Choosing Hope

For the eighth time, I’ve chosen a word-of-the-year to guide my intentions. Having just one word has made it easier to stay the course. Of course, that word has to be well-chosen, and it’s best if it can carry me in many directions. That’s why I love my word for 2025: Hope.
 
Teachers need hope, and instructional coaches are in a position to help teachers build a path of hope. Since choosing my word, it has, of course, been popping up everywhere! I was delighted to find a section on hope as I read from Brené Brown’s book, Dare to Lead. Brené says that hope is the antidote to anger, fear, or despair, which might be masked as cynicism. This is good to know. That dubious, cynical teacher might be masking self-doubt. Her skepticism could come from a place of anxiety. Her sarcasm might represent discouragement. Digging out of that place and into a place of hope creates better outcomes for both the teacher and her students. As coaches, we can cultivate hope.
 
The four parts of the pathway to hope are goal, pathway, agency, and self-efficacy. Let’s think about each and how it might grow hope (in the teachers you work with and within you).
 
Goal
The idea of choosing a goal is all around us at this time of year, and it’s usually how we head into a coaching cycle. Choosing a goal gives us a focal point as we move forward. We know where we want to go. Let’s make sure goals come from a place of progress, recognizing our strengths and building on those rather than focusing on deficiencies. A strengths-focused goal sets us on a path of hope.
 
As coaches, let’s make sure the goals teachers set are achievable. When my principal first introduced the idea of a stretch goal, I was not a fan, and I’m still not. For me, a goal that I know is beyond my reach is discouraging. The SMART acronym works for me: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound. These are good guides for a coaching cycle goal.
 
Pathway
Once we know the destination, we can choose the pathway. I’m a hiker, and when I’m at the trailhead, I take a careful look at the posted map. I think about the time, energy, and strength that I have as I consider the options for getting to where I want to go.
 
There’s more than one route to achieving a goal, and coaches can help teachers see those paths. Offering multiple suggestions for teachers to choose from helps them select a route that suits their pace and supports teachers’ agency.
 
Agency
Agency is choice with authority. Help teachers see that they can make choices about instruction, even if there’s a scripted curriculum to follow. There is so much space between the lines, and teachers sometimes assume the worst about how they are expected to use provided resources. Instead, help teachers see possibilities, with the required curriculum (if you have one) as a starting place.  
 
As the lead learner in the classroom, teachers are authorized to make decisions. They have the charge, so they need the choice.
 
Efficacy
Self-efficacy is needed to feel hope. Coaches can boost teachers’ confidence by highlighting strengths, supporting asset-based reflection, and celebrating progress. Because it won’t be a straight path forward, we need to encourage risk-taking and normalize challenges. Teachers might need to switch to Plan B and Plan C.
 
As teachers make progress toward a goal, determination and tenacity increase. Letting go of doubt generates optimism and an assurance of good things to come. Coaches help teachers persist in the face of setbacks. With clarity and kindness, our conversations teach hope.
 
As I pursue my one word goal for 2025, I’ll keep in mind the value of goals, pathways, agency, and efficacy as I cheer myself and others on.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

“One little word” resolutions for students:
 
https://ourclasswrites.com/2012/01/08/one-little-word-one-big-idea/
 
 
Strategies for Public Speaking: Big, Loud, and Slow:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/big-loud-and-slow-six-strategies-for-better-public-speaking/
 
 
This 3-minute video has 8 activities for closure:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/video/8-closing-activities-to-wrap-up-a-lesson/
 
 
A well-balanced diet – choice and parameters in reading and writing:
 
https://ccira.blog/2018/08/28/a-well-balanced-diet/
 
 
Or, as the new year gets underway, you might consider: Is balance the right goal for life?
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/the-big-fresh-january-23-2016no-balance/
 
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: JAN2025 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 for Teacher Agency

Teacher agency—the power and autonomy to make meaningful decisions about pedagogy—is a cornerstone of effective and sustainable teaching. When teachers have agency, they act as the lead learners in their classrooms, making informed decisions that benefit their students and align with their professional expertise. Instructional coaches have an important role in fostering this agency, inspiring teachers to take ownership of their practices and helping them navigate the demands of the education system.
 
