Coaching Helps Teachers Stretch, Not Sprint

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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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When it comes it exercise, sprints work. They burn calories! When it comes to coaching for growth, though, we don’t want teachers sprinting. Sprinting leaves us exhausted, and it’s not sustainable for the long haul.  So, when it comes to coaching for growth, let’s ask teachers to stretch, not sprint.
 
In coaching, sprinting looks like going for it all in one shot. Stretching means inching a little closer to the goal. I’ve noticed that, if I’m consistent about stretching physically, I bend a little deeper and reach a little farther as time passes. A stretch feels good, and I can see the results, so I’m motivated to keep it up.
 
Coaching for Stretch
 
As coaches, we support growth. We hope to see new strategies, refined practice, more-responsive interactions with students – ultimately, more effective teaching and learning. But it’s a gradual process. That’s why, in coaching, we should go for stretch, not sprint. Physically, stretching is sustainable; similarly, coaching for stretch helps teachers keep up the good work.
 
Stretching is a just-right kind of challenge: we feel stretch with just a little extra press. Coaches can offer the just-right press that generates growth. If a teacher wants to improve classroom discussion, instead of offering multiple fixes, we might say, “I’m wondering whether giving students a little more think time might help.” It’s offering a gentle shift, a little stretch.
 
Teachers deepen their learning over time through adjustment and reflection. It’s not about one big push – it’s about repeated opportunities to lean in and learn. Coaches help teachers to find the right stretch.
 
Find the Right Stretch
 
Stretch does not mean ease. Stretching that induces progress takes a steady press. It’s not just doing what we’ve always done – it’s doing that, plus a little more. For a teacher, the stretch might be thinking differently, reconsidering a practice, or trying something unfamiliar. But it needs to be reachable when the teacher sinks in to give it a try. It’s the difference between restructuring class discussions and asking, “What if you tried a discussion routine with this small group?” The first could leave a teacher wondering how to begin. The second creates a way to begin.
 
Choosing the right coaching move can also create a just-right stretch. Asking the teacher to generate possible solutions is sometimes a sprint; if questioning is too much, we can recommend or offer to model a new routine. The right level of support creates a stretch, and as we revisit and reflect, we can go a little deeper. This coaching rhythm creates momentum without exhaustion.
 
Think Progress, Not Pace
 
Learning isn’t about visible speed. A teacher who spends three weeks thoughtfully experimenting with one new discussion strategy may be making more meaningful progress than a teacher who implements five strategies in three weeks without really examining whether any of them made a difference.
 
The goal isn’t to get teachers through a coaching cycle as quickly as possible. It’s to help them develop the knowledge, skills, confidence, and judgment to continue growing. Then we can help them identify the next stretch. Sustainable growth has a rhythm: try, notice, reflect, adjust, and try again.
 
So as you work with teachers this week, ask yourself, “What could be a meaningful stretch for this teacher? How can we avoid a sprint?” And ask the teacher, “What feels like a stretch you’re ready to try?”
 
Creating a stretch instead of a sprint helps teachers make meaningful progress that they can own, sustain, and build on.
 
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Time management tips for novice educators:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/time-task-management-tips-new-teachers
 
 
Book-choosing strategies for middle schoolers:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/dont-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-teaching-book-choice-strategies-to-middle-schoolers/
 
 
Trust – the invisible coaching element:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/supporting-teacher-growth-trusting-relationships
 
 
Learning grammar through discovery:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/54264/its-time-for-teachers-to-put-grammar-in-its-place/
 
 
Ideas for making anchor charts more student-centered:
 
https://twowritingteachers.org/2018/10/10/co-constructing/
 
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: SEP2026 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!

The Third “E” for Coaching: Equipped

 
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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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Last week, I wrote about two qualities of effective coaching: empathy and empowerment. Empathy strengthens the coaching relationship and empowerment strengthens the teacher’s sense of agency. But there’s a third “E” that is a prerequisite for authentic empowerment: making sure the teacher is “equipped.” No matter how empowering our pep talks feel, unless the teacher is well-stocked with effective instructional strategies, the encouragement will fall flat. Giving someone responsibility without ensuring they have the needed knowledge, skills, and resources isn’t really empowerment. It’s setting them up for frustration.
 
Teachers need opportunities to make decisions and exercise their professional judgment, but they’ve got to have enough to draw on as they make those decisions. They need a well-stocked instructional toolkit.
 
