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The Journey of a First Year Coach – Part One

I just finished reading a really good memoir called, “Born to Rise.” It’s the story of educator Deborah Kenny, and her journey as the founder of Harlem Village Academies. I finished the book feeling inspired and renewed.

Reading this book made me think about the importance of sharing stories.

And then a podcast interview I heard this week with Tom Rademacher, author of “It Won’t Be Easy: An Exceedingly Honest Book About Teaching,” pretty much said the same thing — You’re an educator. You have cool and interesting things to talk about. No matter where you are in your journey.

He’s right. So, I’m sharing a story.

Not my story, since I share a lot.

But the story of another coach, who’s just starting out. Today you’ll hear Part 1, and we’ll check in with Part 2 and 3 as the year goes on.

Enjoy!

Can you share a bit about your background? What got you interested in coaching?

I worked as a classroom teacher for 7 years, in first and second grade. I first started to get interested in coaching/teacher leadership when a teammate and I had the opportunity to lead a PD session together…I had a blast! At that point I started to realize that I really liked, and was interested in teaching adults.

When I was teaching, I was entrusted a lot as a lead teacher and was given opportunities to share classroom strategies with other teachers. I really enjoyed these discussions!

I also really enjoyed the coaching cycles I participated in when teaching. I really learned a lot through this work, and liked the structure of it. It felt like a partnership…coaching felt “friendly.” I felt very free to share and learn, and it was a great opportunity for me to really grow.

When I decided I needed to leave my position to be a mom, my principal invited me into a part time coaching role so I could continue to work. I was able to work alongside a new teacher and support her with classroom management. I loved it!  Though I was only able to continue that year, I knew I would want to do more when the time was right.

After a two year break, I am now working as the school’s part time math coach.

What are you really loving so far about coaching?

I love that I get to work and learn with teachers in the whole building, and not just my grade level. This is fun! But this can also feel like a challenge at times…as a teacher you work so closely with your team which feels comforting and great, and as a coach it’s different. I’m able to work with Kristin and our principal, but it still feels different and scheduling your day and time is different than when I was a teacher.

I also really like the facilitation work I’ve been able to do so far this year. Planning for PD is in many ways similar to planning lessons for the classroom. I like being a part of the school’s planning process for PD, and having a voice is great. Working with adults is different from working with kids and can be hard, but I like it!

I’m also able to participate in a weekly coaches meeting, which feels like important work. I work to keep students best interests first and foremost in mind, and provide a voice for teacher support in the building.

What has been your biggest success or celebration this year?

I’m working in my first ever coaching cycle right now, and that has felt like a success so far! Kristin went with me to our Kick-Off meeting, and I felt great afterwards. I’ve worked really hard at making sure that the feedback I offer is specific and manageable. I notice a lot of things when I’m in her room, so I really have to zoom it in and not overwhelm her! And so far the feedback I’ve shared has been well accepted.

Another success was my interview for this Teacher Leader position in the district! I was really nervous going in, but I really prepared and I showed myself well. At the end, one of the interviewers said she wished I was her coach! :)

What areas are you working on improving at this point in your coaching journey?

Facilitation for PD. Parts of the facilitation work I’ve done so far have felt successful and have felt like “me” and what I envision successful PD to look like. I’ve had good models before as a teacher and want to replicate what I’ve experienced, but I also want to be true to who I am and my style of facilitation so that it feels just right. I’m still working on figuring out what that exactly is (!), but I’m making steps forward with each time I do it. In planning for my first ever whole staff PD I felt overwhelmed, but I told myself, “You can do this!” I asked for feedback and reflected with Kristin, did a lot of planning and preparation, and my efforts payed off! I feel like I’m getting better and better. I also appreciated the opportunity to get started with practicing my facilitation skills right away! Our principal gave me a chance to get in front of the staff in a smaller role at first, and I built up from there. I’ve learned along the way that I really need a good amount of time to plan for a good PD! I’m not sure I gave myself enough time at first.

Another challenge has been rolling out a brand new curriculum. There is a lot to learn! I’m learning as much as I can as fast as I can, but it still feels overwhelming at times.

What has been most supportive to your learning so far this year?

