Coaching in the Home Stretch: Finishing Strong with Reflection & Celebration

We’re coming into the home stretch. It’s May.  In many places, testing is behind us, and what remains is the delightful work of wrapping up the year. The calendar is still full, but the tone has shifted—there’s a sense of celebration in the air. Teachers feel a bit more flexibility, and there’s a shared desire to finish on a high note.
 
For instructional coaches, this stretch is about putting the finishing touches on what’s been done—showcasing growth, reflecting on progress, and honoring the effort it took to get here.
 
The Finale of a Coaching Cycle
 
This time of year marks the natural closing of coaching cycles. Think of this as your swan song – not an ending, but a finale—one that reflects confidence in what teachers can now do independently.
 
You’ve worked alongside teachers, helping them try new practices, refine their instruction, and respond to student needs. Now, those practices have become part of their repertoire.
 
As you near the end of a coaching cycle, you are naming strong decisions and celebrating effective practices. Specific, personalized praise becomes the most appropriate and powerful coaching move. That’s what happened in my end-of-year coaching conversation with Norah.
 
After watching a lesson in Norah’s classroom, we sat down together and I asked, “Thinking back on the math lesson, what stands out to you?”  She launched into a description of how she used their morning work to transition into the lesson; she started the description by saying, “Something that I really liked was…” She said she was able to “prime their minds” for the upcoming lesson. I loved that phrase and used it in my follow-up comment. “Yes, it primed them for it – they were ready to think about fractions.”
 
Because Norah started our conversation with a discussion of the beginning of the lesson, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to talk about another positive aspect of the start. After affirming the smooth transition from morning work to math lesson, I asked her to talk about her decision to start the lesson by “hooking them on the why.” Before launching into the math content, Norah had asked students, “Why are we even talking about fractions? When do we use fractions?” Norah wanted students to recognize that what they were learning was actually relevant to their lives. Responding to Norah’s question, students launched into a long list of ways fractions could show up in their lives: cooking, measuring, construction, cutting up bread, making video games, and even middle-school science class.
 
I tied Norah’s description back to a topic we’d talked about together many times: class discussion. The goal had been for students to take more ownership for whole-class discussions, rather than ping-ponging back and forth between teacher and student – and it happened during this discussion, as students built off of one-another’s ideas about the relevance of fractions. That was something to celebrate!
 
During this final coaching conversation, even the one recommendation I made was wrapped up in an affirmation. Something I’d noticed as Norah listed students’ ideas about fraction use on the board was that many of the comments were morphed into something for future job use; when students talked about cooking, Norah mentioned a job as a cook or baker; when they talked about measuring, Norah mentioned a job in construction. When they talked about measuring in middle-school science, she talked about a career as a scientist. While career insights were worth highlighting, I wanted to make sure Norah recognized the value of the more-immediate applications students were bringing up. So as our discussion of the discussion continued, I said, “That makes me think about…” and I brought up the middle-school science lab example mentioned by a student. Norah nodding, remembering. Then I said, “I thought that comment was especially interesting, because it wasn’t about the long-term future, it was about something they’d been thinking a lot about – that transition to middle school. That seemed like a really authentic, important connection.” Norah brightened up, “It was a point of excitement!” she said, launching into a description of their enthusiasm about both science and middle school and saying, “I definitely think that was an authentic connection.”
 
Our conversation continued as Norah and I took turns bringing up positive parts of the lesson: Her effective modeling, giving students classroom responsibilities, using all-respond techniques (and expecting all to respond!). We talked about her probing questions (“How do you know?”) and even the specific words she used, as I commented: “I loved the way you framed the practice by saying, ‘You’re about to get a chance to show what you know as far as ordering fractions goes.” Norah and I talked about the power of those words.
 
This is what the end of a coaching cycle can look like: a conversation filled with specific, grounded praise that helps a teacher see just how far they’ve come.
 
Making Space for Reflection

One of the greatest gifts coaches can offer teachers is the chance to pause and reflect. In the rush to finish everything on the checklist, it’s easy to overlook the good things happening and just how much growth has occurred. Creating intentional space for reflection allows teachers to see that their hard work has paid off.
 
