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!

How Are You Spending Your Coaching Time?

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Through August 3, my book Differentiated Mentoring and Coaching in Education, is 25% off here – no code needed.
 
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It’s a common coaching dilemma: With so many roles to juggle—some chosen, some assigned—coaches often find their time pulled in too many directions. When the to-do list grows too long, it becomes harder to engage in deep, sustained work with teachers. And without focused coaching time centered on instruction and student learning, the real impact of coaching gets diluted.
 
That’s what happened with my friend, Emily, a school-based coach who is deeply involved in her school community. She helps with morning announcements, assists with fundraisers, collaborates on Instagram reels with her principal, coordinates the annual readathon, and attends district literacy meetings. It’s no surprise that Emily is seen as a valued leader on campus. But there’s a downside: all these responsibilities chip away at the time she could be spending where it counts most—talking with teachers about instruction.
 
Instructional coaches wear a lot of hats. Some of those hats are part of the job description, while others seem to appear simply because a coach is helpful, available, and willing to say yes. A coach’s calendar can become a collection of meetings, committees, events, emails, coverage requests, and “Could you please…” responsibilities. Add in the interruptions that inevitably come with working in a school, and the time available for sustained coaching shrinks.
 
We know from research that coaching has the greatest effect on student learning when it includes activities like conferring with teachers, modeling strategies, observing classroom practice, and assessment-related activities. These actions, especially when part of intentional coaching work, create space for meaningful collaboration. They lead to thoughtful reflection on student needs, instructional strategies, and curriculum planning—work that improves teaching and learning.
 
So how can coaches protect time for this important work?
 
It takes a mixture of structure and adaptability. A weekly agenda that allots the majority of your time to high-impact coaching practices ensures your commitment to these priorities. At the same time, flexibility is needed. Tasks shift, and surprises pop up during the course of the day,
 
Coaching has the biggest impact when time to collaborate with teachers around instruction and student learning is prioritized. When these activities are intentional and sustained, they create the conditions for teachers to reflect, make adjustments, and strengthen their practice. Building our calendars around such activities ensures that our time is well-spent.
 
However, it’s also true that effective coaching is opportunistic – sometimes a spontaneous hallway conversation can lead to a powerful coaching moment. Or a teacher might stop by with a question that opens the door to a much deeper conversation. A coach may notice something during a classroom visit that is worth following up on. We don’t want to eliminate that flexibility. Some of the best coaching moments may never have appeared on the calendar. The key, though, is to stay grounded in what matters most and be intentional with how time is spent. Flexibility works when it is built around clear priorities.
 
Where Does Your Coaching Time Go?
 
Because effective coaching is a blend of calendaring and acting on opportunities, it’s important to know how your time actually gets spent. So I’ve made a gift for you! If you’d like a free form that will track how you spend your time, click HERE and I’ll send you links to the form and to a video tutorial. Using this tool, you’ll end up with a nice pie chart of how your time is being used. Spending your time on what matters most is important, and knowing how you actually spend your time will help you make adjustments to increase your impact.
 
If you discover that large pieces of your “pie” are spent attending meetings, responding to email, or schoolwide responsibilities that are not directly tied to instruction, you can make adjustments so that the majority of your time is spent in the coaching activities you value most.
 
There’s no “perfect” pie chart, and the goal isn’t to eliminate every responsibility that isn’t direct coaching. Schools need coaches who contribute to the larger community, and some tasks are simply part of the job. But it’s important to prioritize high-impact coaching activities. Teachers benefit from coaching conversations, classroom visits, modeling, co-planning, and collaborative assessment work, so calendaring and protecting blocks of time for those activities is a must. Working alongside teachers to improve instruction and student learning is at the heart of your role, so your calendar should reflect that, while still leaving some room for the unexpected,
 
Teachers are eager to work with a coach when they see the impact on student learning. Student learning improves when coaches spend the majority of their time working with teachers (and planning for that work). If your schedule tends to get overloaded with other activities, consider one change you might make as the school year gets underway to make teacher interactions a bigger piece of your pie. Use the time tracker early in the year, and every so often use it again and take another look at your pie. Is there a slice of your pie that could be bigger? Your time tells a story about your coaching. What story do you want you pie chart to tell?
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

This podcast episode has ideas to help teachers start the school year feeling connected and valued:
 
https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2022/07/designing-back-to-school-for-belonging-with-dr-susie-wise.html
 
 
The power of written conversations (good for PD and classrooms!):
 
https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/written-conversations/
 
 
How coaches support hesitant teachers:
 
https://learningforward.org/2026/07/07/coaches-can-go-deeper-to-support-hesitant-teachers/
 
 
Making group work more productive:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/student-group-work
 
 
Consider what you already know:
 
https://peopledevelopmentmagazine.com/2026/07/26/the-quiet-voice/
 
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!