Our leadership has been so supportive. I’m grateful. I don’t feel like I’m drowning, and things feel manageable! Kristin has been a great partner for me too. She’s someone who has gone through it and has collected a lot of wisdom along the way. She helps me with bite-sized goals, what to work on and think about. I took her Coaching Workshop, printed the resources, and used it a lot at the start of the year!

What are your goals moving forward in this next quarter?

I’d like to keep working on reaching out to other teachers, who for different reasons, I may feel are a little outside of my “comfort zone”…some teachers may have a different personality than me, may be a bit quieter, or I just don’t know them yet. I’m working really hard to get into everyone’s room, and also make connections with teachers…by just sitting and talking with them at lunch, or at PD!

I also need to work on nailing down a more predictable schedule for myself :)

If you were able to share any advice with another new/aspiring coach, what would you say?

Tackle things that you know you’ll have some success with. Classroom management is a strength of mine, so I felt good about providing coaching support in this area early on. Too much “new” would have felt overwhelming for me. I think it’s important to try to find a balance with “new” and with what feels comfortable, so you experience some success!!

And look out for those successes!…you know that excitement you feel when you see your class is starting to get something??…seeing a teacher/classroom you’re working with starting to put into place what you’ve been working on in coaching, feels just like that!…it’s great!

Leadership and having a mentor is really important. Do what you can to find someone to support you or work with.

That’s it! Thanks Kristin!

Thank YOU!! I’m excited to continue to tag along with you throughout this year, and share your “to be continued” story with the MsHouser community.

Take-Aways

  • Approach every day, every experience, every conversation with a “Beginner’s Mind” — there’s always something new to learn and be appreciative of, if you’re open to it.
  • You can do hard things — but maybe not too many hard things at once :)
  • Collaboration with school leadership is important.
  • You probably have a story too. Maybe you could share it?

Get the easy to follow, step-by-step guide of your first 90 Days as an Instructional Coach.

Thanks for reading. Talk to you soon!

How to Keep All Your Paper Stuff Organized

If you’ve read the blog for any length of time, you likely know I have an addiction.

Organizing.

I love to organize pretty much anything and everything, but especially paper. At home, Luke is afraid to leave me alone for too long, for fear that he’ll return to an overly organized office desk. He piles, and I sort. I guess opposites attract.

Anyhow, don’t laugh at me. I’ll bet when you read “paper stuff” in the post title, you knew just what I was talking about. A boatload of paper gets passed around schools far and wide, and I’m sure you’ve got no shortage of it coming straight your way.

But! With the right mindset, paper organizing is fun and rewarding work, that can make you a happier and more effective coach :)

 

Let’s take a tour of the “organize your paper stuff” system, shall we?

Organizing Paper

Whenever any kind of paper comes my way, it goes straight to the In-Box. This is your paper organizing system home base.

Whenever anything comes “IN” you have to decide what to do with it. I’ve found that my papers go in typically one of five categories, which you can see outlined above.

I found these cool hanging wall files on Amazon, and they’ve worked just great. I’ve done the standard paper stacking trays before, but I think these add a little style to my paper organization system. To pretty it up a bit, I bought some cute turquoise folders at the Container Store.

 

Paper Organization

 

Once I process, and decide which “bucket” my papers go in, I take it a step further and organize my buckets.

So within each of my wall files, I have labeled file folders naming the different areas/categories particular to that bucket.

For example, in my “Active” bucket, I have my folders for teachers I’m working with, a PD folder, and another project folder for Video Coaching which is an area I’ve been actively learning about. These are folders with papers that I need quick and easy access to, without having to dig through my “Reference” bucket.

My “Later” bucket, contains a labeled folder for each day of the week. Any paper/work I’ll need on a specific day of the week will go here.

And lastly, my “Out & About” bucket is where I throw reminders and other papers I need to pass on to others. Anytime I pop out of my room, I’ll check here to see if anything needs to be delivered.

Any papers that I need to visually see more regularly, get put on my cork board, such as my End of Day Review sheet. I need this right in my face to remind me of what I need to do at the end of the day, so I can start off tomorrow on a good note.

And there you have it! Paper Stuff Organizing made fun!

Thanks for reading!

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How to Set Yourself up for a Successful Year: 11 Coaches Share their Top Tips

I’m so excited.

Because today I have a fun little surprise gift to share with you!

This past summer I reached out to some of my favorite coaches, and asked them the following question:

What is your #1 tip for preparing for a successful year as an instructional coach?

