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“I can’t wait to tell you about a coaching conversation this week,” Sandi said when I ran into her in the hall. “Molly was so excited about her lesson, and the question I planned to ask her really paid off.” Sandi is part of a group of coaches I’ve been working with, using the GIR model to support cycles of coaching. In recent weeks our focus has been on asking questions to guide teacher reflection. This week, when I began our meeting by asking for celebrations, Sandi jumped right in to tell her story. Molly, a teacher Sandi was working with, was so excited about a lesson she had just taught that she asked to meet with Sandi a day earlier than they had planned. Seeing Molly’s enthusiasm, Sandi rearranged her schedule and prepared for their conference. Questioning had been a productive strategy in her recent meetings with Molly, and she felt it should still be her dominant coaching move. Seeing Molly’s excitement about her lesson, she knew a different kind of questions was called for, s...

A couple of years ago, I had a coaching experience I’d rather not repeat. I was working with a student teacher at the time, but the lessons learned could apply to any coaching experience. The intern (who I’ll call Amber) had been on my radar since early in the student-teaching experience. Scores on her evaluations were low, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Amber’s dead-pan deliver left students unengaged, which opened up all kinds of possibilities for classroom management issues. In addition, her instructional plans were driven by teacher monolog (or ping-ponged teacher-student drills) rather than discussion, and the low expectations that she seemed to have for student learning became self-fulfilling prophesies. Despite assigning her the best mentor teachers as models and conferring regularly with specific recommendations for change, as the end of the student-teaching experience approached, I was worried about whether I’d be able to recommend Amber for licensure. It was time to enla...

When it’s time to shift the weight of responsibility for improving instruction, alternating between recommending and questioning as coaching moves can provide a productive balance. As teachers are getting more comfortable with new instructional approaches, they might still benefit from your recommendations. You can appropriately make suggestions during planning conversations, but using questions intentionally as a coaching move during debrief will give the teacher you’re working with the opportunity to gain her own insights through reflection. It’s all too easy to continue recommending beyond the time when the teacher is ready to do the lifting on her own. You shift the weight of responsibility for improvement to her as you recommend less and question more. With a mixture of recommending and questioning, there’s a healthy back-and-forth action between who is providing the answers. Before long, the teacher will be doing all of the heavy lifting. I talked with a coach this week who had i...

Have you gotten used to writing “2016” yet? Before the new year becomes old hat, take advantage of the increased motivation that accompanies a fresh start and help teachers maintain their new-year enthusiasm for teaching as the calendar pages turn. Motivation catalyzes the success of an organization, so efforts to maintain drive and enthusiasm among teachers can pay off in important ways. Research suggests that coaches and other instructional leaders can create a climate that nurtures motivation. Here’s how: Recall Successes Revisiting a personal success can increase motivation. When I debriefed with a teacher about a lesson that had frustrated her, I realized the tone of our conversation needed to change. I asked her when she had taught a similar lesson that went well. It didn’t take long for her to remember such a lesson. The smile returned to her face as she reflected on this triumph, and we learned a lot together as we compared the two lessons. Self-efficacy – our belief about our ...