This week, as I met with my PLC, an agenda item was, “What’s essential?”  In this year of 2020, and seven months into the pandemic, we realize that teachers and students are bearing extra burdens.  Each day holds many extra decisions, and each decision seems heavy.  So, in our PLC, we began to ask, “What can we take off?” “How can we lighten the load?” These are questions that coaches can use as they reflect on their own workload and also as they consider the work of students and teachers. 
 
Although I’ll always be about continuous improvement, this is not the year for pushing hard, for tough love.  This is the year for compassion, for grace, for caring. As I described in last week’s post, this is the year for “soft-pedaling.” In that post, I talked about how bicyclists pedal, turning the crank without applying force. This week, let’s consider soft pedaling as a musical analogy.
 
Musicians know musical dynamics from notation using the Italian words, “piano” and “forte.”  Dynamics are one of the expressive elements of music. The relative loudness of a note or section communicates a particular emotional state. In musical notation, p, or piano, means quiet or soft. There’s even a special pedal on the piano for it, the una corda or “the soft pedal.”  Pianist know that the soft pedal not only quiets the sound, it gives a subtle change, producing a mellower tone.

Reading up a bit about the soft pedal,* I learned that every piano will have a different response when using it. “It’s very important to get to know the effects of your soft pedal,” says expert pianist Robert Estrin.  Further, Robert describes, “Room acoustics, audience noise, and many other factors can determine whether or not the soft pedal is appropriate. Many times I have performed on pianos that were a bit too bright and border on having a harsh tone. When faced with this problem I might use the soft pedal a great deal to sweeten the tone and produce a better sound out of the instrument.”
 
How can coaches sweeten the tone during this harsh year?  Last week’s post included a string of ideas related to soft-pedaling. I’ll continue that approach below, with each idea linked to a previous post.  If an idea strikes you as something you’d like to dive into, click the link to read more.

Following classroom observations, it’s easy to judge and recommend. However, this year, we might want to restrain judgement and, instead, ask questions. This approach feels softer, and it can reap rewards, encouraging teachers to take an active role during debrief conversations. The act of questioning often prompts an insightful explanation or the teacher’s own appropriate adaptations or next steps.  For example, asking, “Why did you give the students more time to work?” rather than making a recommendation, might lead to a fruitful conversation. Even if the direction is not what you expected, it will likely be a direction that is meaningful for the teacher you are working with.
 
Each coaching cycle is a journey, and because 2020 has been full of unexpected twists and turns, our coaching journeys have held the unusual and unexpected. The hope is that each coaching excursion is a collaborative one. This year, teachers need a coach who is not only at their side, but on their side. As a teacher told me, “When you have someone who is on your side, you are going to want to grow as a teacher and as a professional.” A supportive coach believes in what you are doing. They are your champion and cheerleader. So, they are going to recognize and acknowledge what you are doing well.  We can do this through affirmation and praise, leaning hard on those coaching moves that typically take center stage near the end of a coaching cycle.
 
This year, more than ever, teachers benefit from affirmation. Affirming all along the way maintains a positive climate for coaching. As a coaching tool, affirmations can give recognition of what to continue.  When affirming, coaches act as a sounding board so teachers can fine-tune their ideas. Giving a metaphoric pat on the back through words of affirmation is a good feeling – for both you and the teacher you are supporting. 
 
This week, I realized the power of praise.  During an observation, several things had gone wrong that were out of the teacher’s control (accidents happen, especially in kindergarten!).  Even though she subtly handled all the details and kept the lesson going for the class, mentally, she was flustered.  Her directions were off and she wasn’t really noticing her students’ responses.  Later, after the teacher unloaded during our debrief, I chose to focus on a long list of things that went right in the lesson: “The partner talk was brilliant,” I said. “Kids were coming up with great ideas, and it really worked that you followed Javier’s suggestion and had the class stand up, and then touched their heads so they would sit down as you counted them. I think that reinforced their understanding of the need for accurate counting!”  I also praised the instructional scaffolds she provided: “Having their 100’s charts and counting bubbles on their clipboards was really helpful.  I saw lots of students using them!”  I continued the conversation with addition details about positive things I’d noticed.  Kimberly did swing back to the things that hadn’t gone so well, and we talked them through and made plans, but even if that part of the conversation hadn’t happened, the praise, in and of itself, served a coaching purpose.  During stressful times, praise can help teachers find their happy spot – the reason they come to school every morning.
 