And here are all of their thoughtful answers, full of wisdom and experience. Enjoy! This is going to be good.

Elena Aguilar

Sought after presenter, transformational leadership coach, and consultant
ElenaAguilar.com | edutopia.org/users/elena-aguilar

Get clear on your personal and professional hopes, dreams, and goals for the year: What do you really hope to be able to say about the year next June, when you’re heading out for summer? What would be an indicator that you’d had a great year? How do you want your colleagues, coachees, and supervisors to experience you–what would you like them to say about you? And then map this goal on to what the children you serve need you to be and need you to do. Let their needs inform your dreams, hopes and goals for the year.


Michelle Te Grootenhuis

K-8 Literacy Instructional Coach
Twitter: @MrsTG | Blog: mrstg.edublogs.org

My #1 tip for preparing for a successful year as an instructional coach is to seek out or form a group of coaches, a “cohort”, OUTSIDE of your school and/or district.  Such a group will provide you with a safe environment to share joys and insecurities, a place to learn (your own PLC group of sorts) and get ideas from neighboring schools, and a chance for some quality “drive time”.

First of all, especially if you are a first-year coach, you really need a support group. You have walked away from the comfort of your classroom and chances are you really don’t fully understand your new role.  A coaching cohort will provide you with a safe place to share those insecurities, but also a place to be reassured as others share their joys as well.  If you are lucky enough to have a group with mixed levels of experience, your colleagues will be able to reassure you. Trust me, they felt the same apprehension during their first few days and weeks until they got into a groove. I was certainly blessed with wisdom from coaches that had been in the role for three years within my group.

Secondly, this coaching cohort will become your own professional learning community (PLC) of sorts. While you might not dive into data like a traditional PLC group would, you will certainly share what is working in your schools.  Sharing roles and duties as coaches, curriculum resources, and instructional methods are all part of being in the cohort.  This is a great way for new coaches to contribute to the group as EVERYONE has something positive to share from their schools/districts.

And chances are you will be TRAVELING to meet with your group. Believe it or not, that drive time is absolutely one of the biggest benefits! My first year my two fellow new coaches and I drove 45 minutes one way to attend cohort meetings set up by our local state education agency.  That time together was probably the BEST part of those meetings as we were able to use that time to talk about joys, insecurities, and then on the way home, ideas gleaned from the meetings.  My second year, I traveled just 10 minutes down the road to a local group that would meet during a “working lunch” 90-minute block of time.  That 10 minute drive time was good for me to think through what I had accomplished so far, what I needed to get done yet that day/week, and then ponder ideas gleaned from the meeting.  Drive time is like built-in reflection time, something we don’t get enough of as educators.

So, if you have access to such a group, make sure to JOIN it.  If not, do what a few local coaches did my second year, take that bull by the horn, reach out to neighboring schools or districts and form your own “Coaching Cohort”.  It will be one of the best things you can do to take care of your own professional learning and personal well-being as a new instructional coach!


Gretchen Schultek

Educator and Consultant
AlwaysaLesson.com

My number one tip for preparing for a successful school year as an instructional coach is to organize all of your resources into a binder. By having all of your important documents in one place, it makes it easy to reference when needed as well as light enough to grab on the go! A coaching binder will grow as the year progresses, but there are a few documents you can include in it from the beginning. For example, curricular standards, teacher roster, school building map with classroom locations, master schedule, etc. As you meet with teachers throughout the year, you will want to add sections for observations or meeting notes, feedback slips, debrief discussion prompts, data collection tools, rubrics, lesson plan formats, guides, visuals, etc. This binder will become your “bible” as you learn the ropes as an instructional coach. Don’t be afraid to make it yours and revamp and reorganize as often as necessary. Best of luck on a successful year as an instructional coach!


Stacie Giesecke

3rd Year Instructional Coach, Pleasant Valley High School, Bettendorf, Iowa

Online Instructor: isea.org and AEA PD Online | Advancing Educators (Classes offered for re-certification and salary advancement)

It’s so hard for me to come up with just ONE tip to start the year! As I start year 3 as an instructional coach (I’m in my 3rd year – previous experience of 20 years in Special Education), I think that it’s important to have a positive attitude and open mind. Teachers are super overwhelmed at the start of a new year. So many things to get ready and set up, they have little time to think about themselves and what they truly want to work on as a professional. I like to make sure I have read up on all the books I have stacked up (still have a lot to do in this area!!!), gather my resources from any conferences/trainings I attended over the summer (went to an amazing conference and am so excited to continue networking), and remember the little things (coffee, candy, and positive notes)!

