Instructional coaching can feel a bit like a roller coaster.
Some days feel like we’re sailing through the day with the wind in our face and our arms outstretched with a feeling of triumphant success. Other days can feel like we’re trudging uphill, gasping for dear life as we try to deal with what’s coming next.
Can you relate?
Because instructional coaching is responsive to the teachers and students within our unique schools, our positions look much different from one another’s, and each day can look much different, too.
Some days feel good and some days do not.
The key is to figure out what makes the good days good and do more of that and what makes the hard days hard and do less of that. How do we figure that out? The best way is to journal your way to better understanding with a bit of reflective practice, a notebook, and a couple of colored highlighters.
The 30-Day Challenge from Alex Banayan is designed to help us get clarity on what makes us happy, what brings us down, and who we are inside to help us make changes in our lives. We can easily apply this challenge to our coaching to help us do the same in our professional lives.
In fact, it could be a game changer for your coaching.
Here’s how I made it work for my own coaching and how you can, too.
First, grab a small notebook dedicated solely to the challenge and label it “My 30-Day Coaching Challenge.”
Then, at the end of each workday, write your responses to these three questions by hand in your notebook:
- What filled my coaching with enthusiasm today?
- What drained my coaching of energy today?
- What did I learn about my coaching today?
That’s it! It takes only about five minutes and does not need to be lengthy. Here’s an example from one of my own daily entries:
- What filled my coaching with enthusiasm today? Our grade-level teams met today, and they really enjoyed the read aloud sets I brought to introduce new titles for their classrooms.
- What drained my coaching of energy today? I spent too much time sifting through the piles of papers on my desk to find what I needed.
- What did I learn about my coaching today? I am filled up by books and love sharing new titles with teachers. Clutter is my nemesis, and I need to clean up my workspace.
At the end of 30 days, take three different-colored highlighters and reread your 30 written responses, one at a time:
First, highlight key actions that bring enthusiasm to your coaching, such as books, coaching cycles, and student interactions.
Next, in a different color, highlight key things that drain your coaching of energy, like clutter, bus duty, administrative tasks, and reluctant teachers.
Finally, in the third color, highlight key concepts that you’ve learned about your coaching, such as needing a clean workspace and wanting more contact time with students.
Then, spend some time reflecting on what you learned. Did particular things bring you enthusiasm? Make a plan to include more of those things in your coaching calendar. Did particular things drain you of energy? Make a plan to alleviate those items or create work-arounds, if possible. What did you learn about your coaching? Take those insights into your next 30 days to make your future coaching even better.
When I completed this challenge, I learned that sharing books with teachers and leading professional learning sessions where teachers left with a quick win for the next day brought me enthusiasm. Therefore, I planned to share my book recommendations in a weekly or monthly email and explicitly plan for the quick wins teachers would leave with in every meeting I facilitated.
I also learned that I spent far too much time inside my inbox and that was draining. I spent 30 minutes getting to Inbox Zero (well, Inbox 25!), created folders, and unsubscribed from email lists that no longer served me. Phew!
As for what I learned? I learned that I need a clutter-free workspace, small things like fresh flowers and beautiful quotes bring me joy, and I work better when I have a schedule to help me feel productive each day.
That’s a serious amount of clarity in just five minutes of reflection each day. And the best part? You do not have to complete this challenge every day for the rest of your coaching career to benefit from it. Not at all! You can proactively plan to complete the challenge at key points of the school year, such as the first month to set your year up for success, December to head into the new year with a bang, and spring to do some spring cleaning to your coaching. Basically, the challenge is here for whenever you feel challenged in your coaching and want to make a change.
We have the power to bring renewed enthusiasm and effectiveness to our positions and better serve the future version of ourselves that has more ups than downs on the coaching roller coaster.
