Affirming to Cultivate Growth

When we affirm, we choose what to cultivate. As coaches, we can notice and name the brilliant things teachers do. Affirming draws to consciousness things that otherwise might have slipped away. As we raise awareness about these certain things, we open the space for conversations. Here are two examples:
 
“You know what I heard you doing when you conferred with Liza? You asked open-ended questions to deeper her understanding.”
“I see you know about rhetorical reading. When you asked the class to look for the patterns Cisneros used in her description, you helped them to read like writers.”
 
When we affirm, it’s helpful to be explicit about both the practice and the purpose behind the practice. In the examples above, the practice is coupled with its outcome, what happened because you did this. These affirmations invite thoughtful rejoinders that sustain effective practices. By shining a spotlight on things the teacher does well, we build their confidence and encourage more of the same. What we focus on grows.
 
Overcoming negativity. When we draw attention to specific practices, we may uncover strengths that teachers have used but are unaware of. This can happen because of an inclination to focus on what isn’t working. Affirmation can counter this negativity bias. Focusing on weaknesses is relatively ineffective, but easy to do. 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, but using affirmations intentionally can counter this bias. As a coach, you may need to purposefully set aside the tendency to see the negative and, instead, look for positive features to affirm. 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. Becoming more aware of instructional aspects that are going well shifts teachers away from their own negative biases. The resulting energy readies teachers to move forward productively. The practices cultivated through affirmation grow.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
This podcast about the magic of singing:
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/podcast-38
 
 
Using questions as a teaching tool:
 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776909/
 
 
Doing an emotional check-in with students:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/social-emotional-states
 
 
Strengthening principal/coach partnerships:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/5-things-coaches-and-principals-can-do-right-now-for-a-better-partnership
 
 
How to create a class website in 30 minutes or less – really!
 
http://theedublogger.com/2013/08/29/class-website/ 
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Affirmation in a Post-Pandemic Return to School

As we prepare to return to what we hope will be a post-pandemic school year, everyone will benefit from affirmation.

We need reassurance that we’ll find the path, even though it will look different from pre-pandemic times. We have learned so much in the past 16 months. How can coaches help teachers hang onto the best of that? One way is to affirm what we have seen working, and to use affirmation in an ongoing way to affirm what we see working in our new context. 

Let’s not pretend that it won’t be new. During writing camps for elementary and secondary students this summer, I heard teachers describe their students’ insights and challenges, both of which seemed magnified. The summer camp was a first return to school for many of them, who had signed up for remote learning during the 2020-21 school year. Others had had face-to-face experiences that were disrupted by quarantines and by appropriately-relaxed expectations. How will we return to accountability? What should that even mean? How will we honor the individualized learning that so many students pursued? What technology will we hold on to? What scripts can we let go of?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, and you probably don’t either. But I think we should keep questions like these at the forefront as we return to school. Teachers will be figuring this out. And when we see someone who is navigating these uncharted waters in a successful way, we should acknowledge and affirm. We should share and hope that these positive impacts spread.

Language that affirms the classroom teacher’s knowledge and expertise causes deep thinking and reflection.*  When coaches attend to the positive, life-giving elements we see, we galvanize energy and ready teachers for ongoing success. The energy gained can be directed toward sustaining positives and revising aspects that are going less well.

As we prepare to return to school in a post-pandemic world, let’s prepare to explore the strengths, successes, and possibilities of teachers and students. It’s time to get out the rose-colored glasses.

National Council of Teachers of English (2020). Elevating Student Voice: The Role and Importance of Literacy Coaches for K–12 Teachers. https://ncte.org/statement/elevating-student-voice/.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
How coaching and teacher are alike:
 
https://itsaboutmakingspace.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/coaching-is-teaching/
 
 
Eight spaces for your coaching room (if you’re lucky enough to have one!):
 
http://buzzingwithmsb.blogspot.com/2021/07/what-goes-in-coaching-office-space-ep.html
 
A podcast about SEL:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/podcast?utm_source=newsletter20170218/
 
Thinking about language: School loss, not learning loss:
 
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2021/01/getting-clearer-schooling-loss-not-learning-loss/
 
This video with a perspective about post-pandemic schools:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LC4YFenynI
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com
 

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

Avoid “You Should”-ing

The small and simple words used during coaching impact a teachers’ sense of self as a knowledgeable professional. When making a recommendation, choosing words that have a kinder, gentler feel can make a big difference in how the suggestion is taken up. When I say, “I’m wondering how a Venn diagram would work in this lesson,” it is an invitation for the teacher I’m working with to consider this tool. “You should use a Venn diagram instead of that chart,” would not be received nearly so well. 
 