Teachers like that we remember them, appreciate them and all they do for kids, and are truly there for them to help them develop as a professional AND help increase student achievement.

I always keep it real. I am learning with the teachers and love doing it. Hope this helps you all kick off a great school year!


David Voves

Instructional Coach, Charles City, Iowa

My #1 tip for preparing for a successful school year is being organized.  Organization is such a simple thought, but one that can consume so much time throughout the year.  The Time & To-Do Planner truly helps me accomplish my organizational goal.  Key elements of organization include planning for professional learning, collaboration and coaching cycle planning, and my individual career development plan.

Professional learning not only includes summer opportunities, but also researching and registering for professional learning throughout the upcoming year.  Finding the best possible-learning opportunities to make me a more efficient and comprehensive coach takes time and planning.  In addition, I use the summer months to invite teachers to attend these opportunities with me to spark greater collaboration throughout the year.  By pre-selecting these opportunities earlier than later, early-bird fees often apply and it helps ensure that sub requests can be granted for teachers early.  From a coaching standpoint, it also allows me to prepare for days in which I will be unavailable to support in-district teachers.

Planning and preparing for future upcoming coaching cycles also helps ensure organization.  By gathering preliminary collaboration requests for this upcoming year this past May, I have been able to have conversations with teachers about their goals for our upcoming learning.  Goals have allowed me to research associated instructional strategies and find additional curriculum and technology resources.  I’ve also been able to create a preliminary calendar for this year, which organizes cycles, and allows me to communicate my availability for additional collaboration.

Good luck!


Deborah Meister

Instructional Coach at Lighthouse Community Charter School, Oakland, California
DeborahMeisterCoaching.com

Take time to ask the right questions — deeper questions, when setting or revisiting goals with a client. As I completed my end-of-year reports and reflection with my coaching team in June, it became clear to me the difference in how coaching had impacted folks based, at least in part, in how intentionally I had held the goal-setting process. In “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever”, Michael Bungay Stanier talks about what he calls the focus question, which I have found particularly helpful: “What’s the REAL challenge here for you?” Whether I ask that precise question or simply work from the intent behind it, it nudges my coachee and I to pause, look beyond what comes up first, and dig deeper as we consider the focus of our work together towards meaningful outcomes. It keeps us from rushing into committing to the wrong goals, and it leads to a work plan that the teacher is more likely to be invested in co-creating, implementing, and refining. Slowing down at the beginning goes contrary to everything in my nature for the beginning of a school year, which is to want to jump right in and implement systems! But it’s so worth it for me, the teachers I support, and their students to take the time to uncover what’s really core.


Amanda Meachem

Secondary Instructional Math Coach, Pickerington Local School District, Pickerington, Ohio
Twitter: @pickmathcoach

So, my #1 tip (ok, maybe my top 3 tips) on how to prepare for a successful year as an instructional coach is to organize, prioritize, communicate!

Being organized will be a life saver when you’re in high demand.  Whether it’s on a Google Doc or in a binder, I suggest organizing each teacher’s schedule and room number, contact logs to document conversations and coaching, and materials specific to each teacher’s needs. Keeping a tidy work/office space will make it easy and is welcoming for teachers to come talk and spread out materials.

Prioritizing your work for the start of the year is essential.  Although this can change as the year unfolds, having a plan of attack and a general timeline will give structure to your role. Being aware of your building and district goals is crucial and will help focus your work. Some teachers will be excited to work with you, so make them a priority by tapping into their excitement.

Communicate, communicate, communicate! It’s easy to get caught up in emails and meetings especially when you serve a lot of teachers in multiple buildings, but get out there! Chat with teachers in the hall between class change, eat lunch in the teachers’  lounge, attend social gatherings, etc.Ask teachers where they need support so your efforts and feedback are targeted, and I recommend asking teachers what they want as well.  This can go a long way in helping you connect with a teacher…never a bad thing when building relationships! Talk with your administrators, department chairperson, and special education coordinator so the messages you communicate are consistent.  Be accessible and share your daily schedule with those depending on you.  I’d also suggest creating a “Pineapple (Welcome) Board” for teachers to invite others to observe the awesome things they’re trying; it’s a great way to get teachers talking about teaching and learning!