The Empowering Potential of Agency
 
When teachers are positioned as lead learners, the work is energizing and sustaining. Having agency infuses teaching with purpose. Reflecting on how to best support student learning through expertise in content, pedagogy, and knowledge of students is demanding but motivating. It sustains teachers in their professional roles and fosters fulfillment.
 
Coaching to Empower Teachers
 
Instructional coaches can play a critical role in fostering teacher agency. But we must be mindful of unintentionally taking hierarchical positions that undermine teachers’ invention of their own teaching identities. To empower teachers, coaches must recognize teachers’ professional expertise and position them as active agents in their classrooms.
 
When using the GIR model for instructional coaching (see below), everything we model, recommend, question, affirm, and praise should acknowledge teachers’ agency and efficacy. They choose what we will model and what they will focus on. We offer recommendations as options, saying, “Some things you might want to consider…” We ask questions that support teachers’ decision-making. When good things are happening, we affirm and praise the choices made.
 
Practical Strategies for Supporting Agency
 
One of the most effective ways to empower teachers is through reflection. Reflecting on practice helps teachers feel volitional and capable, allowing them to recognize the agency they already possess to exercise their expertise through thoughtful decision-making.
 
Our coaching approach should highlight opportunities for choice. We can offer suggestions framed as “Some things you might want to consider…” This invites teachers to think critically about what is presented. Providing multiple options increases opportunities for choice and autonomy.
 
Teachers should feel empowered to make instructional decisions based on their students’ needs rather than rigidly adhering to scripted curricula. The process of reflection, risk-taking, and refinement reinforces the idea that teachers have both the power and responsibility to adapt and grow in response to the dynamic needs of their classrooms.
 
Teacher Agency Within Constraints
 
Teacher agency exists within systems of accountability and constraints, such as state standards, district mandates, and required curricula and materials. However, teachers often imagine there is less wiggle room than actually exists. There is usually more chance for agency than teachers recognize. Coaches can help teachers creatively work within existing systems to better meet their students’ needs. It doesn’t have to be subversive work. The space for agency is already there, ready to be acted within. Coaches can help teachers find that space.
 
By exercising agency, teachers create instruction that honor students’ interests, needs, and experiences and fosters equity and inclusion. Coaches can support teacher autonomy, allowing them to resist narrow, prescriptive approaches that may not serve diverse learners effectively. Instead, they can advocate for practices that prioritize meaningful, student-centered, and culturally responsive teaching.
 
A Call to Celebrate Teacher Agency
 
Teacher agency is central to effective instruction. It is the capacity for teachers to act autonomously, informed by their pedagogical expertise and their students’ realities. By positioning teachers as their own agents of change, we celebrate their professionalism and the critical role they play.
 
As instructional coaches, we can support teacher agency as an essential component of meaningful, student-centered, responsive teaching. Empowered teachers are better equipped to meet the needs of their students and sustain themselves in their roles. Let’s cultivate teacher agency and celebrate the impact teachers have on their classroom communities.

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

Using “Hot Chocolate” breathing to create calm: 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCIyEn8_XLU&t=5s
 
15 things productive people do:
 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2016/01/20/15-surprising-things-productive-people-do-differently/
 
Creating class books:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/lets-write-together-the-importance-of-class-books/
 
Interactive read-alouds in science:
 
https://www.amnh.org/explore/curriculum-collections/integrating-literacy-strategies-into-science-instruction/interactive-read-alouds
 
 
Questions worth considering about coaching ethics:
 
https://newbycoachlive.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/why-think-about-ethics-in-coaching/
 
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: JAN2025 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!
 

Third-Point Communication

Eye contact is usually considered to be a tool for building trust and establishing credibility – and both of these are so important in a coaching relationship!  But there are times when eye contact can backfire. It’s been said that the eyes are windows to the soul…and if the soul feels a bit bruised, then eye contact might feel uncomfortable.
 