Asking questions, affirming, and praising can be “soft pedal” moves, appropriate for coaching in these turbulent times.  They sweeten the sound amidst the sometimes harsh tones in today’s world.
 
*https://livingpianos.com/when-to-use-the-soft-pedal-on-the-piano/
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
This 10-minute podast about face-to-face school and SEL:
 
https://www.coolcatteacher.com/smiling-behind-the-mask-face-to-face-school-and-sel/
 
 
You can’t do better than your best:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufg-HMEzUwE&feature=emb_logo
 
 
Remote learning lessons from Mr. Rogers and Daniel Tiger (using puppets and props, allowing children to respond even in recorded videos, and talking directly to students):
 
https://www.9news.com/article/news/education/back-to-learning/boulder-valley-school-math-literacy-remote-learning-videos/73-1b5e48b1-e672-4b79-9858-c405329f094c

Georgia Heard talks about using poetry to connect us during these uncertain times:

https://ccira.blog/2020/09/15/poetry-is-a-way-to-connect-us-during-these-uncertain-times/

Picture books meaty enough to share with secondary students:

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/read-aloud-in-middle-school/
 

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com

 

Soft Pedal to Move Forward

 

This year, more than ever, if I want coaching work to move forward, I need to soft pedal.  In cycling, soft pedaling means turning the crank without applying force. As needed, a soft-pedaler can smoothly apply power or back off a bit, easily feathering their speed. The dictionary says that soft pedaling is to refrain from emphasizing the more unpleasant aspects of something. Either way, I found myself soft pedaling while working with teachers recently.

Stephan is a teacher who has been too hard on himself.  He wants to break the habit of jumping in to rescue before students have time to think – an important goal, and one I’m supporting him with by gathering data about student response.  But, more than anything, I am drawing on the inspiring moments in his classroom. Stephan teaches with joy and humor. This year, especially, I don’t want him to lose that as he focuses on his current goal.

Alissa is a novice teacher who was struggling with classroom management but wasn’t really aware of it, because she was just so focused on getting through the lesson plan. The examples I shared in a debrief conversation had too much sting. I could see it in her eyes above the mask.  So I’ve been back-pedaling to find, instead, those moments when students are participating and engaged, and we are building on them.  We’ve already seen a lot of forward movement!

This year of 2020 is one of fragility, and my coaching needs to reflect that. As I’ve been coaching myself toward a soft-pedaled approach, I’ve been looking back over past blog posts for reminders. Below is a string of ideas related to soft-pedaling. Each is linked to a previous post, so if an idea strikes you as something you’d like to dive into, click the link to read more.

First, since we can never really stop thinking about infection, let’s remind ourselves that attitudes are contagious, too!  Coaches can take the lead, sharing a positive attitude that will spread. An increase in confidence follows.

Now, more than ever, it’s important for me to attend to how teachers are responding, using their body language, expressions, and tone of voice, in addition to the words they say. The ability to read a conversation with all of my senses is a valuable coaching skill that I’m reminding myself to use.

I’ve also noticed that the better I am at really hearing what a teacher is saying, the better I will be heard.  I have to first listen deeply to teachers’ ideas, trying to understand both the purpose and the process.  I might have to asked question to better identify what the teacher values so that our work aligns with her needs.   

As I noted in the scenario about Alissa, coaches can offer an injection of hope by taking a strengths-based approach to their work.  Areas of struggle become easier to address – and sometime disappear entirely – when you and the teacher you are working with are focused on making what is good even better. 

Alissa is thriving on praise, building on things that are working. Specific praise can get teachers thinking about their practice and has been found to increase motivation, efficacy, creativity, and willingness to take risks. It enhances reflection and keeps a good thing going!

An emphasis on praise this year doesn’t mean I won’t use the other coaching moves in the GIR model. But I’ll soft-pedal those moves. The coaching journey is a cautious one. My steps are trepidatious – I have to test the ground before I move. I have to think things through before I say them and measure what the impact might be, because as 2020 winds down, perhaps we are all a little fragile.

If you, too, are finding the need for soft-pedal coaching, I hope these ideas will help you on your journey.