Principal-Coach Agreements: On the Same Page

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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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Not surprisingly, the biggest predictor of how impactful coaching will be is how instructional coaches spend their time. When coaches work directly with teachers (rather than organizing assessments, ordering materials, doing car-rider duty, etc.) their work has an expanding influence: there’s a positive ripple effect from each teacher to all of their students. So making sure you and your principal are on the same page when it comes to coaching roles and responsibilities is important. And it’s a lot more comfortable to communicate about it before there’s a problem, rather than after.

Across the country, coaches take many different forms, and assigned tasks vary. Assuming that you and your principal visualize your job in the same way can create problems for you, your principal, and the teachers you serve. Starting the year with a principal-coach agreement in place creates clarity and makes the work smoother and more effective.  

If you are a returning coach – heading back to the same school with the same principal – familiar coaching routines with well-established systems may already be in place. For others, coaching may be brand new, the coach may be in a new school, or the principal may have changed – or perhaps the coach’s role has never been clearly defined. In many schools, coaching take on duties that make their role less-impactful than it could be. In these cases, taking the time to clarify expectations through a principal-coach agreement can help create a more purposeful start to the year.

A principal-coach agreement outlines how the coach and principal will collaborate and what the coach’s responsibilities will look like. Putting these expectations in writing helps eliminate ambiguity and builds a shared understanding of the work ahead.

Key questions that a principal-coach agreement might address include:

·        What will communication between the coach and principal look like? How often will they meet?

·        Which teachers will the coach work with? (Ideally, every teacher!)

·        What content areas or topics will the coaching focus on?

·        What specific roles will the coach take on? (e.g., co-planning, modeling, analyzing student work)

·        How will coaching be embedded into the school day for teachers?

·        What boundaries around confidentiality will be honored in the teacher-coach relationship?

·        How will the success of coaching be measured?

·        What tools, time, or other resources are available to support the coach?

Coaching thrives with strong leadership. Research shows that when principals visibly support the coach’s expertise, affirm that all teachers benefit from coaching, and trust the coach to manage their time independently, teacher participation in coaching increases.*  A supportive principal and clearly defined coaching role are essential for success.**

To help you get started, I’ve created some tools to guide the development of a principal-coach agreement: reflection questions, templates, and samples that illustrate how others have approached this work. If you’d like to receive these resources, just fill out this form and I’ll send them your way.

Once you and your principal have reached clarity, think about how to share your agreement with staff. When teachers see the principal and coach working in partnership, it sets a powerful tone for the collaborative work ahead.

When I began as a literacy coach years ago, coaching was still a new thing – no other schools in my district had a coach, but my principal wanted to give it a try. We didn’t have a roadmap—we found our way together, often discussing questions like those listed above. While coaching has become much more common, it still varies widely from school to school. That’s why taking time to co-create a clear, shared vision at the beginning of the year is an important first step for the school year. Having a shared understanding of the work right from the start sets a tone that makes coaching effective.

* Matsumura, L. C., Sartoris, M., Bickel, D. D., & Garnier, H. E. (2009). Leadership for literacy coaching: The principal’s role in launching a new coaching program. Educational Administration Quarterly, 45(5), 655–693.

**Matsumura, L. C., Garnier, H. E., & Spybrook, J. (2012). The effect of content-focused coaching on the quality of classroom text discussions. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(3), 214–228.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Saying “no” respectfully prevents burnout:
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/why-saying-no-can-be-a-smart-career-move
 
 
Coaching for “will” vs. “skill”:
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/dig-deeper-offers-a-framework-for-coaching-teachers
 
 
Rewarding intelligent rule-breaking fosters innovation:
 
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-algorithmic-mind/202507/how-to-teach-kids-to-break-the-rules-intelligently
 
 
Offering opportunities for students to keep thinking:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/alert-mistakes-in-progress/
 
 
Effective teacher-to-teacher communication:
 
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-importance-of-effective-teacher-to-teacher-communication-3194691
 
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: JUL2026 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!

Coaches, Lead with the Why

 
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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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Whether you are leading in your family, a community group, or your role as an instructional coach, Starting with the why makes a big difference in how a recommendation is taken up or how a new program is implemented.
 
Leading with the why means communicating the purpose, cause, or belief first. Championed by author Simon Sinek, this idea of leading with the why means starting with the reason before offering advice or direction. When we lead with the why, we save the what until later.
 