Sometimes this happens naturally within coaching conversations, like it did with Norah. Other times, it’s helpful to build in structured opportunities.  During team meeting in May, I’ve let music prompt reflection, playing the Beatles song, “In My Life,” followed by Trace Adkins’s, “You’re Gonna Miss This,” while teachers reflected on their best memories of the year, what would stick with them, and how they had changed. Then they shared a memory or celebration with their shoulder partner. The mood in the room was noticeably brighter. 
 
A creative twist on supporting teacher reflection is to ask teachers to reflect on each others’ successes. The “Strength Circle” protocol offers this opportunity.  Each teacher is given an envelope and a blank piece of paper.  They write their name on the outside of the envelope, fold the blank paper, and tuck it inside.  Then everyone gathers in a circle. Once in a circle, everyone passes their envelope to the right. With each passing of the envelope, teachers take out the paper and write a strength they recognize in their peer. Encourage them to describe a specific time they noticed this strength. After a minute or so, the paper goes back in the envelope and the envelope is passed. Repeat several times to give each teacher a happy list of strengths they can celebrate and continue to cultivate. This activity can be done with teams or the whole faculty and staff (be sure participants know each other well enough to be specific about strengths). Moments of reflection shape how teachers carry their work forward.
 
Appreciation Lasts
 
The final coaching conversations of the year can be lighter, more reflective, and filled with affirmation. As teachers revisit goals that once felt distant, they recognize the good work they’ve done. When we help teachers see their strengths clearly, we celebrate and also set the stage for continued growth.
 
As you move through these final weeks, celebrate the wins, both big and small. Finishing strong isn’t about doing more—it’s about seeing, and helping others see, how much has already been accomplished.
 
When my efforts are focused on helping teachers recognize their strengths, I’ve noticed that I am more buoyant!  This work of affirmation not only benefits the teacher, it lifts us, too.
 
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You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com.
 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:

An end-of-year teacher reflection template:
 
https://wpvip.edutopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Edutopia_Copy_of_Reflections_and_Directions_Table_Version_-_Google_Docs.pdf
 
 
Student-planned end-of-year celebration:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/student-planned-end-of-year-celebration/
 
 
Maximizing coaching in the month of May:
 
https://dianesweeney.com/maximizing-coaching-month-may/
 
 
How to supercharge adult learning:
 
https://learningforward.org/2026/04/21/supercharging-your-adult-learning-its-better-together/
 
 
Pros and cons of homework:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/whats-right-amount-homework
 
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: APR2026 for 15% 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!

Confidence that Makes Space: Coaching with Curiosity

As coaches, it’s important to be confident about what we bring to the table. You were hired as a coach because you have knowledge of content and pedagogy.  You know how to teach effectively.  Your job is to help others in their pursuits of improvement, and you have a lot to give. But effective coaches balance confidence with curiosity, recognizing that they know a lot, but they don’t know everything. They look to the teachers to find out what they know – about their students, about their class’s history, and about themselves as teachers. 
 
Confidence v. Pride
 
Confidence is a recognition of our own capability. It’s self-efficacy—the belief that we can make a difference in classrooms and in the lives of teachers and students. And as coaches, we need that!
 
But pride? That will not serve us well. Pride leans toward ego. It shows up as needing to be right, needing to be seen as the expert, or walking into a conversation with our minds already made up. And when that happens, the door to dialogue, trust, and partnership closes.
 
Confidence with Curiosity
 
Confidence in coaching doesn’t mean knowing everything. It means offering what you know while staying genuinely open to what the teacher knows. When we approach conversations with curiosity, we signal that we value teachers’ expertise. We position ourselves not as the one with answers, but as a partner in thinking.
 
It feels easy to jump in with a recommendation when a teacher asks for help. But often, a more powerful move is to pause and ask a curious question that allows the teacher to surface her own thinking.
 
When reviewing student work, we might ask, “What is really important to you in this assignment?” When a teacher says she wants students to be able to show their thinking, we might authentically ask, “What does that look like to you?” Authentic questions like these seek the teachers’ perspectives and insight.
 
