Coaching and the Amaryllis

Seeing potential is an important part of a coach’s role.  We look for an attribute that is ready to blossom.  In 1979, Elizabeth Appell* penned a poem to inspire and motivate learners:

. . . and then the day came

when the risk to remain

in a bud,

became more painful

than the risk it took to blossom . . .

Coaching means being a vulnerable learner.  It involves risk. Like all efforts for meaningful change, it requires a mindset that is open to uncertainty.  As coaches, we make teacher learning safer by looking for buds of potential – growth areas that are within a teacher’s ZPD.  When we find a teaching attribute “in the bud” and nurture it, we support the blossoming of skills that will enrich the teacher and the learner.  A teacher may point out her own budding practices where she’d like support, or we can find a bud by looking closely at current practice. 

Stephanie, a second-grade teacher, had been focused on student participation.  When I met with her, she said her new goal was to have “every student fully engaged.”  That was an ambitious aim for us to work toward!

When I reviewed the lesson plans of Tina, a fourth-grade teacher, I saw she had included thought-provoking questions.  However, these questions hadn’t made it into the actual lesson.  Here was a bud we could nurture!

Like the buds on my Christmas amaryllis, teachers budding skills can blossom when they become the focus of a coaching cycle.  Given abundant light and nourishment, teachers’ budding skills become blossoms that benefit student learning.

*Appell, E. (1979). “and then the day came.” Retrieved from http://anaisninblog.skybluepress.com/2013/03/who-wrote-risk-is-the-mystery-solved/

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

Books and ideas for teaching compare and contrast:

https://www.readbrightly.com/books-to-teach-compare-and-contrast/

Binary thinking will not generate effective educational solutions:

https://www.instructionalcoaching.com/the-binary-myth/

Video as a tool for coaching feedback:

https://stephanieaffinito.blogspot.com/2019/11/thinking-about-feedback.html

EdCamps and other unconference experiences:

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/47940/how-teachers-can-learn-from-one-another-at-unconferences-meet-ups-and-edcamps

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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