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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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!
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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 during Modeling

Did you gift your teachers a coaching notebook at the start of the year? An impactful time for a teacher to use the notebook is when you’re modeling a lesson. Modeling can sharpen teachers’ attention to student learning and broaden their instructional repertoire.
 
Taking note. Before the lesson, meet with the teacher and talk with her about what she’s interested in noticing. If you haven’t co-planned the lesson, give her a lesson plan and time to look over it. What will she want to pay attention to during the lesson?
 
A simple T-chart in the coaching notebook, with steps of the lesson listed on the left (before the entering the classroom), and observations (what is seen and heard) added on the right during the lesson can be an effective structure to keep notes organized. Some teachers like to use 2-column notes when observing: What the teacher says/does in one column and what the students say/do in another. Others just write as fast as they can, trying to get exact words and notice actions. You might share with the teacher how you take notes during an observation.
 
The note-taking structure could be tied to a pre-determined focus for observation: A blank sheet of paper could be sufficient for jotting down higher-level questions; two column notes could capture students’ behaviors and teachers’ responses; a class roster could be used to check off participation. Having a note-taking method decided in advance makes observations more effective. The details matter, and careful notes will provide evidence for productive reflection and follow-up conversations.
 
Taking a non-evaluative stance. A note of caution: Modeling that could be a springboard for change can validate or even justify a teacher’s current practice if the teacher takes an evaluative stance. The best learning happens when observers write down what they see and hear during an observation, devoid of evaluative statements. When you meet with the teacher beforehand to review what she’ll see, encourage this kind of note-taking.
 
After an observation, one teacher said, “I noticed that you had smooth transitions.”  Although she used the language of noticing, this was, in reality, an evaluative statement that did little to enhance her understanding. So I pushed a bit. “What was it that made the transitions smooth?” After a thoughtful pause while she reviewed her notes, she said, “I noticed that you used student comments to transition from one part of the activity to another.” Now there was an observation she could grow from!
 
Comments like these are possible because of careful notetaking. Encourage the teacher to lean in to listen and capture what she sees and hears. Remind her to frequently shift her focus – between teachers and students and among different students. These careful notes will offer opportunities for an impactful debrief.
 
Watch for next week’s post, where we’ll consider ideas for using these noticings in follow-up conversations. (See previous posts about using coaching notebooks to reflect on teaching, record celebrations, consider challenges, plan next steps, and jot down resources.)
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

I often use the book, I Have a Little Problem to remind coaches to listen before recommending.  I love the suggestions here for using the book to remind students to listen:
 
http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/booknook/bn_problem.pdf
 
 
Cheerleading each other to build classroom culture:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/free-videos
 
 
Relevant classroom libraries:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/adding-energy-to-the-classroom-library/
 
 
Ideas for holding Mock Newberry Awards:
 
http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2016/08/hosting-mock-newbery-book-club/
 
 
Play is important – and mixing up the kinds of play kids do is important, too:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4kgJSypoCI
 
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: SEPT2024 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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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.
 

Coaching: Who’s the Focus?

The ultimate goal of instructional coaching is to improve student learning. Coaching literature often suggests that there are two approaches to achieving this goal: teacher-centered coaching or student-centered coaching. However, such dichotomous, this-or-that thinking is problematic. Coaching is not a “would you rather” game; we don’t have to choose between a focus on the students and a focus on the teacher. We can, and should, have both.
 
In Russian, there’s a single word, obuchenie, that describes the teaching/learning process, emphasizing the collective and collaborative efforts of teachers and learners together. If we had such a word in the English language, maybe we wouldn’t have gotten to a place where coaching processes are presented in a dichotomous, “focus on the teacher” or “focus on the students” fashion. We need to focus on both. It doesn’t have to feel like an “about face” when including both emphases. Rather, the perspectives of teacher and students, and the interactions among them, should be woven through our coaching work.
 
When we look at student work, what does it say about the teaching? If we model an instructional practice, how do students take it up? These coaching moves intertwine teacher and learner, teaching and learning. The three strands of coach, teach, and student weave a strong fabric that moves the work forward.
 
When I say, “Let’s watch…” or “Let’s listen,” I’m constructing a relational triangle that includes me as coach, the teacher, and the students who are our focus. When I offer a resource or an instructional strategy as we design a lesson together, all three are included. We partner with teachers in their role. Coaching is more than an ILP or PLC meeting. It is relational work, and each person in this relational triangle matters.
 