Recently, I had a coach-the-coach conversation with Angela, an instructional coach who brings lots of experience and expertise to her work. As she talked about the coaching work she was doing, I noticed that our conversation focused mostly on what Angela was observing and her ideas for moving forward. She had noticed, for example, that students were hesitant to jump into whole group conversations, so she had shared ideas with the teacher about setting up small-group instruction. I wondered whether the teacher might feel like things were being done to her or for her, rather than with her. So I asked, “What other ideas has the teacher had about how to increase students’ engagement and participation? What other ideas have teachers brought to the table that might fit in with your vision?” These questions prompted Angela to take a curious stance that elevated the teacher’s voice.
 
A curious stance carries positive assumptions. You communicate respect. You communicate, “You are thoughtful.” “You are observant”. “You are capable.” Over time, those messages build the teacher’s confidence—and that supports lasting change.
 
Because when teachers feel both respected and capable—when they feel seen for what they already know—coaching becomes something powerful: it is shared learning, where both people grow.
 
Confidence with Humility
 
C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” Humility is a mindset about how we approach those we are working with. Are we stand-and-deliver directors or side-by-side partners? Humility establishes a productive horizontal stance with teachers, rather than a vertical, authoritative stance over them. We can acknowledge and draw on teachers’ expertise and experience while sharing our own.
 
As coaches, it’s important to be confident about what we bring to the table. We can be confident that we are fulfilling our coaching role when we also acknowledge that others bring valid and valuable knowledge and experience. Coaching is a learning journey we undertake together. It is relational work.
 
So yes—be confident. You have knowledge and experience that matter. Lean into the belief that you can make a difference. But hold that confidence with curiosity, and temper it with humility. Quiet confidence, paired with genuine curiosity, invites collaboration and deepens the coaching partnership.
 
 
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You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com.
 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:
Instant mood-boosters:
 
https://aestheticsofjoy.com/2020/10/17/8-quick-things-you-can-do-right-now-to-boost-your-mood/
 
 
Family engagement is not an event:
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/family-engagement-isnt-an-event-its-a-mindset
 
 
Virtual tutoring can boost learning:
 
https://www.k12dive.com/news/virtual-tutoring-studies-offer-hope-for-early-literacy-outcomes/814091/
 
 
It’s still National Poetry Month - Poetry with paint-chip boards:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/blackout-poems-and-paint-chip-haiku-two-fun-ways-into-poetry-with-adolescents/
 
 
Why positive comments fail (video):
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIpk5g0h2lQ
 
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: APR2026 for 15% 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 Conversations: Who’s Talking?

“The one who does the talking does the learning” is an adage that is just as true for teachers as it is for students. But many coaching conversations tilt heavily toward the coach’s voice. It’s not hard to see why. Coaches are usually experienced, observant, and eager to help. When we notice something in a classroom, our instinct is to jump in with a suggestion.
 
But the more we talk, the less space teachers have to process, reflect, and ultimately own their instructional decisions.
 
The Cost of Over-Recommending
 
Recommending is an important coaching move. There are moments when teachers truly need a clear idea or next step. But when we over-rely on recommendations, we can unintentionally short-circuit teacher thinking. When we step in too quickly, we may solve the problem—but we also take away the teacher’s opportunity to wrestle with it. And there’s growth in the wrestle! It’s where judgment develops. It’s where ownership begins.
 
We can insert a pause point before speaking by asking ourselves, “Why do I want to make this recommendation?” This pause gives coaches the chance to respond, rather than react – to facilitate, rather than tell. If elevating teacher voice is the goal, one of the most powerful shifts we can make is: ask more, tell less.
 
Shifting the Coaching Conversation
 
This is what happened when Caroline and I were working on improving classroom discussions. When I observed in Caroline’s classroom, I noticed that Caroline was repeating nearly every student’s answer. Immediately, a recommendation sprang to mind: “Don’t repeat student answers.” But I stopped myself. I thought about how much capacity Caroline had shown recently; I thought about her developing self-awareness. I knew she didn’t really need my recommendation. Instead, she needed a nudge to do her own thinking. That nudge could come in the form of a question.
 
