Advice from an Olympic Coach

It’s time for the Olympics! – A good time to reflect on the role of coaches. Bob Bowman, who coached swimmer Michael Phelps to his record 28 Olympic medals, offers some advice about coaching that applies in educational settings, too.
 
1. Abandon the “one size fits all” mentality. Swimmers have different approaches and gifts, and so do teachers, so coaches should individualize their support. The Gradual Increase of Responsibility Model for Coaching (described in previous posts), can help instructional coaches pick an effective coaching tool.
 
2. Determine the gold standard. Bowman suggests being process-oriented and focused on the things you can control. “Be a little better today than you were yesterday,” he said. Doing that day after day leads to remarkable change. As coaches, we can focus on individual goals (for ourselves and others) and also organizational goals (for the school or district). Establishing clear targets and keeping them in focus is an important coaching task.
 
3. Continue to develop your skills. For Instructional coaches, reading professionally and being part of professional networks supports our own continuous improvement. Then we can find opportunities to put these new ideas into practice. If you don’t have students of your own, don’t be afraid to borrow another classroom. Modeling, even when things don’t go as planned, is a learning experience for everyone involved. Bowman points out that we learn more from mistakes than from successes, so don’t be afraid to take a risk. And encourage risk-taking in teachers and students as they develop new skills of their own.
 
4. Accept that there will be daily challenges. “The more successful you are, the more headaches that come with it. The stakes are higher,” Bowman says. “The fun is overcoming (the challenges).” It is easy to sit back and be satisfied with the status quo. Difficulties come with quests for change. So expect it, accept it, and view the challenges as problem-solving exercises.
 
Like Bowman, instructional coaches can sit on the side, cheering and supporting those we are working with. By keeping Bowman’s four tips in mind, we’ll also have victories to celebrate!
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Build classroom community with a “Where I’m From” poem:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/linking-literacy-and-community-at-the-start-of-the-year/
 
 
Video shorts of classroom makeovers:
 
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-learning-spaces-classroom-makeovers
 
 
Teaching the Writing That Students Need Now:
 
https://ccira.blog/2024/07/16/teaching-the-writing-that-students-need-now/
 
 
A Calendar of “National Days” (both serious and goofy) to celebrate throughout the year:
 
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/calendar-at-a-glance/
 
 
Ideas for easing back into the school-year routines:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/cheat-sheet-first-days-school-jose-vilson
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! TODAY you can still use the code: JUL2024 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
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