There’s some truth to the statement, “If mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy”* and it’s mirrored application to the teacher in the classroom. But the overarching goal of instructional coaches is not to improve the teacher’s wellness. Instructional coaches should have some understanding of human interactions. We should listen with empathy, but we are not therapists. Every coaching conversation should have a through-line to student learning.
 
Please pardon my soapbox stance, but to achieve the coaching goal of improving student learning, we can (and must) avoid dichotomous thinking and working. Coaching is most effective when we consider both students and teachers while also attending to the relational interactions between teacher and coach.
 
 
*In addition to being a t-shirt slogan, “If Mama Ain’t Happy, Nobody’s Happy” is the title of a 2014 documentary by Mea Dois-de Jong that received critical acclaim.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Getting to know your multilingual learners:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/getting-to-know-english-language-learners-at-the-start-of-the-year/
 
 
Connecting classics to students’ lives:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/50673/relating-classic-texts-to-kids-lives-today/
 
 
Pinterest board with classroom storage ideas:
 
https://www.pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/classroom-storage-ideas/
 
 
Moving to an “all in” coaching model:
 
https://dianesweeney.com/moving-from-an-opt-in-to-all-in-coaching-model/
 
 
A good description of the “Stop & Think” comprehension strategy:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/promoting-active-reading-skills
 
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: SEPT2024 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.

Creating Clarity with Coaching Notebooks

Previous posts have talked about gifting a coaching notebook to teachers and using notebooks to reflect on what works. This week, let’s think about ideas to keep the notebooking practice going.
 
When you meet for a coaching conversation, you can set the stage by commenting on the notebook: “I’m glad you’ve got your coaching notebook. I’ve got mine, too. While we talk today, I’m going to use my notebook to capture our key ideas and next steps; that might work for you, too.” A comment like this is an invitation, and when the teacher notices you jotting something down, it can cue her to do the same, taking agency for her own learning.
 
Writing is a tool for thinking and remembering. The act of writing down ideas will make them more available for recall, even without looking back at the notebook. Etching words on paper etches them in the mind, too. I loved it during a recent coaching conversation when Emma asked, “Pause for just a second while I jot that down.”
 
Ideas might include next steps that the teacher wants to take toward her coaching goal. When I was working with Sarah, a first grade teacher, on her goal of improving student discussion, the next step she chose to write in her notebook was to plan questions for read alouds in advance, write them on sticky notes, and put them in the book right where she’d ask them. The notebook gave her a reference during our next conversation, when we talked about progress.
 
A coaching notebook can be a good place to jot down resources that are mentioned. In our conversation about classroom discussion, I reminded Sarah of the depth-of-knowledge question chart we’d gotten at a recent PD session, and she made a note to pull that up as she planned questions.
 
I love having a celebrations page in my notebook. I usually put this at the very back and work forward – that makes it easy to find when I need a pick-me-up or when a teacher does. Reflecting on successes makes them more likely to be repeated. And noting small celebrations tracks progress toward big goals.
 
The coaching notebook is great for a quick write. Pose a question and take a minute or two where you both write a response. Writing in response to questions like, “How have you worked through this kind of situation in the past?” or “What might be going on here?” takes the thinking deeper. (For a printable poster, ‘A Dozen Coaching Questions,’ click here.)  Responding in writing to questions can guide planning, focus attention, and build the teacher’s capacity as a reflective practitioner.
 
Writing encourages remembering that supports future decision making. As teachers think about their own experiences, they refine instructional plans. Writing gives the teacher the opportunity to gain her own insights through sustained reflection. A writing notebook can empower teachers’ practice. As they clarify their thinking through writing, teachers recognize the agency they have to exercise their own expertise.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

3 elements of a safe learning environment in high school:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/keeping-unity/  
 
 
A guide for faculty meetings that couldn’t have been an email:
 
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-a-guide-for-faculty-meetings-that-couldnt-have-been-an-email/2024/08
 
 
Supporting teachers through mentoring and coaching:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/k12-hub/blog/coaching-and-mentoring-networks-for-teacher-support/
 
 
Making a classroom library special:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/when-a-library-whispers/
 
 
Video advice to share with first-year teachers:
 
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/video-second-year-teachers-share-some-advice-for-rookies-1/2017/09
 
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: SEP2024 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.
 