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

This podcast about trauma and reducing stress:

https://www.bamradionetwork.com/track/six-critical-things-every-teacher-needs-to-know-about-trauma-and-reducing-stress-this-school-year/

 

How mentors help first-year teachers:

http://neatoday.org/2017/06/19/lean-on-me-how-mentors-help-first-year-teachers/

 

Strategies for better online discussions:

https://inservice.ascd.org/three-strategies-for-better-online-discussions/

 

Build connections before providing feedback to students:

https://twowritingteachers.org/2020/08/09/providing-feedback/

 

Let students write ANYTHING:

https://ccira.blog/2020/08/26/the-power-of-anything-making-the-case-for-starting-your-writing-year-with-choice-of-genre/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com

The Music of Collaboration

 

What’s your role when the PLC gets together?  For many instructional coaches, the expected role is facilitator: they move the agenda forward, listen actively, and maintain norms. Another important role for meeting facilitators is to care for the conversation.

In the role of conversational steward, it’s important to be aware of the balance of voices in the room.  You might think of yourself as a conductor, and the conversation as the music of collaboration.  The conductor of a symphony looks to the violins and brings them in to add melody to the piece.  If you’ve watched a conductor, you’re probably also familiar with the palm toward an instrumental section, patting down the voices to quiet their sound and bring harmony to the overall effect. 

Team meetings also benefit from having someone who is listening carefully to the balance of the conversation, pulling in the voices of those who are too silent, and quieting those who are overpowering the conversation.  Just like in the classroom, in the PLC room there are “conversation hogs” and “silent somebodies,” and the discourse could benefit from a skilled conductor.

In a successful PLC, the conversational music flows among all members of the group, not just a few, and not just as a back-and-forth between the facilitator and others, like a ping pong match. Teachers should look to each other, not to the facilitator, as they talk and listen.  A direct reminder about this expectation is helpful, and I try to send that message with my own eyes by scanning the group if a teacher is looking too much at me. The conversation is more like a volleyball match, with multiple players lobbing the ball before it goes over the net.

The tools you’ve used to support successful discussions in your classroom work equally well in a PLC meeting. You add your voice mostly for structuring, questions, and recaps. Asking, “Susan, what do you think?” can pull in the teacher who tends to sit quietly, pulling the focus away from someone who is dominating the meeting. “Brad, it looks like you have something on your mind,” could invite a divergent opinion. “Say more about that,” clarifies a contribution. Ensure that everyone’s ideas and experiences are brought forward improves the outcome. Harmony is achieved not through commonality, but through balance.

Balance also means avoiding holes that don’t lead toward the meeting’s purpose, redirecting tangential topics so they don’t overpower the melody. A skillful orchestra conductor manages a conversation among instruments.  The musical dynamics, from “pianissimo” to “forte,” migrate throughout the piece and among the different instruments, allowing the melody to resonate. Similarly, an instructional coach can orchestrate a PLC conversation, mindful of group dynamics, the amplification and contributions of all members of the team.  Whether the meeting is face-to-face or virtual, a thoughtful conductor supports the cohesive melody of productive conversation.

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

This 11-min. podcast about how discussion makes students the lead learners:

https://jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WASCD.EL.wiggins.cfm

Having students create life maps to value the knowledge they bring to the classroom:

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/my-world-maps/

Do-able remote synchronous teaching ideas:

http://msbordnerteachertech.blogspot.com/2020/07/remote-synchronous-teaching-ideas-i-got.html

 

Special education and online learning:

https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2020/08/special-education-and-online-learning-what-you-need-know?utm_source=brief

 

Practices to center the voice of Latinx students:

https://blog.heinemann.com/six-practices-to-center-the-voices-and-experiences-of-latinx-students-in-the-classroom

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com.

Coaching Co-Presence

What was your best coaching moment this week?  Can you recall what you were paying attention to, how you felt, and what you were doing?  Do you think there was a teacher or student paying attention to, feeling, and doing the same things you were during that prime coaching moment?  If so, you were experiencing co-presence.  

Co-presence is a feeling that your attention, emotion, and behavior are in sync with someone else’s.  This can happen in both face-to-face and virtual interactions.  It stems from full attention and rich flow of information.

When we look together at students’ work from a lesson, we invite co-presence. When we rejoice together over a student’s growth or laugh together at a five-year-old’s comment, we invite co-presence.  When we stand shoulder-to-shoulder finishing the bulletin board before the school board walk through, we invite co-presence.  When we look, feel, and act together we are present; when the teacher perceives that presence, he experiences co-presence. 