Two of the coaching moves in my Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) Model are important for equipping teachers: modeling and making recommendations. Both provide teachers with tools they may need to move forward.
 
Modeling: Providing a Blueprint
 
Observing a lesson in action can sharpen teachers’ attention to student learning and broaden their instructional repertoires. Because the teacher isn’t busy thinking about providing the instruction, she can give energy to watching and listening. Because she doesn’t have to be worrying about the kid rolling around on the carpet or what’s happening on the other side of the room, she can decide what she will pay attention to and when. That gives her the opportunity to think deeply about instruction.
 
When the coach is modeling, the teacher can look at the big picture. how the lesson is arranged and how the choreography of instruction plays out, and then lean in to examine the work of one group or one student. Rather than simply hearing about a strategy, the teacher gets to see it in action. Modeling can help a teacher notice possibilities that might otherwise be difficult to imagine. A teacher may have heard about open-ended questioning, collaborative learning, conferring, or graphic organizers, but seeing those practices in action makes them more concrete. The teacher can begin to envision what those approaches might look and sound like in her own practice. Modeling provides a blueprint.
 
When a teacher needs something more than her own experience in order to successfully meet student needs, modeling can provide that “something more.” Whether the modeling is live or recorded, with students or without them, it can open doors for communication and provide a shared experience for the coaching conversation that follows.
 
Recommendations: Adding to the Toolbox
 
Another way to add tools to a teacher’s instructional toolbox is to make recommendations. When coaches make recommendations, they take a consulting stance. They draw on research and experience, advocating for particular choices and actions. They might offer information about instructional strategies, content or skills, developmental processes of learning, standards, curriculum, or resources. Recommendations can be helpful when teachers are trying something new or wrestling with a tricky instructional question.
 
When a teacher poses a specific question, her question itself provides important information about what she is focused on and ready to consider. If she asks, “How would you approach this?” or “What would you do with this group of students?” her question is an invitation for the coach to share insights. Recommendations might be the best response if the situation is urgent and important. Coaches should consider how the recommendations they offer build on teachers’ existing strengths. And, instead of offering a single path forward, we can offer several ideas and invite the teacher to consider her students’ needs and her own preferences to determine a path forward.
 
Be judicious about when and how to offer recommendations – only when necessary, and with deference to teacher judgment. This approach honors teachers’ agency, empowering them as instructional decision-makers.
 
Three E’s for Coaching
 
Modeling and recommending are coaching moves for increasing teachers’ instructional repertoire so that they are equipped with knowledge, skills, and resources.

Let’s think about how adding “equipped” as an essential “E” for coaching works with the two “E’s” considered last week. Empathy helps coaches understand where teachers are. Empowerment gives teachers ownership of where they want to go. Equipping helps provide what they need to get there.

These three E’s work together. A coach who empathizes without equipping may understand a teacher’s frustration but leave her without new possibilities. A coach who equips without empathy may provide excellent strategies that don't fit the teacher's immediate concerns. And a coach who empowers without equipping may hand over responsibility before the teacher has the tools to act on it. But when empathy, equipping, and empowerment work together, the coach listens to understand the teacher’s concerns and provides support that expands the teacher’s options; then the teacher has the opportunity to make meaningful decisions about her practice.

The goal is for teachers to become increasingly-equipped to make instructional decisions. That's the purpose of the Gradual Increase of Responsibility Coaching Model: we support teachers generously as needed and gradually step back as their knowledge, skills, confidence, and independence grow.

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

Giving and receiving feedback (reading the bolded text offers some good reminders!):
 
https://learningforward.org/2026/08/24/giving-and-accepting-feedback-is-a-professional-capacity-that-can-be-improved/
 
 
Tech tools to support neurodivergent learners:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/tools-support-neurodivergent-learners
 
 
5 Design principles for effective PD (scroll down to this heading):
 
https://pce.sandiego.edu/practicing-what-we-teach/
 
 
Expand inclusion while students “Meet Someone New” through picture book biographies:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/meet-someone-new-monday-using-picture-book-biographies-to-bring-marginalized-voices-into-the-classroom/
 
 
Mentors need new teachers (not just vise versa):
 
https://ncte.org/blog/2020/01/mentors-need-new-teachers/
 
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: AUG2026 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!