Patience: A Mindset for Coaching

“Patience is a virtue” – we’ve heard that often enough, but why is it an important mindset for coaching?
 
The value of patience came to mind this week when I observed a teacher’s class for the first time. Although I’d known Karen for over a year, this was my first real interaction with her in a coaching role. I’d been told by her coach from last year that it was hard to get in to observe – that something always seemed to come up at the last minute, and that the coach didn’t feel like she’d really gotten anywhere with Karen.
 
Knowing how important trust is, I was intentional about these first steps: I emailed saying that it would be helpful for me to get to know her students and her context better. Could I come and observe part of a class? I gave a specific date that I was going to be in the building and asked if there was a time that day that would work. She initially responded with a quick, “Sure!”  - but she followed up with an email about times that she would rather I didn’t come; she said those two were rather rowdy classes. Even though I thought to myself that those classes might be where I could be the most help, I responded with a different time that I could stop by. Patience.
 
I assured Karen that I didn’t want to interrupt her teaching. She could give any intro to her students that she felt was needed – or not. I said I’d try to slip quietly in and have a seat after class was underway.
 
As I thought about the observation, I determined that I wouldn’t stay too long. I thought 20 minutes was about how long she could endure my presence without getting too stressed out. I wouldn’t stay any longer than that, and maybe shorter. I’d just observe long enough to get something positive that I could write on a sticky note and leave on her desk. Although it would have been convenient to stay and have a post-observation conversation with her, because I was already there and her prep-period was shortly after the time I planned to observe, I decided against it. I didn’t want to introduce any opportunity for her to be intimidated. All positives. Patience.
 
When I arrived, I found that the class Karen had preferred I observe was very small, and some of the students had been pulled for special services. Well, it should likely be easy to find something for my sticky note! It didn’t take long before I knew what I could share, but I decided to stay a bit longer. By the 20-minute mark, I had written 4 positives on the sticky note, which I left behind.
 
Later that day, I emailed to thank Karen for letting me observe. I told her I had been so intrigued by the short story they were discussing, I went home and Googled it, found a copy, and cried while I read it. I asked about her students’ emotional response. I didn’t recommend that she ask questions to help students connect the story to their personal experiences. I didn’t  even ask why the lesson was so focused on filling in the workbook pages, or what the principal’s expectations were regarding her use of that resource. Patience.
 
There will be times for me to stay longer, times for careful note-taking during observations, times for debriefs, and times for recommendations and questions. But this week was the time for patience. The longer I’ve coached, the more I’ve recognized the value of a soft touch and a welcoming tone; the more I’ve realized that I gain more trust by waiting than by impressive intelligence or assertive authority.
 
When I enter Karen’s class the next time, I’ll still close the door quietly and make sure to tread lightly across her room before I slide into a seat. I’ll stay a bit longer and pull out a small notebook instead of just a sticky note. I’ll make sure we can have a brief chat afterward and ask her about a successful moment that stood out from the lesson. As trust is built, I’ll slowly accelerate toward the productive conversations I hope will be commonplace throughout the year.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

This video about creating a comfortable classroom environment:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/free-videos/
 
 
Picture books for start-of-school community-building:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/what-i-am-reading-the-first-week-of-school/
 
 
Bringing empathy to coaching:
 
https://www.schoolstatus.com/blog/bringing-empathy-to-coaching
 
 
“Naughty” behaviors that are developmentally appropriate:
 
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/joyful-parenting/201705/not-naughty-10-ways-kids-appear-be-acting-bad-arent
 
 
Short writing assignments to help students become better thinkers (in all disciplines):
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/power-short-writing-assignments
 
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: SEP2024 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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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.

Coaching thru Transitions

Remember when you went to an unfamiliar grocery store and everything was in the wrong place? Did you feel a bit drained by the time you left? Even small transitions like these feel uncomfortable, so it’s no wonder that families and educators are feeling stressed as the school year gets underway.
 
Think about how students, parents, and teachers in your school community are navigating the unknown. A sixth-grader may be walking into a middle school, not knowing what it will be like to have multiple teachers and a locker. A teacher may be using new curricula. A coach may be unclear about expectations for her role. These unknowns can feel weighty. 