Kimberly Wakefield

Instructional Coach
Twitter: @kim_wakefield  | KimberlyWakefield.com

As an instructional coach for a K-5 elementary school, the number one tip I have about gearing up for a new school year is to ensure that I am building trusting relationships with our staff, and the number one way to do that is to communicate and stay organized!  In order to communicate, I must have all of my responsibilities coordinated. This consists of lots of planning (using my Time & ToDoPlanner really helps with this!) I sit down with different colored pens and iron out the calendar for the year. First looking at benchmark dates so I can mark off weeks in my calendar the few times each year when I will not be accessible to classrooms because I am responsible for facilitating our team to complete all of our benchmark assessments.  Next, I look at how long it will take me to get all of our instructional groups up and running in accordance with completion of benchmark assessments and data team meetings. Once I have the date down for when I can start coaching cycles, I mark in my planner when letters need to go out to the staff, how long I can run each cycle and organize the request survey to send to staff. Typically, I can run four, 6 to 8 week cycles per year. After I have all of that recorded and grouping in my planner, I can then sit down and draft out an email to the staff of all specifics going on for the year, which really helps with those relationships. I share when my cycles will start, when to expect our team for benchmark assessments and how I can learn along side them with our professional development focus for our school.

Once the communication piece is in place, organizing our instructional support room comes next! I house a lot of materials that teachers need and use throughout the school year, from professional books and teaching resources to assessments and supplies! In order to be ready for teacher requests, I must have everything organized and ready before school starts.  This means many hours of unboxing and labeling (which makes my heart happy!) Also, the instructional support room is utilized for many learning groups, so I need to ensure it is ready for kids’ use too!

In conclusion, in order to start the year off right, meeting with our principal to ensure we are on the same page in regards to professional development in the building is critical. This allows me to communicate the best I can to the staff in order to keep those relationships so I can ensure the best possible coaching support in our school.


Lauren Fong

Instructional Coach
thechartchicks.blogspot.com

My #1 tip to prepare for a successful year is to create an organization system that works for you. Then take the time daily, weekly, or monthly to revise your system and stay organized. Keeping track of your schedule, notes from coaching cycles, and other projects can get overwhelming if you are not organized.


Chrissy Beltran

Buzzing with Ms. B Blog

My tip for a successful year of coaching is to start with some goals for campus growth. Think about what areas your teachers would like support in, and how you can help them grow in those areas. Isolate it down to about 4-5 actionable items; things you can actually do to support your teachers. Then, write it down and post it! Throughout the year, when you feel like you’re being pulled in 8 million directions, take a look at your goals and reflect. Is your work reflecting your goals? Do you need to change them? And do you need to adjust the way you’re spending your time in order to accomplish those important items?


Kristin Houser

You know me :)

My #1 tip is this — Listen to these guys! There is a ton of gold offered in these thoughts. Let this be the blog post that you revisit more than a few times, take notes on, and really reflect on how to put any or all of these suggestions into practice this year.

If you set yourself up for success, anything is possible.

And you’re sure to make that happen by taking action on the advice shared here.

A BIG, HUGE thank you to all of the coaches who participated in this post!

Talk to you soon,

Your First 90 Days as a Coach. Let’s Break It Down.

Ready or not…Back to School we go!

I’m not sure about you, but this time of year I always have a million thoughts swirling through my head.

So I decided to put together a list. A list to help guide me (and you!) through the start of a new school year.

All too often with the hecticness that is the beginning of a new year, we can find ourselves doing more scrambling forward rather than steady, purposeful stepping forward.

Don’t get overwhelmed, just take it one steady step at a time, and you’ll find yourself solidly on the path towards accomplishment and success in your work this year as a coach.

This list is by no means all-encompassing, but provides a good foundation for all of us, new and veteran alike, to build on.

Available as a Poster and Letter-sized Printable

Hope this helps set you off on the right foot!

And here are a few additional resources to help you along the way:

Happy Back to School!

Summer Reading List: 6 Books to Get You Movin’ and Groovin’

Hey there! Long time no see.