So I thought to myself, “Why do I want to make that recommendation?” Asking this question helped me get at the root of the issue and ask a question instead, to support and give direction to reflection.
 
I realized I wanted to recommend because, although Caroline was asking thought-provoking questions, the discussion remained a ping-pong conversation between Caroline and one, then another student. I knew Caroline’s students were ready to talk to each other, not just to her. So I asked, “What would have to change so that your students talked more to each other, and less to you, during whole-class discussions?”
 
Caroline began by mentioning something we’d talked about before – encouraging students to look at each other, rather than at her, when they answered a question. She wondered whether it was time to drop the habit she had of pulling sticks to see who to call on – was that constraining the conversation? I could see that she was mulling over recent class discussions as she talked. Her eyes had a reflective gaze as she revisited those conversations. Then suddenly her focus and her posture changed. She sat up straight, looked directly at me with wide eyes, and said, “I need to stop repeating students’ answers.”
 
Although it was affirming to me to have Caroline come to the recommendation I’d begun with, that wasn’t really the point. The other ideas she had suggested were equally important for her and her class. And the fact that Caroline had come to these ideas herself gave me confidence that she would be motivated to put them into practice. She knew what to do. It was in her head. My question simply started moving her thinking in that direction.
 
Questions as a Tool for Elevating Teacher Voice
 
What’s striking in this moment isn’t just that Caroline landed on a strong next step. It’s how she got there. The question didn’t lead her to one answer—it opened up a line of thinking. That’s the power of questions in coaching.
 
Well-placed questions:
*Shift cognitive load to the teacher
*Surface existing knowledge
*Create space for reflection and refinement
*Increase the likelihood of follow-through
 
Research reinforces the value of this approach: adults are more likely to implement ideas they generate themselves – not because they’re necessarily better ideas, but because they own the ideas. When we think about elevating teacher voice, it’s not just about airtime. It’s about agency.
 
Press Pause
 
The next time you’re in a coaching conversation and feel a recommendation coming on, press pause. Ask yourself if the recommendation is really needed. If a question could tap teacher’s knowledge reservoir to surface their own solution, don’t recommend – ask. Consider what question might move the teacher’s thinking forward. You might still end up making recommendations, but you’ll be offering them into a space where thinking has already begun – and where the ideas can be weighed, adapted, or displaced by something better. When the coach talks less, teachers think more. Elevating teacher voice makes room for teachers to do the kind of thinking that leads to meaningful improvement.
 
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You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com.
 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:

3 ways to help students manage emotions:
 
https://blog.heinemann.com/3-coping-skills-activities-to-help-kids-manage-emotions
 
 
Students with a sense of belonging perform better (and how to create it):
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/now-is-the-moment-to-build-belonging-at-school
 
 
Translanguaging helps students use their home language as a tool to acquire the academic and content vocabulary in English:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/making-space-students-home-languages-classroom
 
 
A podcast episode about cultivating STEM identity through creative problem-solving:
 
https://www.pebc.org/podcast/cultivating-stem-identity-with-creative-problem-solving-featuring-wendy-ward-hoffer/
 
 
Making time for students’ (actual!) voices during writing workshop:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/are-your-writers-talking-during-writing-workshop/
 
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: APR2026 for 15% 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!
 

Temperature Check: Making Coaching Recommendations

After making a recommendation, ask, “How does that sound to you?”
 

Making Recommendations
When teachers are coming up empty in their search for a more effective approach, coaches’ recommendations can play a helpful role. Recommending isn’t always the right move, but when a suggestion is called for, coaches’ recommendations are a useful resource. Making recommendations can appropriately scaffold teachers as they develop new instructional strategies.
 
As coaches draw on their relevant background knowledge and experience and review available data, including classroom observations, they might advocate for particular choices and actions. Recommendation can move the work forward when coaches offer relevant insight while acknowledging that the teacher knows his students and their needs, The teachers’ insights, gained from first-hand experience, will help the teacher decides how to apply the craft. So, after making a recommendation, it’s helpful to do a temperature check, asking something like:
 
*   “How does that sound to you?”
*   “What do you think about this?”
*   “What might this look like in your classroom?”
*   “What about this seems important or interesting to you?”
*   “How might this work for you?”
*   “How might this work for your students?”
 