I observed a third-grade class this week where the teacher, Ian, had cheerful, relatable interactions with his students during their math lesson on “groups of” – a warm-up for multiplication.  One of the most memorable moments in the lesson was when Ian feigned surprise, took his glasses off, rubbed his eyes, got up close, and squinted at the Smartboard when a student said something that didn’t square with the diagram.  The student laughed and quickly self-corrected.  Ian and the students were in sync.

Later, when Ian and I talked about the lesson, we laughed together about the moment. I think Ian felt co-present with me. We called up other moments in the lesson: I cheered about something he felt went well, and we winced together at a possible misstep. As our meeting time was running out, he set a goal and we both wrote it down; then we calendared a time for our next check in.  During this coaching conversation, our efforts seemed aligned – we were mutually co-present. 

The coaching conversation with Ian happened with us sitting in the same room at a conference table.  Although masked and 6+ feel apart, we were mindfully aware of one another. Being physically present, however, is neither necessary nor sufficient for co-presence.  I can physically occupy the same space as others but be mentally absent from them.  Conversely, I can be miles away connecting virtually and create co-presence.

Whether face-to-face or virtual, our work as coaches will benefit if the teachers we are working with feel co-present with us.  

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

Synchronous or asynchronous – how to decide:

https://catlintucker.com/2020/08/asynchronous-vs-synchronous/

60 ways to formatively assess:

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21ABi8ewSKYEG5dvc&cid=E41FB2CBF1EDA012&id=E41FB2CBF1EDA012%2149904&parId=root&o=OneUp

 

A giant list of examples of essential questions:

https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/examples-of-essential-questions/

Doing a fiction writing unit?  Check out these suggestions for creating strong characters:

https://www.well-storied.com/blog/write-stronger-characters

20 Zoom tools for educators:

https://www.teachthought.com/technology/best-zoom-tools-for-teachers/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com

Repair Jobs and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

 

I spent a lot of time in classrooms this week – in real, live classrooms, with active young children and teachers moving around the room.  Even though children wore masks and sat behind plastic dividers and teachers, also masked, wore microphones to project their muffled voices, there was still joy and energy in almost every classroom.  The kind-of-scary thing is, after almost a month in school, this is starting to feel normal. 

But something that was not normal was the stress I felt in a kindergarten room on a Friday afternoon.  Looking back, I should never have been observing a novice teacher in a kindergarten room on a Friday in September.  What was I thinking?  I remember my own experiencing teaching kindergartners in September, and even in good times it was a struggle to keep those 5-year-olds awake, much less engaged, by the afternoon at the end of the week.  So I am giving the teacher lots of grace and trying not to make judgments about teaching from that observation.  And I’ll make sure the next time I’m in the room is a morning earlier in the week.  But still…

The lack of joy in the room seemed palpable to me. Students were redirected one-by-one, over-and-over, during the lesson.  Some names were called out frequently.  And I couldn’t help but wonder, if those same names are called out day after day, what might that mean for those 5-year-olds? How will they see themselves as learners?  If, during their first month of school experience ever, they are called out for not facing the right direction, for slumping in their chair, for standing instead of sitting, how will they see themselves as learners?  Will the attention they get for negative behaviors become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

As I prepared to debrief with the teacher, I took time to think through what I’d say and share. It was a growth-plan observation, so I would be providing written feedback along with our conversation.  I waffled about what I should write.  I conjured up every positive thing I could think of from the lesson and included those first in the written comments, but I also included comments about the frequent redirection of student behavior, about the teacher’s sharp tone. 

When I sat down with the teacher at the end of the day, I started with one of my normal openers after an observation: “As you think back on the lesson, what stands out for you?”

I heard the teacher talk about how she successfully used classroom management strategies to redirect students’ attention, things like counting backward and giving or taking away stickers from individuals’ behavior charts. She didn’t say anything about the students’ learning, so I asked. She thought they were starting to get there, she said.  She seemed pretty pleased with the lesson.  These are the hardest coaching conversations to have – the ones were my perceptions about the overall effectiveness of the lesson don’t seem to line up with those of the teacher.

It was time to share the written feedback, and I prefaced it with lots of comments about growth. I folded the paper so that only the positive comments were initially visible. But then the time came for her to review the “focus areas for next observation” portion of the form.  After this novice teacher read the comments, she looked up.  Even with only her eyes showing above the mask and me sitting at a six-foot distance, I could see that the comments had hit home. There was anxiety and, I thought, sadness, in those eyes.  The comments had gone too far.  We talked until we got to what felt like a productive place, but I am still mulling over that interaction. That’s why I’m writing my way through the experience this morning, I guess.