Summer is not over yet, even though school supplies are front and center in the stores! It’s still summer, and summer is a season when you can strengthen coaching habits that don't require a classroom or a coaching cycle. Whether you're encouraging a family member to try a new restaurant, suggesting a vacation route, recommending a book to a friend, or helping someone solve a problem, you can practice leading with the why.
 
When you lead with the why, your suggestions are received differently. When you’re back in school, this will mean communicating first the reason behind a recommendation, and then following up with your idea. The order of these steps matters. Instead of beginning with what someone should do, first communicate why a recommendation matters. When teachers understand the reason behind a suggestion, they are far more likely to consider it, adapt it, and ultimately use it.
 
The Why Opens the Door
 
In situations where we are taking some kind of leadership role, it's tempting to jump quickly to solutions because we genuinely want to help. Yet advice offered without context can sound like one more strategy to add to an already full plate.
 
Leading with the why can change that conversation. When coaching, if teachers first hear the purpose, they begin to see the instructional challenge, recognize its impact on students, and understand why a particular strategy might make a difference. The recommendation doesn’t feel arbitrary – it feels connected.
 
One simple coaching equation captures this idea:
Evidence + Advice = Recommendation
 
Making recommendations is a frequent and effective coaching tool.  However, the effectiveness of coaching recommendations rests on the teacher’s perception of their relevance.  Unless the reason for the recommendation is clear, there’s little chance that the suggestion will be used.
 
In our recommendation equation, evidence is information about how instruction is working.  The evidence is most effective when tied with student outcomes rather than being focused solely on the teacher.  Such feedback is deliberate, explicit, and opens the door for a recommendation. Advice by itself often falls flat. Evidence gives the advice meaning.
 
Here’s an example:  In a debrief session after observing very limited classroom discussion, the coach offered this advice:  “You might try using sticks with students’ names or some other random name generator to call on students.”  What made the recommendation effective, however, was the evidence that preceded it: “When you called on only students with their hands raised, most of the students didn’t contribute to the conversation.”  This evidence provided the warrant for the recommendation. The teacher first saw the need, then heard a possible solution. 
 
Notice that the evidence isn't evaluative. It isn't, "You didn't call on enough students." Instead, it simply describes what happened and connects it to student learning. Neutral observations create awareness without creating defensiveness.
 
Rather than including an evaluative comment, information that lays the groundwork for a recommendation is provided in a non-judgmental way.  It awakens awareness of the need for change and increases the teacher’s receptiveness to advice.  Providing neutral, goal-related facts* about performance in relation to a goal is an important “part one” of a recommendation.  Effective coaching begins with careful observation that yields evidence of the effectiveness of instruction. 
 
Use Noticings to Communicate the Why

Another way to offer the “why” for a recommendation is by stating it as a “noticing.” I like to memorize sentence starters so that I can prompt myself during a coaching conversation. My sentence starter for noticings is, “I’ve noticed that when the teacher ____, students ____.” I’ve found this handy sentence stem is flexible and effective. The noticing can be specific to the teacher’s class: “I’ve noticed that when you use the doc cam to model, your kids follow directions better” or a more general observation: “I’ve noticed when teachers use the last two minutes of a lesson for reflection, students often make new connections.” The frame can be stated as a negative, “I’ve noticed that when teachers move on to another student after a wrong answer, kids often shut down” or a positive: “I’ve noticed that when teachers probe an answer that seems wrong, they can often uncover a kernel of correct thinking to build on.”

Each of these examples quietly answers an important question: Why does this matter? A recommendation may come next, but the teacher has already heard the purpose.

During the summer (or any time you’re with family and friends), you can listen for opportunities to explain your reasoning before offering your opinion. Instead of saying, Before you suggest a restaurant or book, first, describe a preference or interest. The more often you lead with purpose in ordinary conversations, the more naturally you'll do it in coaching conversations this fall.

Carry the Why into a New School Year

As the school year approaches, consider the recommendations you'll soon be making. Is there a new initiative that will be unfolding? Starting with the why could create authentic buy-in. During planning conversations. debriefs and informal hallway discussions, before offering a strategy, pause and ask yourself:

Have I helped the teacher understand why this matters?

We can start by sharing the evidence or offering a noticing. As we connect the instructional move to its impact on students, our recommendations matter more.

This week, pay attention to your everyday conversations and challenge yourself to explain the why before the what. Observe how people respond. Strengthening this coaching habit helps new initiative and recommendations feel more like opportunities. The strongest coaching conversations lead with the why.