Empathy & Empowerment: Coaching for Connection and Action

 
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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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Sometimes coaches walk alongside a teacher, and sometimes we step back and let them lead. Empathy helps us walk alongside, listening carefully, recognizing emotions, and communicating, “You’re not alone in this.” Empowerment means we know when to step back, creating space for the teacher to make decisions, take ownership, and trust their professional judgment. Coaching needs both. Empathy helps teachers feel seen; empowerment helps them see themselves as capable.
 
When a teacher trusts you, challenges that she brings up might be emotionally charged – things she has felt recurringly frustrated with.  Don’t miss the emotions that are wrapped up in the situation.  If you are blind to the emotions, they will trip you up. When a teacher shares a challenge, she is likely looking as much for empathy as for a solution. The two can go hand in hand. Once she feels understood, she’ll be more ready for something else: empowerment. She needs to be reminded that she has the capacity to figure out what comes next.
 
Empathy: Coaching for Connection
 
Empathy means we can truly understand and share the teacher’s feelings about a situation. Teachers benefit when we tap into our own emotional experience as well as our professional knowledge.
 
When facing a challenge, teachers may feel that they are in this alone. Everyone else has it together, no one else has had a student like this, no one else has struggled in teaching this concept or using this teaching approach.
 
The teacher may be looking for validation that it is okay to struggle, that it is okay to try something and fail. In truth, good teachers often fail, because they are willing to take a risk and try something new.  Maybe something that puts a lot of control in the hands of students, which has no guarantees of success!  Demonstrating empathy means saying something like, “I know this feels like shaky ground.  I’ve been there.  It will be worth it.”  Or simply, “That sounds really frustrating.”
 
But how do we demonstrate empathy without taking over the conversation with our own story?  Here are a few ideas:
 
~Demonstrate that your coaching conversation is a safe place.  “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”  This recognition gives a teacher the go-ahead to express feelings without fear of judgment.
 
~Mirror the emotion. Our facial expressions, tone, and body language communicate that we are paying attention not just to the words but to the feelings underneath them. And I’ve found that when I initially match these features, I can later help the teacher relax as I adjust my own non-verbal emotional cues.
 
~Name the emotion. Listening with your heart helps you understand how your teacher friend is feeling. Naming what we hear can help teachers recognize and process what they are experiencing.
 
~Briefly connect through our own experience. Sharing a similar experience builds connection, as long as the story stays brief. Without shifting the focus away from the teacher’s concern, you can quickly summarize your own experience using the feel/felt framing: “It sounds like you feel (naming). I felt that way when…” Don’t compare their problem to yours, just connect with the emotion, Vulnerability strengthens relationships, increasing coaching effectiveness.
 
Empathy is different from sympathy, which might feel like a pity party. Empathy establishes an interpersonal connection that makes coaching possible. Once empathy for emotions is felt, the teacher will be more ready to turn to action. 
 
Empowerment: Coaching for Action
 
Acknowledging emotions in an empathetic way builds connection, and after a teacher feels understood, the more rational parts of our brains can kick into gear. The teacher you are coaching will be more ready to problem-solve. We can move toward empowerment.

 
Empowerment is helping teachers recognize the expertise, judgment, and capacity they already possess. Coaching isn't about imposing the “right” way. It is about offering possibilities and helping teachers make informed choices. We support teachers’ agency - the power and autonomy to make meaningful decisions about pedagogy. When teachers have agency, they can make informed decisions that benefit their students. Coaches empower teachers by asking questions like:
 
“What are you noticing about your students?”
“What felt just right?”
“What needs adjusting?”
“What possibilities do you see?”
“What do you think would be worth trying next?”
 
When we ask questions like these, the teacher does the thinking. If coaches instead solve the immediate problem for the teacher, it positions the coach as the one with the answers and communicates that the teacher will need us to solve the next problem, too. But by asking questions, we give the teacher the space to consider.
 
We can also offer recommendations, when needed, without taking ownership of the decision. Rather than saying, “You should try this,” we might say, “Some things you might want to consider…” That small shift matters. The coach contributes expertise, but the teacher remains the decision-maker.
 
Empathy Before Empowerment
 
One of the most important roles of an instructional coach is not to make the struggle disappear, but to walk alongside the teacher long enough for her to regain her footing—and then trust her to take the next step.
 