I’m wondering: Should I have said nothing about the time spent redirecting behavior?  Should I have withheld judgment about the classroom environment? Could I have phrased the feedback in a way that stung less?  If I had, would there be impetus to change?  Is change needed, or was what I saw the product of a Friday afternoon in September?  Why did the teacher seem so pleased with the lesson when I was not?  These questions, and others like them, are rolling around in my head.  But mostly, I am worrying and wondering: Might the negative comments about the observation of this novice teacher also become a self-fulfilling prophecy?  What will I do to stop that from happening? 

People’s expectations influence their behavior and their outcomes. That’s the premise of the psychological phenomenon called a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”  A self-fulfilling prophecy is “a belief or expectation that an individual holds about a future event that manifests because the individual holds it.” Sometimes a belief brings about consequences that cause reality to match the belief. People are likely to act in ways that reinforce their beliefs about themselves. Attitude effects outcome, and negative self-thoughts may actually create negative outcomes.  What have I done?????

Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”  So I have an ongoing repair job to do.  I hope, that by the end of our debrief conversation, the novice teacher felt that she could focus her attention on student engagement and learning and see positive outcomes.  But I am not so sure about that.  I am afraid the negative comments are lingering in her mind.  I hope that, over time, supporting this teacher’s positive perceptions of her capabilities will become a positive self-fulfilling prophecy.

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

Trauma informed self-care for educators (I think the list of resilience factors on pg. 3 is very helpful!):

https://gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/Educator-Resilience-Trauma-Informed-Self-Care-Self-Assessment.pdf

 

Building reading identities all year:

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/building-reading-identities-across-the-year/

 

This two-minute video with tips for new coaches:

https://instructionalcoaching.com/preparing-for-the-new-school-year-5-tips-for-new-coaches/

 

Ideas for culturally-sensitive communication:

https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/publications/critical-practices-for-antibias-education/family-and-community-engagement

 

Establishing routines for online teaching:

https://catlintucker.com/2020/08/video-conferencing-establishing-routines-online/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Was this helpful?  Please share!
Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)
Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com

Bringing Their “A Game”

Do you trust that each of the teachers you are working with are doing their best?  They will make mistakes, even big ones (we all do). We simply trust teachers to do their best before, during, and after the mistakes. Most teachers are bringing their “A Game.” 

“Bringing your A Game” is an expression from athletics that means to arrive with your top attitude and ability, to deliver a good performance, giving your best effort, abilities, or achievement. The letter A is associated with being first and best.

Judge Not

Although coaching requires judgment, coaches are not in a position to judge whether a teacher is doing their best. It’s even hard for the teacher herself to make that judgment.  Because “their best” changes day-by-day, minute-by-minute.  The teacher’s reservoir may be running low during a particular lesson, and what she has to offer is not quite the same as it was on another day.  While sending the message that the students deserve and need the best a teacher has to offer every single day, we also have to recognize that “the best” is a sliding scale, especially during these turbulent times.

Demonstrating Trust

Making sure teachers know we trust them to do their best can be as simple as saying so, and then making sure our own language and actions demonstrate that trust.  It’s a thread that runs through our recommendations, our questions, our affirmations, and the praise we offer.  When coaches make recommendations from this place of trust, the teacher recognizes that we value their autonomy and decision-making ability and know that they will take up the recommendations in a way that suits their students.  When we ask question from this place of trust, teachers know that our question is an honest inquiry, that we don’t have a pre-set answer we are steering them toward.  When we affirm and praise from a trusting foundation, teachers feel the authenticity of our positive comments, and it means so much more.

Self-Fulfilling Prophesy

In the rare instance when a teacher is not bringing their A Game (they have more to offer than they are sharing), the trusting, positive assumptions that coaches demonstrate may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The psychologist who coined the term “self-fulfilling prophecy” defined it as, “A false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true.”*  When coaches continually extend trust and describe the hard work they know the teacher is doing, it often makes it true, even if that wasn’t originally the case. Over time, the teacher’s efforts may rise to the level of the coaches’ positive assumptions.

Teachers care about kids and they care about learning. Beginning with these positive assumptions about a teacher is the foundation for a trusting relationship. A teacher will usually match the level of trust they give with the level of trust they feel, so extending trust helps establish the relational trust necessary in successful coaching relationships.

* Merton, R. K., & Merton, R. C. (1968). Social theory and social structure. Simon and Schuster. p. 477. 

