Lead Lit Topic: One-on-One
Just as one-on-one conferring in the classroom impacts student learning, individual coaching has the potential to significantly grow a teacher’s practice. With a foundation of trust and solid communication skills, coaches and teachers collaborate to improve curriculum and instruction. Not that it’s easy. It’s not. Teaching is personal; it’s who we are. Here you’ll find support from experienced coaches who have been there and attend to teachers’ learning styles, teaching styles, communication preferences and more on the imperfect journey of working intimately with adult learners.
Results
Thanks for the Feedback: Leaning Into Tricky Conversations
I finally had the class settled. The playground action outside our window had been hard to turn away from and caused playground behavior inside our learning space. After an interactive...
Connecting the Dots
Standing in the entrance of the baseball dugout, I watched the young T-ball players chasing each other around in circles while simultaneously jumping on and off the team bench. Volunteering...
When They’re Hard to Teach
Nathan sits down at the table and begins to read from his collection of familiar texts. He’s strategic. He grabs the easiest books he can from his pile. As we...
Let Poetry Be the Leader
Communication and motivation are the keys to strong leadership. I learned this quickly as a young teacher. One of my directors would leave little notes periodically in faculty mailboxes. I...
The Power of Using a Viewing Lens
Here is the definition of lens from Merriam-Webster: Something that facilitates and influences perception, comprehension, or evaluation Last June, I visited Rocky Mountain National Park with my family. We hiked...
Using a Checklist for Powerful Post-Conferences
The new school year has started! You’ve connected with your teachers, created a schedule, organized your resources. As you begin to navigate your coaching cycles, it’s helpful to have a...
Capturing Classroom Currents
As a coach, I have the amazing opportunity to see classrooms through an objective outside view, but even more, to see the art, the creativity, the ebb and flow of...
Yes, and . . . A Collaborative Philosophy
I approach Jean as she lies on the stage, hands in the air, moving them in a semi-rhythmic twisting fashion. “Hey, Jean, whatcha’ doin’?” I offer, almost complacently. “I’m putting...
Coaching Minute: Creating Conversations to Anchor Professional Relationships
Instructional coach Jen Court takes advantage of the early days of a school year to be present with classroom teachers and create conversations that begin to anchor meaningful professional relationships.
Coaching Toward Independence: Using an Instructional Framework to Guide a Principal-Teacher Conversation
One mistake leaders can make when coaching teachers is to give advice. For instance, we see an opportunity to make a suggestion during an observation. Yet this “opportunity” also takes...
Changing Positions? How to Rethink Your Community (Download)
“How are you?” I asked the teacher as I walked into the hallway where she was looking at art on the wall. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m switching to...
Using Photographs for Coaching Conversations
When beginning a coaching cycle, I typically start the conversation with student achievement goals. As I work side by side with a teacher, we start with a goal where we...
Coaching Minute: The Power of a Stopwatch
Ruth Ayres shares how timing parts of an observation gives unique and meaningful data for reflective conversations.
What Does Your Feedback Say About Your Coaching Relationships?
Walking out of Emily’s room, I had that post-coaching high. It had been the kind of meeting you leave knowing that you’ve pushed practice and impacted students all while sharing...
Crafting Coaching Conversations
“You know, I didn’t think the tool you shared with us at professional development last week was anything my class needed. I thought that by fourth grade, they had reading...
Goals Are Greater than Nice Conversations
If there’s no goal, it’s just a nice conversation. —John Campbell, Growth Coaching International I am still grappling with this quote. It hit me hard. Was I just having nice...
Guided Reading Debrief
Lora Bieghler debriefs with teacher Cheryl Miller after a guided reading lesson.
Affirm, Acknowledge, Ask: A Simple Protocol for Communicating Feedback
How do we let people know how they might improve if they are not ready to hear it? There are many situations in which the signals are clear that feedback...
Ninja Feedback: Empowering Teachers to Reflect
The greatest feedback I've gotten has been feedback I didn't know I was getting. The most effective coaches and mentors in my experience were those who knew how to ask...
Coaching Minute: Reminders for Facilitating Coaching Conversation
Instructional coach Brian Sepe offers three reminders for facilitating a coaching conversation. Staying focused on action, clarity, and energy ensures that the conversation will be fruitful.
Trust Your Tools. Trust Your Teachers
A teacher asked me if she should have her students journal digitally or in print. “Which do you think is best?” she asked. We were meeting for our fall individual...
