem silly, but before leaving for school, I reread my own post twice, printed it off, and highlighted it. I wrote myself a little sticky-note cheat sheet with the prompts I wanted to use and stuck it in my pocket.

As I observed Ana’s class, I wrote notes about what I was seeing and hearing in a tiny notebook. When the bell rang and Ana’s students left, she said, “Well, that was a mess!” as she walked toward me. I asked if she had 15 minutes or so to talk, and she said she did. When Ana left to heat up her lunch, I reviewed the post I had printed, re-read the prompts on the sticky note, and highlighted my observation notes. When she got back to her room, I followed my own formula for creating an affirming experience.

First, I gifted her a small, unintimidating notebook for our coaching work. It was the same as the one I’d taken notes with during her lesson, but hers was more colorful. Then, I suggested she reflect on one of the successes of the lesson. I told her that I’d be doing the same, and then we’d share. When she stopped writing, I said, “Let’s take another minute or so to add details about what happened.” When her pen stopped, I said, “Let’s take just a few more seconds and add at least one more detail.”  I explained that it was the details that would really be helpful.

Then I asked her, “What seems important about the success you wrote about?” She said that her students seemed to really enjoy the lesson, a small-group, collaborative writing idea that had been mentioned in our previous PLC work. I asked, “What is your big ‘Aha!’ about this?” She said she realized she could give her students more control than she thought, and that they would participate more. After she described how some students more-typically behaved, I asked, “Where could you do this in upcoming lessons?” Ana said they were about to start a new unit. At first she talked about small-group peer feedback that could happen near the end of the unit. Then she circled back to the success I’d described – about discussion as a pre-writing activity – and decided that would be a good way to kick off their writing. She and I captured these two ideas in our notebooks before wrapping up our conversation.

As I left Ana’s room, I thought about the difference between Ana’s self-effacing initial comment, “That was a mess!” and her insight that she could give students more control. I felt that Ana and I were moving together in a productive direction. Affirming successful aspects of the lesson had opened a door. 

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

Participate in the National Day of Writing on Oct. 20:
 
https://ncte.org/national-day-writing/
 
 
Check in on students’ feelings:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/detours-a-reminder-of-the-humanity-of-students/
 
 
Using drama and role playing for English Learners:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/38032/try-drama-and-role-play-with-english-learners/
 
 
Every teacher needs a mentor:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/every-teacher-needs-mentor
 
 
Why kids need play:
 
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54326/childhood-as-resume-building-why-play-needs-a-comeback
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: OCT2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
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Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Instagram @Vicki_Collet_Educator, on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch and Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com.
 

Coaching Notebooks after Modeling

Coaching notebooks are a tool for discovery when coaches confer with teachers after they model. If you have modeled a lesson, the observer’s non-evaluative notes about what they saw and heard offer a springboard for meaningful discussion and learning.
 
When you meet with a teacher after a lesson you’ve modeled, it can be helpful to offer a few silent moments for her to review her notes. Encourage her to highlight or underline things that seem important. Ask her to view her notes through the lens of her own personal teaching goals.
 
After the teacher has scanned and marked up her notes, offer time to synthesize these ideas. You might say something like, “Now that you’ve noted what seems important, take a minute or two to write about why those moments seem important.” While she reviews, use the time to jot down your own notes, capturing fleeting thoughts that occurred to you in the midst of teaching.
 
The details matter, so careful notes will provide evidence for productive conversations. Did the teacher notice students’ looks of confusion or “aha” expressions while you taught? These noticings give us clues about what worked so that we can zero in on generalizable teaching strategies. As the teacher shares her noticings and notes, ask questions that encourage transfer: “When have you tried something like that?” “How did it go?” “When might you use this approach again?” or “Why would you want to avoid that?”
 
A post-modeling conversation is the time to analyze, to figure out what worked and why, what didn’t and why not. We make links between instruction and student learning. After you’ve modeled a lesson, pinning the reflective conference on observations that are objective and specific, rather than evaluative or general, reveals nuances of practice that support teachers’ instructional improvement.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
This short video (1 ¼ minutes) about improving on improving (with Adam Grant):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAhCJnCRnwg
 
 
Advice for new teachers:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/free-videos/
 
 
Choice writing in a world of standardized testing:
 
https://ccira.blog/2024/09/30/term-projects-exploring-choice-writing-in-a-world-of-standardized-testing/
 
Literacy for wounded students:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/trauma-and-literacy/
 
 
Tips on coaching a novice teacher:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/coaching-novice-teacher
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: OCT2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
---------------------------------
Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Instagram @Vicki_Collet_Educator, on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch and Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com.