Teachers need coaches who can do two things at once: understand them and believe in them. Empathy says, “I see what you’re experiencing, and I understand why it’s hard.” Empowerment says, “I believe you have what it takes to move forward.” One strengthens the relationship; the other strengthens the teacher’s sense of agency. Together, they can help teachers feel both supported and capable.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Busy and learning aren’t the same thing:
 
https://learningforward.org/2026/08/10/busy-isnt-the-same-as-learning-why-clarity-matters-more-than-ever/
 
 
How organizational factors shape curriculum implementation (infographic):
 
https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/2026-06/Skyline%20RESTART%20Network%20Infographic-Jun26-Consortium.pdf
 
 
Using movement as an instructional tool:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/movement-instructional-tool
 
 
Building teachers’ leadership capacity (podcast):
 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-fickel-justin-baeder-cultivate-and-activate/id925371726?i=1000776631287
 
 
Tips for learning-as-you-go coaches:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/youll-figure-it-out-10-tips-for-literacy-coaches-who-are-given-little-guidance/
 
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: AUG2026 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 through Transitions

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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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Think of a time when you got a new phone or the operating system on your laptop had a significant update. You probably had to stop and figure out where all of your favorite and familiar settings and functions had gone. Even simple tasks take more mental energy when the system is unfamiliar. If even small transitions like these feel uncomfortable, consider the discomfort families and educators are feeling as the school year gets underway.
 
Discomfort during transitions can come from at least four places: the unknown, extra decision-making, changes in relationships, and changes in identity.*
 
Discomfort from Unknowns
 
A sixth-grader may be walking into a middle school, not knowing what it will be like to have multiple teachers and a locker. They may wonder what their schedule and daily routines will look like and whether they will be in class with friends. A teacher may be using new curricula or wonder what needs the new students will bring with them. They might have new colleagues and worry what working with them will be like. A coach may be unclear about expectations for her role. She might wonder about the new teachers on the staff and what teachers will want to talk about. These unknowns can feel weighty. Transitions disrupt the comfort that comes from predictability. We aren’t able to anticipate what is coming so that we can prepare for it. Instead, we tend to make predictions, and those predictions aren’t always optimistic!
 
Unknowns can also make us question our readiness. We might wonder if we’ll know what to do, if we’ll be able to handle the situations that are presented. We worry that we won’t be prepared, but we don’t know what to prepare for!
 
Decision-Making Discomfort
 
While facing the unknowns, there are also so many decisions to be made at the beginning of the school year. Everyone makes decisions about tiny things: we wonder 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: Which teachers should they begin with? The volume of decisions that have to be made can cause decision fatigue.
 
Decision fatigue happens because decisions require mental energy. Even minor decisions make us stop, consider options, and determine what to do. There are lots of minor decisions to be made, and some major decisions, too. Often making one decision creates another choice. The cumulative cognitive load can be exhausting!
 
When making decisions, we may feel pressed to make the “right” choice, even when there isn’t a clear one. Because we care deeply about doing things well, our decisions become quite consequential in our minds. But beginning-of-year decisions involve judgment rather than certainty. Transitions require decisions without full information. Teachers, coaches, parents, and students have to make choices without knowing how those choices will play out. Teachers and coaches are especially conscious of the fact that their decisions affect others, adding extra weight to our decisions.
 
Relationship Discomfort
 
At the beginning of the new school year, even when returning to a familiar building, there will be new faces and 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.
 
Relationships aren’t just something we do, they are something we have to build while trying to figure everything else out. Because we don’t know people’s personalities, preferences, communication styles, expectations, or boundaries, even ordinary interactions require more thought. We may worry about good first impressions, and how to create connections. We wonder how we’ll be received. This vulnerability can make new relationships feel uncomfortable and even risky. Teachers might also be figuring out what they want to reveal to coaches – how comfortable they are with being open, how vulnerable they want to be. Relationships are built, not manufactured, and this takes time.
 
Identity Discomfort
 
For a new 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 classes taught or grade level. 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?
 
Transitions can change not only what we do, but also how we understand who we are. Even positive changes usually mean letting go of something familiar.
We may be leaving behind an identity that felt comfortable, and now we are creating a new version of ourselves; we have to reconcile the old and new versions.
 
We know who we are in a particular setting, but transition unsettles that certainty. A new role might have us feeling like a beginner. Our responsibilities change, and people may see us differently. This can be true for students, teachers, and coaches. Changing roles can affect how others interact with us, which can require us to rethink how we interact with them. When our role or circumstances change, we may wonder, Where do I fit now?
 