Sorry I haven’t dropped by with a post in a bit. Busy end of school year filling in for a teacher, lots of work on this year’s planner, and just some down time needed. But, I’ve got a few weeks of summer under my belt and I’m ready to get back to movin’ and groovin’!

Let’s kick things off with a summer reading list shall we?

 

One of my favorite things to do over the summer to keep my saw sharp, is to grab a good book and learn something new.

Focus on Teaching: Using Video for High Impact Instruction

So I’ve been coaching for six years now, and I still haven’t tried out video coaching. I know! Have you?? I’m aware of how much there is to learn from watching yourself on video from all the work I did with my Coaching Workshop, but I haven’t given it a good go in working with teachers. And I think it’ll just be great!

I’ve got “Focus on Teaching” out on the patio with me and I’ve just started digging in. There’s a lot to learn, but who better to guide me than Jim Knight?!

Lead Like a Pirate: Make School Amazing for Your Students and Staff

I heard Dave Burgess talk about his book “Teach Like a Pirate” on a Podcast and was immediately hooked by his energy and enthusiasm for teaching. So I grabbed the book, and had a lot of fun reading it. Then I heard about the “Lead Like a Pirate” book coming out in following Beth Houf and knew I wanted to check it out.

I just walked down to the library yesterday with Sombra dog to pick it up, and I’m excited to learn from Beth and Shelly’s approachable writing style. You know how some leadership books are just so dang serious?? This one is totally the opposite of that which I appreciate.

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

I forget where I heard about this one from, but it’s been on my “to read” list for awhile. Just got it a few days ago from Amazon, and I’m so glad I ordered it. It’s all about one of the most important things we do as coaches…asking good questions!! And according to this book, saying less and asking more is what it’s all about. The chapters are broken down by the 7 types of questions to focus on: the Kickstart Question, the AWE Question, the Focus Question, the Foundation Question, the Lazy Question, the Strategic Question, and the Learning Question. Can’t wait!

Taking the Lead: New Roles for Teachers and School-Based Coaches

You know the lesson Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover? This book proves this lesson true. Upon first glance, you might perceive this book to be an oldie and not so much of a goodie. But not so!! This book is so good! Tons of real, actionable advice and tips. I started reading it just before school got out, and can’t wait to keep going this summer. I think this is one of those books I’ll read page-by-page, cover-to-cover. That’s when you know you’ve got a worthy book on your hands.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

I’m a big Cal Newport fan. He’s a teacher (professor actually), loves to talk about productivity (yes!), and he has a super popular blog/biz on the side (I’m working on it!). Anyhow, Cal writes some really good books. His first, “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” is one of my all time favorites, and his second, “Deep Work” lays the smack down on the how and why of treating your time with some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

I listened to “Deep Work” on audio and loved it so much I bought the book so I could dig back in a little deeper. Building in more time for Deep Work in our schedules is a must if we want to create and contribute great ideas and work to share with others.

Big Little Lies

Because, we can’t forget about the fun stuff!! And this book is so fun. I’ve been staying up late into the night, with this page turner. It’s a murder mystery, but it’s also funny. My sister totally disagrees, but whatever, we can have different opinions. And in MY opinion this is a great summer read to check out! After I finish, I’ll probably binge-watch the first season on Netflix.

So whoop, there it is! Hope you enjoyed this little book list, and have a thought for a book you might grab, and start reading. If there’s one you think should definitely be added to the list, share in the comments below!

Talk to you soon! – promise :)

 

 

Psst – For more reading inspiration, check out these posts. And don’t forget about the Resources Page!

6 Books on My Summer Reading List. And How I Chose Them.

5 New Books to Add to Your Reading List

My Top 5 Resources for Instructional Coaches. Plus a Few More Good Ones.

Facilitating a Peer Classroom Visit

One of the best ways to really “get” good teaching, is to see it in action.

You can listen, learn, or read about what it’s supposed to look like all you want, but it doesn’t really click until you actually experience it — teaching that has a bang and makes a difference.

As I’ve shared in the Coaching Workshop, that’s one of the reasons why I think model lessons and classroom visits can be so impactful in building foundational understandings of teaching strategies, that you can then work with teachers on implementing themselves.

Now, when you can make this happen for a group of teachers, support it with a visual of the lesson plan beforehand, link your look-fors to specific teacher moves, follow-it up with a descriptive review protocol, and add in teacher commitments to next steps…well, then you’re really talkin’!