Coaches can minimize the unknown for themselves during this time of transition by getting clear about their roles and responsibilitiies (with themselves, their principals, and their teachers). Make sure the district calendar and the school’s master schedule are at your fingertips. Ink in testing dates. These steps make the upcoming year more known. (For a Coaches Guide to Beginning of Year Transitions, click here.)

In addition to feeling unsettled by the unknown, discomfort during transitions can come from at least three other places: extra decision-making, changes in relationships, and changes in identity.*
 
There are so many decisions to be made: What to wear, how to get there, who to talk to first. Students’ families are adjusting their morning routines: What time must the morning alarm be set for now? Teachers are deciding about the structures they want to establish: What do these students need? Coaches are considering how to best allocate their time: What should they start with?
 
At the beginning of the new school year, even when returning to a familiar building, there will be new faces, new relationships to be established. That sixth-grader is hoping to see last years’ friends but finds there’s no one he knows on the cross-country team. There’s a new teacher on the grade-level team that changes the whole dynamic. Similarly, these new teachers are unfamiliar to the coach, and relationships of trust need to be established.
 
For the middle-schooler, the identity shift is palpable. He was the experienced one at this elementary school, but now he’s the newbie. How does a sixth-grader even act? The teacher, at the beginning of the school year, is shifting from her summer persona to the facilitator of learning. Maybe even changing grade level or classes taught. How is a STEM teacher different from a math teacher? How is a first-grade teacher different from a fourth-grade one? A huge identity shift happens for the teacher transitioning into a coaching role. How does the coach view her new self? How do others view her? Will she be considered credible

Recognizing the tensions of the unknown, of decision-making, of new relationships, and of identity shifts can help us face them more intentionally. Transitions require that we get into a more conscious state – we can’t act out of habit. This offers the opportunity for planning, for purposeful creation. We get to design new spaces.
 
Coaches can make big decisions in advance, and make them only once. Coaches can determine a coaching model they’ll use. (Of course, I recommend the GIR Model 😊, which integrates well with other coaching models. If you’d like the GIR coaching conversation plan, click here). We can decide on our coaching master schedule, setting aside blocks of time for planning, observing, conferring, and our own professional learning. We can prioritize to-do lists for when unexpected small chunks of time pop up. Now the decision-making for this beginning-of-year transition feels manageable!
 
The relationships we maintain or establish with teachers are both personal and professional. When we get together in with our colleagues, it’s okay to spend some time catching up – it’s not a waste, because coaching is relational work. As coaches, we are establishing both credibility and connection. Relationships matter.
 
Identity is closely-related to relationships, and we are working on both at the beginning of the school year, especially if we are morphing into coach as a new role. Which of your skills and passions especially lend themselves to your coaching work? How do you collaborate? How do you contribute? How do you lead? How do you promote teachers and students? How do you contribute to the culture and climate of the school? Considering these aspects of identity inform your transition into the new year. 

Coaching identity is also forged by personal attributes such as presence, openness, positivity, and curiosity. Humility, especially, is important, because it establishes a productive horizontal stance with teachers, rather than a vertical, authoritative stance over them. They’ll respond better to a guide-by-the-side than a dictator-from-above. Humility and confidence can (and should) co-exist in the coaching role. (Shame and self-confidence are at opposite ends of one spectrum; Pride and humility are on a different continuum* – and you know where we need to be on both of these gauges!) We can acknowledge and draw on teachers’ expertise and experience while sharing our own.

 
By proactively managing unknowns, decisions, relationships, and identities at the beginning of the school year, we can make this transition a productive one. The Coaches Guide to Beginning of Year Transitions is a tool for sorting through all of these aspects of transition. Click here to get it.

Thanks for Jody Moore for sparing these ideas. 

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

High fives for teachers:
https://www.facebook.com/attn/videos/1479756855393102/

Building belonging in school communities:
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/belonging-in-a-school-community/

Formative assessments that inspire creativity:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/creative-formative-assessments/
 
During coaching, seek first to understand:
http://barkleypd.com/blog/coaching-questions/

Books about books (for all ages):
https://www.alitlife.com/2023/08/08/books-to-celebrate-book-lovers-day/
 
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! TODAY you can still use the code: AUG2024 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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