Although eye contact is normally a support for communication, a direct gaze can undermine the conversation if a teacher perceives the information being shared as negative. When confronted with such evidence, the receiver may have a sense of losing face, of being under attack, of having to defend, or of having to hide strong feelings of being upset. To avoid these negative emotions that can damage a relationship and hinder learning, consider adding a “third point.”  Instead of two people gazing into each other’s eyes, evidence in the form of a paper or screen (student work, teaching video, assessment data, etc.) directs the gaze to an object, making the message feel less personal.  It’s helpful to look up when communicating positive information, but to shift to a third point when communicating information that might be received negatively.
 
Two-point communication refers to the two people talking to each other, usually looking directly at each other. Third-point communication, which can be helpful in difficult conversations, shifts attention away from eye-to-eye contact by adding a third point for both people to look at. The following could serve as third points in a coaching conversation:

·       Academic standards

·       Teaching video of the teacher him/herself

·       Teaching video of someone else

·       Student work

·       Assessment data

·       A list of the teacher’s personal goals

·       Your notes from an observation

·       Anchor chart (previously created or being co-created)

·       A list of potential ideas (previously created or being co-created)

·       A rubric

·       A professional article or book

When preparing for a potentially-difficult conversation, or when considering evidence that could be perceived as negative, it helps to plan in advance for a third point.

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

Self-talk for multilingual students:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/young-learners-and-self-talk/
 
 
Build background knowledge to enhance comprehension:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/prior-knowledge-reading-skills
 
Coaching guide: Creating a program that works:
 
https://tinyurl.com/CoachingthatWords
 
 
Using Interactive reading guides in science:
 
https://www.amnh.org/explore/curriculum-collections/integrating-literacy-strategies-into-science-instruction/interactive-reading-guides
 
 
The role of identity in learning:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/video/when-social-brain-misfires
 
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! It’s still November, so you can use the code: DEC2024 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!

 

Overcoming the Culture of Nice

Instructional coaching is built on trust and positive relationships. We want to affirm the good things that are happening and build on them. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also be a critical friend who thinks through – and sometimes points out – challenges. We can both affirm AND recommend. However, this might feel uncomfortable. It means overcoming an established “culture of nice” that researchers recognize as dominant in school settings.
 
The coaching culture at your school is rooted in the broader culture of teaching, which tends to value norms of privacy, individualism, politeness, and non-interference. This culture of nice reflects a preference for congeniality over critical colleagueship. Teachers are likely to experience feelings of vulnerability in a coaching situation (with escalated feelings of vulnerability for novice teachers). It’s appropriate that coaches want teachers to feel comfortable, safe, and successful, but that doesn’t mean we have to avoid saying or doing anything that might cause feelings of discomfort. Change requires discomfort. Growth requires discomfort.
 
A discomfort-avoidance stance is reflected in feedback that accentuates the positive and avoids attention to things that aren’t going as well. Sometimes, we use the sandwich technique to squeeze in feedback that challenges the status quo between two positive statements – an approach that research suggests doesn’t work, because most listeners walk away focusing on only the outside, positive slices of feedback. (Even though you and I can probably think of teachers who are just the opposite, in general, this holds true.)
 
The culture of nice is also reflected in coaches’ desire to avoid judgment, It is true that we shouldn’t jump to judgment, taking an inquiry stance instead to find out more. It is possible, however, that this avoidance attitude may also limit learning.
 
How do coaches think about the place of supportive challenge in their work, especially with novices? How do they support teachers in navigating the discomfort that arises when confronted with ideas, evidence, or possibilities that challenge their expectations or experiences?
 