In a coaching conversation, you’ll want to avoid evaluative words like “good” and “bad” and harsh modal verbs like “should” and “must.” “Might” and “may,” their kinder cousins, are better received, and show that our views are tentative and awaiting consideration. “You should make sure everyone is listening before you begin,” sounds like a command. Saying, “Something that has worked for me is using a focus signal before giving instruction,” feels like there is an idea being offered. Providing a menu of options is another way to avoid “you should-ing.”
 
Saying, “Some things you might want to consider…..” offers the teacher agency to think through what was offered. By providing multiple suggestions, we increase choice.
 
Offering choice develops feelings of power and efficacy. These are important aspects to consider if our coaching seeks to gradually increase teachers’ responsibility. Being asked to make a decision rather than being told what to do is an encouraging approach that exhibits trust in the teacher’s ability.
 
Another benefit of offering choice is that it usually increases motivation. For example, when a teacher chooses among options presented for enhancing class discussion, she is more vested in making her self-selected option work.
 
It’s also helpful to include your own conjectures and curiosities about possible instructional choices. Beginning with the words, “I wonder” or “What if…” demonstrates your openness and interest.
 
“What if students generated their own questions before reading?”
 
“What if Marisol was in a group with other emerging bilinguals?”
 
Making recommendations can be an effective coaching move, especially when the teacher is looking for guidance. By avoiding evaluative words, offering choice, and approaching the conversation with curiosity, coaches increase the likelihood that their suggestions will be well received and impact student learning.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Summer professional growth ideas for instructional coaches:
 
https://simplycoachingandteaching.com/blog/2021/06/16/summer-professional-development/
 
Build trust with teachers through clear expectations:
 
https://barkleypd.com/blog/building-trust-with-expectations/
 
Using the 3-2-1 learning strategy for critical thinking:
 
http://bity.ly/3vSA0cl
 
Responding to touch emails from families:
 
http://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/emailing-families
 
 
Coaching teachers’ mindsets:
 
http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol16/num10/mindset-coaching-for-mental-health.aspx
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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Follow on Facebook at: facebook.com/mycoachescouch or Twitter @vscollet for more coaching and teaching tips!  You can also find me at VickiCollet.com
 

What’s in a Name?

The most identifying word any person has is her name. Names are important to our sense of self. Names are linked to identities, and identities to self-worth. Our names are gifted to us by our parents (sometimes reinvented by ourselves or others). Names are who we are and who we wish to be recognized as. 
 
Because a name is so personal, there’s a lot of power in using it, and how we use it makes a difference. We’ve all heard someone say that, when they were a child, if their parent used their full name (first, middle, last), they knew they were in trouble! When using a person’s name in conversation, we can also send a gentler message. Including their name subtly says, “You are an important individual to me.” Using that personal label in a coaching conversation can say, “I care about you and your work.” This summer, you may not have coaching conversations, but you can notice in other situations the power of using a name.
 
I’ve noticed that when we use a name while coaching makes a difference in the emotion that is stirred and the way our comments are received. The simple difference of where we place a person’s name in a sentence (written or spoken) changes the emotional impact.
 
Placing a name at the beginning of a sentence feels like a call for the person’s attention. It has undertones of demand (“Vicki, I’m wondering if you’ve thought about……”). If we embed the name in the sentence, or end the sentence with their name, there’s a certain softness to it. (I’m wondering, Vicki, if you’ve thought about….) It feels different, somehow, like we are connecting with that individual at a personal level. The placement of the name can shift the tone: from, “I’m getting your attention,” to “I am noticing and naming you as a person.”
 
If you’re thinking I’m getting pretty picky here – well, I am.  Words matter. A lot. They are the primary tool of the coach, so it behooves us to use them well. Nuances of use make a difference. A name is a personal thing. Let’s be thoughtful about how we use it.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Summer self-care for teachers:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/summer-self-care
 
 
The case for coaches in professional learning communities:
 
https://www.allthingsplc.info/blog/view/362/the-case-for-coaches-in-professional-learning-communities
 
Helping teachers work smarter together:
 
https://ccira.blog/2018/02/13/how-to-help-teachers-work-smarter-together/
 
Music and mindfulness for stress reduction:
 
https://drumhelper.com/blog/music-and-mindfulness-for-stress-reduction/
 
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!
 
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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
 
 

 

 

Gentle Nudge

We may lack confidence, courage, or motivation to try new things of which we are capable, but a nudge can get us moving in the right direction. Recommendations work best when they feel like a gentle nudge rather than an edict.

