Notice & Affirm

When coaches affirm, they shine a spotlight on things teachers do well, building their confidence and encouraging more of the same. This creates positive energy, broadens thinking, expands awareness, increases abilities, builds resiliency, bolsters initiative, generates new possibilities, and creates “an upward spiral of learning and growth.”* With such a list of positive outcomes, affirming is a coaching move that should be incorporated all along the way.
 
In contrast, it’s relatively ineffective to focuses on weaknesses, but easy to do so. In fact, our brains are hardwired for it. To survive in past generations, one had to be attuned to the negative and ready to respond to it (fight, flight, or freeze). Negative stimuli stick faster than positive experiences. But focusing on deficiencies reinforces unproductive neural pathways in our brains. This “negativity bias” still has benefits in some situations, but it can also cause a view that restricts our recognition of the good.
 
Both coaches and teacher are affected by negativity bias. As a coach, you may need to be intentional about setting aside the tendency to see the negative. You may have to purposely look for the positive. As you find practices to celebrate and share them with teachers, your affirmations can help teachers reframe their own experiences in a more positive light, shifting away from their own negative biases. The resulting energy readies teachers to move forward productively.
 
For example, Sarah is a first-grade teacher who listens carefully to student responses and uses those responses to build students’ understanding. When I mentioned this to Sarah, she smiled shyly and was humbly pleased, but surprised! Sometimes negativity bias may blind teachers to their own genius!
 
Affirmation increases feel-good hormones and creates clusters of positive thought neurons. “We can focus on what isn’t working and do less of it, or we can focus on what is working and do more of that. If we start with what is working, we galvanize energy to make change.”** As teachers discover their successes and strengths, they generate new possibilities for moving forward.
 
*Tschannen-Moran, B. & Tschannen-Moran, M. (2020). Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time. John Wiley & Sons, p. 109. 

 
**Aguilar, E. (2018). Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators. Jossey-Bass, p. 176.

 This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Coaching new teachers to success:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategies-help-new-teachers-thrive
 
 
5 Risks New Teachers Should Take:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/new-teacher-risks
 
 
Using the jigsaw method for cooperative adult learning:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/foster-cooperative-adult-learning-with-the-jigsaw-method
 
 
Lesson Plans for establishing classroom rules – especially important for students just returning from virtual settings (grades 2 & 3 but easily adapted – be sure to click on different tabs to get all of the information!):
 
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/creating-class-rules-beginning-136.html
 
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/loud-here-teamwork-classroom-218.html?tab=1#tabs
 
 
Classroom storage ideas on Pinterest:
 
http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/classroom-storage-ideas/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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