Transition Discomfort
 
Discomfort during transitions isn’t a sign that anything is wrong. It just means that we’re adjusting. Recognizing the tensions of the unknown, of making countless decisions, of building new relationships, and of figuring out who we are in a new context can help us face those discomforts 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 minimize the unknown by getting clear about their roles and responsibilities) 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.

 
We 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 designs. 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 back together with our colleagues, it’s okay to spend some time catching up – it’s not a waste, because coaching is relational work. I was flattered recently when September Gerety recalled a time 10 years ago (!!!) that I brought mini Almond Joys to a meeting because at the previous one, she’d complained that someone had eaten all the Almond Joys (her favorites!). “Vicki was so focused on the work, I didn’t expect her to be paying attention to something like that,” she said. All these years later, both things stood out to her: my focus on the work and my gift of Almond Joys. 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.
(For a Coach's Guide to Beginning-of-Year Transitions, click here.)
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Busting mentorship myths about coaching new teachers:
https://www.ascd.org/blogs/4-effective-strategies-for-teacher-mentors
 
Monday headlines for a peek at home life:
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/monday-headlines/
 
Why coaches need a “smile file”:
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/smile-file/
 
Formative assessments that inspire creativity:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/creative-formative-assessments/
 
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! You can use the code: AUG2026 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!

Impactful Coaching Conversations Seldom Happen by Accident

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Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press! Use the code AUG2026 to get 15% off.
 
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We spend a lot of time talking about the importance of planning in teaching.Teachers plan lessons, anticipate students’ needs, think about questions they might ask, and consider how they will respond when things don’t go quite as expected. This kind of planning matters in coaching, too.
 
Even though we can’t (and shouldn’t try to) script a coaching conversation, that doesn’t mean we should walk into those conversations unprepared. That’s why I created the GIR Conference Planning Guide. It’s a simple tool that is flexible enough so that we can follow the teacher’s thinking.
 
The guide gives coaches a way to think ahead about the teacher, the purpose of the conversation, and the amount and type of support that will be most useful. It takes just a few minutes to complete, but those few minutes can help us be more intentional about the support we provide. We can enter the conversation with a sense of purpose—and then adjust as the conversation unfolds.
 
Start with the Teacher—and the GIR Model
 
Planning starts by thinking about the teacher and a coaching focus you’ve determined together. Next, we consider what kind of support would help the teacher move forward. The 5 moves in the GIR coaching model (model, recommend, ask questions, affirm, and praise) describe varying levels of support – from greatest (modeling) to least (praise). When trying something new or complex, a teacher may benefit from more supportive moves, such as modeling and recommending. With a more experienced and confident teacher, we shift to questioning, affirming, and praising as the dominant move. Predicting how much support is needed helps us plan for possibilities.
 
Once you know the focus and have thought about where the teacher is on the GIR continuum, you can begin thinking about the conversation itself.
 
What will you ask?
What might you model?
What could you recommend?
What will you affirm or praise?
 
To get your ideas flowing, the conferencing guide offers suggestions and sentence stems for each of the GIR moves and space for thoughts you want to hang onto and reference when you’re with the teacher. You plan potential moves without planning the whole conversation.
 
Anticipate Possibilities
 
The purpose of the conferencing guide isn’t to create a script, it’s to help us anticipate possibilities. Is there a resource you want to have handy? A question that would land better if phrased just the right way? Something working well that you want to highlight? Taking a minute to think these things through and to jot a note or two is preparation for a productive conversation.
 
For example, if modeling would be helpful, is there a video clip you could show? A strategy you could model in the midst of a conversation? Or might it be best to offer to teach or co-teach for the teacher’s class, so that she sees it in action with her own students? Possibilities like these are included as reminders on the conferencing guide.
 
if recommending seems appropriate, think ahead about a few possibilities. Rather than handing over a single answer, sharing several ideas that the teacher can consider honors teachers’ agency. Being prepared makes it easier to offer choices.
 
Planning questions ahead of time is also valuable, especially when you feel that questioning might be the bang-for-your-buck move for this teacher. Our questions should be authentic, not leading toward an answer we already have in our heads, but seeking out the teacher’s insight. Questions like:
 
*What did you notice about how students responded?
*What surprised you?
*Which students seemed to benefit most from this approach?
*What possibilities are you considering
 
Questions like these keep the teacher’s thinking at the center of the conversation.
 