Language plays a huge role in coaching, and how that language is received makes the difference in coaching’s effectiveness. Hayakawa, in his book, Language in Thought and Action, said, “To be concerned with the relation between words and what they stand for in the hearer’s thoughts and emotions is to approach the study of language as both an intellectual and a moral discipline.” Effective coaching benefits from a careful study of language. The how of a recommendation is just as important as the what. A gentle nudge is an invitation, a tender prod forward. Pushing, on the other hand, usually doesn’t work. To push is to “press against with force.”  That doesn’t sound very nice, does it? When someone pushes against me with force, I’ve noticed that I have a tendency to push back. It seems like the natural way to keep my equilibrium. If I don’t offer some resistance, I might topple over from the force. 

But a nudge allows me to keep my footing. I’m not going to fall, I’m just going to move forward. To nudge is to touch gently or urge into action.  A nudge is a recommendation loaded with assurance.  Pete Carroll said, “Each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be let out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching, and the greatest things can happen.”  He was talking about football, but instructional coaches can similarly unlock power. A coach might:

·       Urge teachers to work together on a problem of practice.

·       Suggest a book that could offer insight.

·       Encourage a teacher to present at a staff meeting.

·       Ask a teacher to let peers observe in her classroom.

·       Offer leadership opportunities to others.

·       Inspire teachers to try new approaches.

·       Reassure an unconfident teacher that she can manage the new technology.

A nudge is likely to be received gracefully and with appreciation. A pushy recommendation is likely to be met with pushback rather than change. Take a moment and reflect on who might need a nudge to take that next positive step – something you know they are capable of doing, but they may not. Being a pusher can be tiresome and unproductive, but being a nudger – well, that’s something to aspire to!

The difference between nudging and pushing is a matter of language. Our ways with words make a big difference in how a recommendation is received. And one of teachers’ most valued words is their name.  

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

Empathy statements for responding to difficult teacher comments:

https://barkleypd.com/blog/how-might-a-coach-respond/

 

This podcast about using songs to teach:

https://www.teachingchannel.com/podcast

 

Videos from published authors about peer feedback:

https://www.authortoauthor.org/peer-conferring-videos/

 

Tips for transitioning from teacher to coach:

https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/transition-teacher-coach

Using shared writing in middle school: 

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/using-shared-writing-to-build-argument-skills/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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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

 

Recommending Requires a Receiver

Making a recommendation when coaching is like throwing a pass in football:  To be successful, there has to be a receiver on the other end.
 
Recommendations are easy to make. In fact, oftentimes recommendations are hard not to make. But if the teacher you are coaching is not receptive to your ideas, all of your recommendations will be in vain. He or she has got to want it.
 
Teachers are often receptive to new ideas when they are unfamiliar with a topic, skill, or strategy, or when they are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated.* Although novice teachers are more frequently in this situation, experienced teachers also confront new experiences and expectations, making them receptive to recommendations.
 
When coaches make recommendations, they take a consulting stance and are acting as resources. Coaches might recommend processes or protocols and offer advise based on their own experience, knowledge, and instructional repertoire. They may advocate for particular choices and actions.**
 
You’ll know a teacher is ready for a recommendation if she asks for one (although a teacher’s asking does not necessarily mean that a recommendation is warranted – but that’s another story!). When a recommendation seems like the right move, you can also prime the pump by putting the focus on students. You might ask, “Did you notice a difference between lessons when you…” For example, “Did you notice a difference when students repeated the directions before getting started?” Whether or not you have observed a lesson, such a question foreshadows a recommendation without feeling disingenuous. You are drawing attention to an effective practice that has been used and encouraging more-frequent application.
 
Another way to open the door for a recommendation to be received is to use careful wording such as, “One thing to think about…” For example, “One thing to think about is, what are students going to do when they finish the assignment to keep them on task?” Such a question might lead to the teacher coming up with ideas or to your recommendation. Or it might just dangle as food for thought when the teacher begins planning the next lesson.  
 
In the examples above, the coach asks a question to launch a focused discussion that could lead to a recommendation. They give a soft start to a conversation that might make teachers receptive to suggestions. However, even after these soft starts, it’s wise to stop before making a coaching recommendation and ask yourself: Is there a receiver on the other end?
 
*Brown, E. & L’Allier, S.K. (2020). No more random acts of literacy coaching. Heinemann.
**Lipton, L. & Wellman, B. (2001). Mentoring Matters. MiraVia.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Coaching Bingo to spice up your end-of-year repertoire:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/how-to-build-and-advance-partnerships-bingo
 
 
Ideas for wrapping up the school year:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/34768/keep-students-engaged-until-summer-begins/
 
 
How to program your brain for positivity:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmx_35rQIRg
 
 
Advice for writing reviews:
 
https://teachersbooksreaders.com/2021/01/19/dear-young-writers-your-audience-matters/
 
 
Gathering and using feedback on your coaching work:
 
https://blog.teachboost.com/4-step-process-for-collecting-feedback-on-your-coaching
 
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