Conditions that promote teacher learning include both affirming and recommending, as demonstrated in the GIR model. We lean into the coaching move that fits the situation to create a coaching environment that overcomes norms of politeness and the desire for harmony that can inhibit serious professional exchange. By embracing a both/and approach, we ease the tension between the coach’s role as a guide for instructional improvement and norms of individualism, privacy, and non-interference. Collaborative coaching environments overcome an unproductive culture of nice to include opportunities for work as critical friends.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Creating class books:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/lets-write-together-the-importance-of-class-books/
 
 
During coaching interactions, be a thermostat, not just a thermometer:
 
https://larahogan.me/blog/be-a-thermostat-not-a-thermometer/
 
 
Build background knowledge to increase understanding:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/prior-knowledge-reading-skills
 
 
Reading WHOLE books fosters empathy and comprehension:
 
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64953/its-not-too-late-to-read-that-entire-book-with-your-students
 
Or listen to this podcast about Google tools for student engagement:
 
https://barkleypd.com/blog/podcast-tech-tools-and-student-engagement/
 
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! It’s still November, so 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!

Gratitude for Coaching

It’s almost Thanksgiving, where we focus on gratitude, so it’s time to celebrate you and the work you do!  As a coach, your role is frequently that of consigliere: a trusted advisor and counselor.  A consigliere gets you going when you don’t know where to start.  She gives you a boost when you’re ready to climb.  You can be that guru for getting it done!
 
One of the reasons coaches are valuable is because we offer outside perspective.  That point of view, which gets teachers beyond the thinking in their own heads, is critical, especially when they are besieged with new initiatives and the everyday life of having 25-or-more little bodies in their charge.  Psychologist Michael Woodward  points out that without honest and informed feedback it’s easy to “get wrapped up in your self-talk and for beliefs to get in the way.”*
 
Having a mentor with whom thoughts can be openly shared can help a teacher to uncover strategies and ideas she may never have considered.  People benefit from a fair and knowledgeable sounding board, and research suggests that the coach benefits, too – there’s even something in it for you!
 
It’s a way to be reminded of the journey you’ve taken and a way to give back.  Coaching can be a calling to help people achieve their dreams, a way of honoring the profession that you care so deeply about.  It’s a chance to show gratitude for the privilege you’ve had of going to work every day to a job you care about, where you know you are making a difference in people’s lives.  It was true when you were teaching young students, and it’s true today as you support their teachers. 
 
But there’s more to it than fulfilling a professional obligation:  Sharing your hard-earned wisdom is a good way to get perspective.  And it’s also a way to learn.  When you are mentoring, you are also learning from the teachers you are working with – it’s a trade.  Being in a symbiotic relationship with a knowledgeable colleague is a way to keep a good thing going. 
 
Unfortunately, some experts suggest that informal mentoring is on the decline, due in part to the increase of a competitive atmosphere.**  That makes your job as an official mentor even more important.  Although teachers can get valuable feedback from the principal, it’s important to have someone who can give an off-the-record perspective.  A mentor can help teachers assess whether their routine is on a roll or in a rut.  Being open, honest, and direct is the best policy.  There is value in the relationships you’ve created when teachers are willing to hear your feedback and do something with it. 
 
So take a moment to feel gratitude for the role you’ve taken.  Thank you for all you do!
 
*Smits, J.C. (2014).  Guidance counselors: both sides benefit from a top-flight mentor relationship.  Spirit, January 2014, 58, 62-66. 
 
**Webb, M. & Adler, C. (2013).  Rebooting work: Transform how you work in the age of entrepreneurship. Wiley.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

AI Literacy Lessons for Grades 6–12 (create a free account):
 
https://www.commonsense.org/education/collections/ai-literacy-lessons-for-grades-6-12
 
An administrator’s view on effective instructional coaching:
 
https://dennissparks.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/using-instructional-coaches-effectively/
 
Why coaching? and coaching resources:
 
https://blog.tcea.org/coaching-connections/
 
 
How to play “Crumple & Shoot:”
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkNLN_mc134&list=PLh8j72So6cvzeEZs06m40WtIKypfAEI9-&index=13&t=0s
 
More ways to share during writing workshop:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/a-variety-of-share-sessions/
 
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! It’s still November, so 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!

 

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!