Increasing Ownership
Another benefit of doing a recommendation temperature check is that it increases ownership in next steps, and ownership increases motivation. Coaches can get involved in the details in appropriate ways while keeping the ownership with the teacher.
 
Coaches can support the use of high-yield strategies as they make recommendations that are tailored to the context and owned by the teacher. Change is hard, and giving a teacher a recommendation is a nudge that can move things along – as long as the teacher has taken ownership for the work.
 
Improvement in the complicated work of student learning occurs only when teachers are empowered to discover and discern. Teachers’ commitment to learning and growth increases when their role as professional decision-makers is honored.
 
Recommendations are valuable when they are part of a two-way conversation. Listening to suggestions is a passive experience: a monologue of recommendations is unlikely to engender change. Instead, creating a dialogue about a strategy you’re suggesting allows important learning to emerge. Asking questions about the nuances of what you are suggesting helps the teacher think about possibilities. Inviting her to weigh in increases the chance that there will be uptake – that student outcomes will improve as a result of coaching recommendations.
 
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You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com.
 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:

April is National Poetry month! Celebrate by including a poem about whatever content you're teaching. Here's a list of non-fiction poetry picture books where you might find just the right thing:

https://readingpowergear.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/nonfiction-picture-book-10-for-10-nonfiction-poetry/

Building effective support systems for new teachers (hint: it includes coaches):

https://edsource.org/2026/supporting-new-teachers-retention/750763

Discussion or Dialogue?

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/fostering-classroom-dialogue/

Contemporary literature fosters literacy:

https://www.edutopia.org/article/jason-reynolds-young-readers

The importance of positive feedback when coaching:

https://simplycoachingandteaching.com/blog/2018/08/28/2018-8-27-fostering-strong-relationships-through-positive-feedback/

 

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: APR2026 for 15% 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!

When Choice is Constricted: Honoring Teachers’ Voice in Instructional Coaching

As a coach, you’ve probably felt this tension: we want to honor teacher autonomy, but we also work within systems that sometimes narrow the range of choices. Teachers' vision can be constricted by district initiatives, building goals, and defined non-negotiables.
 
These realities are part of the work, and there might be good reasons for it. Instructional priorities should, hopefully, be grounded in patterns detected across classrooms—through instructional rounds, observations, or student data—that point to areas where focused attention could make a meaningful difference. For example, I worked with a leadership team that identified a need to strengthen higher-order questioning across classrooms. It wasn’t a top-down decision made in isolation. It came from careful observation and a shared commitment to pushing student thinking further. From there, staff meetings and coaching cycles were to center on that goal.
 
The direction was clear. But even when choice is constricted, teacher’s voice doesn’t have to be.
 
Making Space for Voice Within Constraints
Of course, not all initiatives seem to align so well with classroom needs. But either way, when the “what” is pre-determined, coaching really matters.
 
Constraining choice doesn’t have to mean silencing teachers’ thinking.
Honoring voice within those constraints is what keeps the work meaningful and sustainable. When teachers have space to interpret, reflect, and adapt, they are positioned as professionals—people who make informed decisions, not just carry them out.
 
This can show up in the questions we ask during coaching conversations:
 
*  What do you think about this?
*  What does this look like in your classroom?
*  What about this seems important or interesting to you?
*  Where do you feel like you are in your learning about and use of this strategy?
*  How might this work for you?
*  How might this work for your students?
 
These questions don’t ignore the constraint; the focus is still there. But questions like these open up space within the implementation. They signal: Your thinking matters here. And that signal can be the difference between surface-level implementation and genuine engagement that improves student learning.
 
From Constriction to Commitment
When teachers’ voices are honored—even in the presence of constraints—they are more likely to invest in the work. They begin to shape the focus in ways that reflect their students, their content, and their own professional judgment. Without that, teachers may comply, but it can feel tight, forced, and performative. And white-knuckled compliance will not support the complex work needed in schools. Compliance may create short-term consistency, but it doesn’t leads to effective, responsive instruction.
 