Affirming, too, can be useful for centering the teacher’s thinking. Pointing out something specific in a lesson that went really well encourages further consideration and use of that approach. And authentic praise can cement the use of an effective practice.
 
The GIR model (below) is central to the conferencing guide and helps you think about exactly what GIR stands for: How will our coaching gradually increase the responsibility the teacher is taking for their own planning, thinking, and reflecting? Your planning notes beforehand pilot that process, and looking back on the guides from previous conversations with that teacher shows you the progress.
 
The final space on the guide is space for notes for yourself during and after the conversation. Do you have promises to keep? Jot them down. Are there things you want to check in on later? Write a reminder. There might be a specific student you’ll want to ask about, or a concern you want to revisit. Having a note can be the memory nudge we need in our action-packed days.
 
Planning for Responsiveness
 
Having a few thoughts written down before a coaching conversation frees you from trying to hold everything in your head while you’re listening to the teacher. It lets you listen deeper. We plan so that we can be more responsive.
The goal of planning isn’t to control the conversation, it’s to make it easier to let go of control once the conversation begins.
 
When you’ve already thought about the teacher’s needs, the focus of the work, your likely coaching moves, possible questions, and the reminders you want to carry into the conversation, you can give your attention to the person sitting across from you. Even when listening leads me somewhere different from where I’d planned to go, the planning guide steadies me. My preparation isn’t a script, it’s a thinking tool that helps me prepare for a conversation while leaving room for the conversation to become what the teacher needs it to be. The handy lists for each of the GIR moves help me switch in mid-stream.
 
As the new year gets underway, consider the role that planning will play in your coaching conversations. If you’d like a digital copy of the GIR Conference Planning Guide that you can print of complete digitally, click the link and let me know. Once it’s yours, you can modify it to best suit your coaching needs.
 
Your planning as a coach – listing a potential focus, the level of support, and a note for moving forward with that coaching move – will make you more ready to be responsive as you step in to coaching conversations.

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

Why the first 30 days of mentoring new teachers matter most:
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/the-first-30-days-of-mentoring-matter-most
 
 
Fail cheerfully with improv techniques (good for staff meetings, too!):
 
https://www.k12dive.com/news/improv-can-help-educators-draw-students-out-of-their-seats-and-shells/827698/
 
 
Letters from home - Letting family & friends teach us about students:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/letters-from-home-letting-families-and-friends-teach-us/
 
 
Supporting students’ dysregulation:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/15-effective-ways-to-manage-dysregulated-students
 
Retelling rubric for themes and ideas:
 
http://chartchums.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/image-2.jpg
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com. Or 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 25% off through August 3. 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!
 

Coach All, Coach Each

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You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.co
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All and each. Those two words capture something important about the work of instructional coaches. The word all speaks to the widespread reach a coach can have. The word each means that we reach each individual. This dual reality makes our role both intense and tremendously impactful.
 
All reminds us to consider how coaching can contribute to collective growth across the school community. Each reminds us that schools are made up of individuals, and that meaningful support often happens one teacher at a time.
 
 All means that members of the school community, without exception, will feel the benefits of coaching. Yet coaching can be a remarkably personal gift, tailored to each individual’s needs and offered to one person at a time.
 
To coach all and to coach each are not two different kinds of coaching, rather, they are the same instructional attention expressed on two scales—one expansive enough to include the whole faculty and the other personal enough to notice a single individual with unique needs and circumstances. We need both perspectives.
 
First, coaching all.
Are we selective, or exclusive, in determining who receives our coaching, or do we extend coaching to all within our reach? Rather than being content with reaching some, we can span the full range of our responsibility, eager to offer support.
 
Coaching isn’t meant to be limited a comfortable circle of familiar friends. Rather, our schools are a mosaic—enriched by diverse backgrounds and experiences—yet united in commitment to serving our students. Coaching widens our associations and expands our circle of influence. We don’t coach only those we already know; rather, we come to know people as we coach them.
 
But, with limited time and multiple responsibilities, how do we coach all?
 
Schoolwide goals can offer a common focus. When based on an area where there is a clear need for improvement, a schoolwide goal can become a guide for coaching throughout the year. Coaching is differentiated  by meeting teachers where they are on the path to achieving those goals. Meeting with teams throughout the year to discuss schoolwide goals lays a uniform foundation for collective growth.
 