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

A short podcast about grading during this unusual school year:

http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Educational-Leadership/EL-Podcast.aspx

5 Tips for promoting effective parent teacher conferences:

https://barkleypd.com/blog/supporting-teachers-in-successful-parent-conferences/

“Fab Four” Comprehension Strategies:

https://ccira.blog/2020/07/01/the-fab-four-comprehension-strategies-accelerating-reading-now/

A reflective guide to examine:  Did you demonstrate empathy during that coaching conversation?

https://resources.corwin.com/system/files/03%20Demonstrating%20Empathy%20-%20Looking%20Back.pdf

A quick video about student relationship mapping for SEL:

https://www.facebook.com/makingcaringcommon/videos/1536172996520843/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Was this helpful?  Please share!

Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)

Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com

Align Your Attention

How well do you align your attention with your senses during coaching?  Scanning through the table of contents of the Guide to Stress-Free Living,* the section on “Joyful Attention” caught my attention!  Welcoming joy into my life is an intentional goal these days, so I thought I might pick up some good ideas from the book. What I realized, as I read, is that not only does our joy increase when our attention is aligned with our senses, our effectiveness does as well, and this benefit can be had in almost any situation. 

The book includes an exercise where the reader is invited to spend some time looking very closely at a photo of a single, white daisy. What is the configuration of the pedals? How regularly are the spaced? What differences are there between the jagged edge of one pedal and the jagged edge of the adjacent one? The author prompts the reader to look so closely and carefully that they could distinguish that single daisy from all others in a bouquet or field. And it is in recognizing the novelty of that single daisy, the author suggests, that joy is found. Although we find comfort in familiar, we find joy in uniqueness, in the small surprise of difference.

What does that look like for coaches? 

In the classroom, coaches and teachers align their attention with their senses when they are fully present.  There are so many distractions these days with technology, wipe-downs, masks, and memos, that it can be hard to be fully in the teaching moment.  You can watch for this as a coach: the magic of learning happens when the teacher is noticing the response of her students, fully tuned-in with eyes and ears and heart.  Draw attention to these moments and what made them happen.

When you are observing in a classroom, aligning your senses with your attention helps you gather data. Noticing the novel nuances keeps your mind in the game and provides specifics for a debrief conversation that can challenge the thinking of even the most experienced teacher.  Did that typically-distracted student rivet his attention during a portion of the lesson?  Did a hush fall over the class when the teacher shared a relevant personal connection?  Was there a busy buzz in the online chat after a certain question? Was there a period of energy during whole-group discussion that somehow connected the physically-distanced students? Focusing closely while you are in the classroom delays interpretation, giving you the opportunity for later deliberate consideration. Describing the details of a moment like one of these at the beginning of a debrief can launch a fruitful discussion and teacher-learning that is generalizable.  Learning that is tied to a single, focused moment in a lesson can be boundless.

Aligning your attention to your senses during planning and debrief conversations is similarly fruitful. Hearing the quick pace of footsteps as teachers join you in the PLC room could signal the importance of a pause to breathe deeply before jumping into the work. Noticing averted eyes when following-up on a previous commitment might mean you should schedule a later time to check in about it.  If you hear energy in a teacher’s voice when she talks about a certain topic or student, tune in on that topic.

And how does all of this relate to joy?  Maintaining a steady focus on our own agenda may bring some satisfaction, but life can pass you by.  By hearing, seeing, and being in an experience, we savor life. The newness in every situation sparks interest. Intentional attention pulls you away from distractions and into the joy of the details. Attending to the novelty in a situation will connect you at a deeper level.  According to The Guide, when you focus on the details of the present, you stop carrying the loads of the past and future in your head, if only momentarily, producing greater joy.

*Sood, A. (2013). The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living. De Capo Press.

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

Slow down and show care:

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/slowing-down/

Building a climate where reading is valued and enjoyed:

https://www.middleweb.com/43395/sharing-the-joy-of-reading-with-students/

When to opt out of graphic organizers:

https://www.middleweb.com/43456/when-should-we-skip-the-graphic-organizer/

Crash course videos about the writing process (target audience: College comp students, but accessible for younger students as well). Here’s #1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXa22Csh7oE

Coaching with Instagram:

https://blog.teachboost.com/the-power-of-instagram-for-coaches

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Was this helpful?  Please share!

Want to know about new posts? Click “Follow” (bottom right)

Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com