Lasting improvement depends on teachers having the space to think, experiment, and make decisions. It depends on their ability to engage as professionals, not just implementers.
 

As coaches, we help make that possible—even when choice is constricted—by:
 
*  Slowing down the rush to implementation
*  Inviting reflection and interpretation
*  Honoring different entry points
*  Encouraging thoughtful adaptation and flexibility based on students’ needs
 
Ultimately, the goal isn’t just to see a strategy in use – it’s to support teachers in making sense of it, shaping it, and using it in ways that truly impact student learning.
 
Constrained choice is sometimes part of the system we work within. But honoring teachers’ voice is always part of the work we can choose to do. And when we do, we create the conditions for something more than compliance.
 
We create the conditions for ownership, investment, and real growth. Even within boundaries, that’s where meaningful change begins.

 

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You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com.
 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:

“Pilot and pivot” to avoid top-down implementation:
 
https://districtadministration.com/opinion/leaders-rhythm-how-to-engineer-true-collaboration/
 
 
April is coming, and it’s National Poetry Month! Check out these ideas for paint chip haiku and blackout poems:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/blackout-poems-and-paint-chip-haiku-two-fun-ways-into-poetry-with-adolescents/
 
 
Bilingual poetry builds literacy skills:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-english-learners-write-poetry
 
 
How to boost reading confidence and fluency:
 
https://www.k12dive.com/news/how-reading-aloud-can-boost-students-confidence-and-fluency/811971/
 
 
Students with a sense of belonging perform better (and how to create it):
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/now-is-the-moment-to-build-belonging-at-school
 
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: FNDS26 for 15% 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!
 

 

Top of Form

Visualizing Failure: How Instructional Coaches Help Teachers Ride the Waves

As an instructional coach, you’ve probably been there when a lesson falls apart. Things are moving along smoothly—students are engaged, the pacing feels right, and everything is clicking into place. Then something shifts. Students get confused. Directions don’t land. Side conversations bubble up. What started as a strong lesson begins to wobble, and sometimes, it unravels.
 
These moments aren’t rare interruptions to otherwise perfect teaching—they are a natural and inevitable part of it. The question isn’t whether things will go off track, but how prepared a teacher feels when they do.
 
This is where instructional coaching can make a meaningful difference—not just helping teachers plan for success, but helping them prepare for when things fall apart.
 
Planning for the Messy
In many professions, it’s part of the training to plan, not just for success, but also for breakdowns. Pilots learn emergency procedures. Athletes visualize how they’ll respond under pressure. Military personnel have a wartime plan. They don’t wait for things to go wrong to decide what they’ll do. Visualizing in advance is the best preparation, and teachers need that preparation, too. But too often, our planning conversations stay focused on the best-case scenario:
 
*What will students do?
*What questions will you ask?
*How will the task be structured?
 
Those are important, but they leave out a critical piece:
What will you do when it doesn’t go as planned?
 
Stopping short of that step leaves teachers without a clear path forward when reality doesn’t match expectations. That’s were a “wartime plan” comes in.
 
Creating a Wartime Plan
I’m not actually suggesting that the classroom will be a warzone, of course, but you understand the metaphor! When things unravel quickly, teachers benefit from having thought things through in advance. A wartime plan means having an intentional response to predictable challenges—a way of thinking ahead about how to navigate those inevitable moments. Rather than being caught off guard, teachers can respond with confidence.
 
Naming possible ways that things might fall apart helps to normalize them and it opens the door for proactive thinking. Instead of reacting in the moment, teachers can begin to anticipate and prepare. During planning meetings, you could bring up potential challenges like;
 
* The activity is too hard (or too easy)
* Students become disengaged
* Technology fails
* The discussion falls flat
* Directions are confusing for students
 
These aren’t signs of failure; they are simply part of the complexity of teaching and learning, and teachers should be prepared for them. Coaches can prepare teachers for flexibility by helping them think ahead about possible sidesteps that might be needed in these familiar moments. We always need a Plan B.
 
On my desk, I have an old toy – a small Gumby doll based on the Claymation cartoon character who can bend, stretch, and reshape himself. He uses this ability to solve problems or escape tricky situations. Gumby reminds me to be ready to be flexible. Like Gumby, teachers need to be prepared to be flexible when things start to fall apart.
 
