faulker008

We’re getting close to that time of year when we reflect back and look forward, and this can be a good time for helping teachers prioritize their activities and routines.   Here’s an exercise suggested by Shawna Coppola* that works well when coaching individual teachers or teams. First, ask teachers to choose which part of the day or content area they want to reconsider (if their secondary teachers, you can skip this step!).   Next, make a list of everything that could potentially happen (or that the teacher(s) did this year), during that part of the day.   Don’t get too specific; the idea is to list generalizable, repeated activities.   For example, don’t list “Read aloud of James and the Giant Peach,” list “Teacher read aloud,” or maybe “Teacher read aloud while students draw the scene.” Keep going until you run out of steam (or chart paper, whichever comes first!).   Hint: If you’re working with just one teacher, the list can be made on a piece of paper. ...

As the school year draws to a close, it’s important to pause and celebrate success with teachers.   Giving teachers the space to reflect on their own accomplishments is a precious gift during the crazy, finishing-out-the-school-year rush.   Reflection helps teachers see that their hard work and persistence have paid off.   Yesterday, I played the Beatles song, “In My Life,” followed by Trace Adkins’s, “You’re Gonna Miss This,” while teachers reflected on their best memories of the year, what would stick with them, and how they had changed.   Then they shared a memory or celebration with their shoulder partner.   The mood in the room was noticeably brighter.   A creative twist on supporting teacher reflection is to ask teachers to reflect on each others’ successes.   The “Strength Circle” protocol provides this opportunity.   Each teacher is given an envelope and a blank piece of paper.   They write their name on the outside of the envelope, f...

Confidence is optimistic belief in our chances for success.   When we are confident, we feel that our chances of success are high, that our efforts will result in a favorable outcome.   It is an optimistic self-belief.   Psychologists call this belief self-efficacy.   Self-efficacy is important for teachers because, as Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t - - you’re right.”   Like the Little Engine, teachers who “think they can” accomplish remarkable things.   Albert Bandura, a cognitive psychologist, describes ways to boost self-efficacy that have special relevance for instructional coaches.   They are: vicarious experiences, mastery experiences, and verbal persuasion. Vicarious Experiences Observing successes of people we consider as role models builds self-efficacy.   Seeing people similar to ourselves succeed through sustained effort raises our belief that we, too, can have success in that area.   This is o...

The roles of an instructional coach are many and varied, depending on context and job description.   However, it’s safe to say that coaches, in their work with individual teachers and teams, will be expected to guide, challenge, and celebrate instruction.   Let’s think about each of those power-packed coaching verbs. Guiding A coach is a guide by the side who models and recommends to help teachers’ instructional practices rise.   Let’s consider a metaphor from vacation travel: Tour guides can provide some insight about how to magnify the role of instructional coach as guide.   Like me, you’ve probably taken a vacation tour or two with a guide who had memorized a script and could regurgitate it perfectly, with a litany of facts and timed pauses after jokes. Although informative, I haven’t left such tours more curious or inspired.   I can contrast those experiences with the expert guide we had on our tour of the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza or our brilliant...

Today I worked with a team of excellent third-grade teachers, planning a lesson on equivalent fractions.   I enjoyed collaborating with them and felt that putting our heads together allowed us to come up with a stronger lesson that any of us could have written on our own.   Creating Joint Ownership for a Recommendation For example, one teacher, Megan, explained that she was concerned about her students’ lack of background knowledge (BK) about this topic.   Although the other teacher, Natalie, said her students’ had some BK about equivalent fractions, she wanted to make sure they really understood the concept of equivalence before jumping into the lesson. “I think it might be helpful to show them a balance scale,” she said.   “That has worked well in the past.” “I wonder if you used modeling clay and put equal blobs on each side and showed students that they balanced, and then divided the blob into different parts, like halves and quarters,” I suggested.   “That ...

If you’re of my era, you probably remember the song from the movie Grease by Olivia Newton John and John Travolta, “Summer Lovin’.”   In that song, friends frequently repeat the refrain, “Tell me more, tell me more,” wanting juicier details about the budding romance.   (Have you got the song running through your head now?”) That song comes to my mind when I use “Tell me more,” in a coaching conversation.   “Could you say more about that?” is a question that allows coaches to collect information so that we understand the situation, and the teacher, better. When a teacher expresses frustration about test scores, I ask, “Tell me more,” and she provides an oral analysis that helps both of us understand the data better. When a teacher reflects on a lesson that went well, saying, “They really got it!” I can help her recognize and then repeat effective aspects of the lesson by asking, “Tell me more.” When a teacher says, “This intervention isn’t working for Sonja,” my request fo...

When you’ve been asked to work with a teacher who is struggling, coaching is about ensuring excellent instruction for students.   If instruction is currently not meeting students’ needs, you can work toward change and support student learning in the moment.   Even though my work is with teachers, my goals are focused on students and their learning.   I have to find balance in every conversation so that I am empowering the teacher and ensuring sound instruction.   I have to balance the equation so that it adds up to a solid learning experience for kids.   Putting it in a math sentence, what the teacher can do + what I contribute should add up to a positive learning experience for students.   Teacher + Coach = Learning.  The equation shifts as I work my way through the GIR Model.  Modeling For purposes of illustration, let’s think of an excellent learning experience being a 10 (I realize no lesson will ever be a perfect 10, but go along with me on t...