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

Sparks for deeper coaching conversations:
 
https://learningforward.org/2026/01/08/take-coaching-conversations-deeper-this-year/
Mixed messages about device bans:
 
https://www.k12dive.com/news/ed-tech-pushback-risks-shortchanging-students-these-school-leaders-say/825346/
 
Deepen elementary students’ learning with Word Journals:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/word-journal-project-elementary-students
 
 
High schoolers using physical books for research:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-students-use-books-high-school-research
 
Leadership lessons learned in the classroom:
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/leadership-lessons-from-a-seasoned-educator
 
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: JUL2026 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!
 

Coaches, Stay Curious

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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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If someone asked me to name one coaching move that consistently leads to meaningful conversations, I wouldn’t choose a protocol, a planning tool, or even a favorite strategy.
 
I'd choose curiosity.
 
The more I coach, the more convinced I become that curiosity—not certainty—is one of our best coaching tools. Unfortunately, it’s also an easy habit to lose. Like any habit, curiosity grows stronger when we intentionally practice it – and we don't need to be in a school building to do that!  Summer is a time to recharge, but it's also a time to strengthen the habits we'll rely on throughout the school year.
 
Curiosity isn’t only for coaching conversations. The habits that make us better instructional coaches can be practiced in ordinary moments—while reading a book, talking with a neighbor, visiting a museum, or simply paying closer attention to the people around us.
 
During the school year, teachers bring us real challenges and we want to help. Our experience naturally leads us to possible solutions, and before we know it, we're sharing ideas before we've fully explored the teacher's thinking. To stem, that tide, we need to practice curiosity.
 
While there are certainly times when teachers need resources or suggestions, coaching with curiosity invites teachers to do the intellectual work of making meaning, considering possibilities, and deciding what comes next. Our questions open that door.
 
Questions Signal Exploration
 
Questions shift conversations away from finding the "right" answer and toward exploring possibilities.
 
During a coaching conversation with Ashley, a junior high instructional coach, I began by asking, “What have you been wondering about as you implement small-group math instruction?"
 
Ashley described how the sixth-grade team was experimenting with cross-classroom instruction, grouping students with the teacher whose strengths best matched their learning needs. As she reflected, Ashley shared several wonderings. She wondered whether introducing a new instructional structure in March—just weeks before state assessments—was asking too much of teachers. She wondered whether teachers saw the work as worthwhile despite everything else competing for their attention. She was also curious about whether the student data would eventually reflect the promise they were hoping to see.
 
What struck me was how rich the conversation became because we stayed with her curiosity instead of moving immediately to solutions. Rather than reassuring her or offering suggestions, I responded, "I'm curious about that first wondering. Are your teachers seeing these small groups as an intervention that supports students' readiness for the upcoming assessment?"
 
That question invited Ashley to continue making sense of what she was observing. It helped us consider the situation from multiple perspectives.
Productive coaching conversations leave room for wondering. So do engaging conversations with friends and family.
 
In a conversation with a friend who is considering changing jobs, you could practice curiosity. Instead of saying, “I wouldn’t leave your current job,” you could ask, “What kind of work gives you energy?” or “What are you hoping life will look like in a few years?” Questions like these encourage exploration and give us a chance to practice curiosity now.
 
Questions Create Agency
 
One reason curiosity matters so much is that questions shift the thinking to teachers. When coaches do all the thinking, teachers leave with our ideas. When teachers do the thinking, they leave with ownership – and that's an important distinction.
 
Questions like the following invite others into curiosity and agency:

·        What are you noticing?

·        What surprises you?

·        What if...?

·        What makes you curious here?

·        What could go right?

Questions like these encourage experimentation instead of perfection. They are an invitation to imagine alternatives, compare possibilities, and test ideas without feeling that everything has to work perfectly. That kind of curiosity builds confidence because it reinforces agency rather than dependence.
 
Curiosity Helps Us See What We Might Otherwise Miss
 
Another reason to practice curiosity (now and later, in your coaching) is that curiosity keeps us from making assumptions. As coaches, it can be easy to think we've seen a situation before, so our minds begin filling in the blanks. Curiosity interrupts that habit. There is almost always more beneath the surface than we initially see. Curiosity helps us stay open long enough to discover it.
 
Summer Is a Wonderful Time to Practice Curiosity
 
Even ordinary moments become opportunities to practice curiosity. The habits of curiosity we cultivate now can be carried into the school year. So as we enjoy the distinctive pace of summer, I invite you to practice curiosity. Notice and wonder. Ask another question. Assume less. Be surprised!
 
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt once said, "We run this company on questions, not answers." That philosophy seemed to work!
 
Curiosity is a habit that makes every coaching conversation better, and it can be practiced almost anywhere—in conversations with friends, while traveling, during a morning walk, or through conversation with someone who sees the world differently. Those small moments quietly prepare us for the coaching conversations waiting in the fall.

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