Moving from “What if?” to “I See Myself…”
Teachers need to ask themselves, in advance, “What will I do when things get hard?” They begin building the habit of asking this question when you regularly ask, ““What will you do when things get hard?” Then, we move the practice from abstract planning to mental rehearsal by asking for visualization that brings those thoughts to life. Asking a teacher what they might do is a good starting point, but the mental imagery of visualizing a hoped-for outcome prepares the teacher’s mind for the challenge.
 
When visualizing, teachers can mentally simulate the classroom experience—the students, the timing, and even the pressure of the moment. This kind of rehearsal strengthens decision-making because it reduces the cognitive load when the teacher is tested. Instead of generating a response from scratch, she draws on something she has already “experienced” in her mind. Instead of being reactive, she is intentional.
 
Visualizing helps teachers clarify the steps they’ll take. It reduces hesitation, helping them to react more quickly and deliberately in the moment. Entering a challenging situation with a plan increases confidence. Teachers can be steady instead of panicked, calm instead of anxious. Because of visualization, a teacher’s mind and body feel like they have practiced success before the real moment arrives.
 
Coaches can support this rehearsal by asking questions that ground the plan in action:
 
* “What might you say first in that moment?”
* “What might students do?”
* “Where would you move in the room?”
* “What might you do?”
* “How will you know whether the adjustment is working?”
 
Questions like these can slow the coaching conversation down in productive ways that transform a vague idea into a concrete plan.
 
The goal of a wartime plan is not to anticipate every possible outcome, but to have a starting point that keeps the lesson moving forward. It is a first step that creates a sense of readiness. Taking this step can make the difference between a lesson that stalls and one that recovers.
 
Why the Plan Matters
Without a plan for these messy moments, even experienced teachers hesitate. When there’s not a clear next step, it’s easy to default to ineffective habits or to lose valuable instructional time while deciding what to do.
 
But when teachers have visualized and rehearsed their responses, they are ready to act quickly and intentionally. They are more likely to maintain the flow of the lesson, preserve student engagement, and adapt in ways that support learning goals. They begin to see these moments not as disruptions, but as manageable parts of the teaching process. That shift in mindset is empowering!
 
A Coaching Move Worth Trying
In your next planning conversation, consider creating space for this kind of thinking. After discussing the flow of the lesson, you might ask:
“In this lesson, when might things get messy?” Then invite the teacher to visualize that moment and talk it through in detail. Ask follow-up questions that help them see themselves in action. Over time, these pauses build a habit of proactive thinking that teachers carry into their independent planning.
 
Our Own Wartime Plans
Just like in the classroom, the goal of instructional coaching isn’t to eliminate difficulty. It’s to be ready for it. As instructional coaches, we encounter our own challenging moments. There are conversations that feel tense and sessions that drift away from their purpose. In these situations, we are also susceptible to hesitation and uncertainty and can benefit from a wartime plan.
 
In our practice, we might prepare by considering how we’ll respond when a teacher becomes defensive, when silence lasts too long in a conversation, and when teachers are unproductively negative. Having intentional “go-to” moves, and taking the time to visualize using them, can help us navigate these moments with greater confidence and care.
 
Because when we are prepared for the waves, we’re far more likely to keep moving forward—to ride the waves, even when the water gets rough.
 
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Did you know My Coaches Couch is also a podcast? (with different content) Find it in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com.
 
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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: FNDS26 for 15% 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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This week, you might want to take a look at:

Pause, recenter, and renew during busy days:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/pausing-for-renewal-throughout-the-day/
 
 
Visual thinking activities to boost student writing:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-cool-visual-thinking-activities-that-strengthen-student-writing
 
 
3 ways to help students manage emotions:
 
https://blog.heinemann.com/3-coping-skills-activities-to-help-kids-manage-emotions
 
 
Ideas for coaxing poems (April is National Poetry Month – coming right up!):
 
http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/search/label/Coaxing%20Poems
 
 
Book guide for the picture book, Big:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/course/big-book-guide/
 

That's it for this week. Happy Coaching!