Which leads to another point about expanding coaching impact to all: by coaching teams (grade levels, departments) we expand coaching capacity. Being part of team meetings (PLC, MTSS), coaches become part of the collaboration, rather than needing to catch up later on decisions that were made. Coaching support is embedded within those meetings.
 
When a specific instructional focus is determined by the team (aligned with or separate from a schoolwide goal), Collaborative Lesson Study is a structure that can impact teachers’ knowledge and empower them as instructional decision makers. In Lesson Study, teachers meet regularly as a team to collaborate and plan lessons that become a focus of inquiry. A lesson is crafted collaboratively and then one teacher teaches the lesson while other members of the group observe. The lesson is then collaboratively revised and taught by other members of the group. During Lesson Study, teachers have the opportunity to try out new instructional routines and refine and recalibrate their teaching as effective practices are identified within specific lessons and become generalized. Lesson Study opens teachers to critique, learning, and an expansion of their instructional repertoire. By making teaching public and collaborative, teachers learn from their own practice, from others, and from research—both their own and studies in the field.
 
When I worked with a fifth-grade team to boost students’ writing skills, Lesson Study opened their eyes to new possibilities. After observing a lesson on organization, Allie said, “I seriously couldn’t believe that (students) could group those ideas!” They explored, rather than being told, what worked. Linda said, “Lesson Study honestly has changed the whole direction of where we were going to go.” These teachers’ writing instruction was transformed because of their shared experiences.
 
Schoolwide goals and collaborative team work help coaching extend to all and open the door for coaching each.
 
Surrounded by the whole school community, it can be challenging to coach the one. Genuinely seeking to know and support each teacher requires, at times, giving full attention to the one, making sure no one is lost in the crowd. There should be no anonymity. Teachers benefit from being known, accounted for, and supported—one person at a time. Even teachers who at first seem reluctant benefit from coaching support.
 
Let’s look at a fairy tale example, “Beauty and the Beast.” Through Belle’s patience, kindness, and care, a transformation begins that eventually changes the Beast’s demeanor and eventually even his outward appearance. As the spell is broken, the young prince is restored. In a similar way, as we extend coaching support to each teacher, we see their potential and their capacity increase. Individualized support can be a stand-alone coaching cycle or a follow-up on PD, team meetings, Lesson Study, and schoolwide goals. After a PD, we might ask:
 
What did you learn?
What do you think is still missing?
What do you personally want to work on more?
 
Those three follow-up questions can personalize coaching.
 
Sandra, a junior high coach, described how their schoolwide goal helped teachers determine the individual support they needed…Teachers identified their own goals based on where they were along the path toward the schoolwide goal.
 
Coaches also offer Differentiated Mentoring and Coaching as teachers come to them with their own concerns or with ideas that they want to work on. Teachers can name their own focus and the support they need for getting there.
 
Whether you are coaching individuals, teams, or larger groups, it helps to think, in advance, about the level of support that might be needed to implement changes. The 5 moves in my GIR Model for Coaching (model, recommend, question, affirm, and praise) offer graduated (and decreasing) levels of support. Planning in advance is a first step, and coaches also flexibly adjust the support they offer based on teachers’ responses. These 5 coaching moves can both collective and individual growth.
 
As you move into the school year, consider how you will coach all by creating structures and opportunities that invite everyone into learning, collaboration, and growth and how you will coach each by noticing individual needs and providing support that meets teachers where they are.
 
As we support separately, meeting individual needs, and broadly, encouraging collaboration and collective growth, coaches have system-wide impact by serving both each and every.

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

This short video with focus exercises for a classroom attention-span booster routine:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/video/how-to-build-a-better-attention-span
 
This one-minute video about using science word sorts to assess prior knowledge:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJ2kLbcSTU&t=1s
 
 
Mentors need new teachers (not just vise versa):
 
https://ncte.org/blog/2020/01/mentors-need-new-teachers/
 
 
6 Co-Teaching models:
 
https://barkleypd.com/blog/coaching-co-teaching/
 
 
Teaching empathy through reading:
 
https://ccira.blog/2024/07/30/from-empathy-to-compassion-reading-to-make-a-difference/
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? You can find My Coaches Couch, the podcast (with different content) in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com. Or 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 25% off through August 3. 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!