Peer Classroom Visit

This week I wrapped up a 4 week “deep dive” PD with our 3-5 teachers during which we learned about “Using Data to Sharpen Curriculum Implementation.”

It’s been pretty awesome, and I credit much of its success to our Peer Classroom Visit Kick-Off.

Let’s walk through the plan of action, shall we?

First things first. Start with your final outcome in mind, and plan backwards from there.

Here are some questions to consider:

  • What is your main goal/purpose for arranging this visit?
    • Will this lead into a sequence of follow-up PD sessions?
    • Will this visit support individualized coaching goals?
    • Will this visit kick-off a grade level coaching cycle?

Next up – recruit. Here’s who you’ll need:

 

 

 

OK, sweet. Now that I had the WHO all set-up, I needed to get my materials organized.

Knowing that the purpose of this classroom visit was to “kick-off” a series of future PD sessions, I wanted to help teachers stay organized with all the materials I would be giving them over the course of the next 4 weeks. Plus I wanted to spruce things up a bit, and help it feel more like an “experience” for teachers.

So I made a folder for each teacher, which greeted them on the morning of the visit. (logistics note: our Assistant Principal got coverage for all 12 teachers on this morning, so we were all able to go in together!)

 

 

After a pre-brief with teachers (overview of the Learning Target, self-assessment on target tracker, review of materials and observation norms), we were ready to head in!

 

Since teachers had to head back to their classrooms straight after the visit, I arranged for a follow-up debrief later that week.

There’s a lot of different forms/protocols you can use to structure a classroom visit debrief, but here’s one that can be found in my Coaching Kit.

 

 

Now coming back to the original purpose of this particular classroom visit…as I mentioned earlier, the learning that took place in observing Dina’s lesson was intended to kick-off a series of 4 follow-up PD sessions. The host of the visit, Dina, supported in facilitating these sessions and helped teachers apply the different pieces we had put into place around assessment to arrive at the tightly planned lesson they observed (logistics note: Dina is a teacher who I’ve coached actively this year. She was well prepared for the visit and the instructional practice we modeled for teachers.)

I’ve actually never set-up PD in this way, but I found that teachers were really engaged in the work and learning as a result of seeing it in “action.”

 

And there ya have it! Hope this post provided some inspiration for you as you think about organizing classroom visits within your own school to support teacher learning.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

P.S. Bonus tip: Listen to fun music when you plan. Sometimes I’ll even turn some tunes on for teachers at the start of PD! This one will get you feeling “Good as He**!”

P.P.S Excited about this year’s TTP?! (Time & ToDo Planner) – get signed up here for updates. Cool new cover design, binding, and….a folder this year! You won’t want to miss it.

Keep me posted about the Time & ToDo Planner

The Flow of a Coaching Cycle

I’ve got some big, exciting news for you today…

It’s here! The Walk Through a Coaching Cycle Workshop is now live.

And I could not be more excited!

As a coach who has fully experienced the overwhelming feeling of just starting out, not really knowing how to “put it all together”, and sifting through various books and resources to hep me find a clear answer…this is the resource I’ve been wanting to bring your way for a long while now.

I’ve done the sifting for you. So let’s join-up and streamline all the info out there on coaching cycles, and come to some friendly understandings around how they really work.

 

The purpose of the MsHouser blog has always been to support YOU and the important work you do as a coach in an approachable, “I get it” kind of way.

And I’m feeling super good about sharing this Coaching Workshop as one of my most supportive resources yet.

It could be just what you need to take that next step, make that next push, and coach to your potential.

I appreciate you! And hopefully I’ll see you in the Workshop :)

How One Coach Keeps It All Together. A Story.

You kick up your feet and take a sip of your iced peach green tea, as you look out at the sunny summer afternoon and smile.

Oh how you love summer. Oh how you wish the summer days and land of no schedules would never go away. Ahhh…

You take another sip and decide you should probably take a look at the calendar and see what’s coming up.

As you look at your calendar you realize it’s already mid-July. And then you see it…the Back to School reminder.

Are you serious?! Already?! Where did the time go?!

OK, you think. Get a grip.

But I should probably start thinking about getting organized for the year.

K, so I’m going to keep using Google Calendar. I like how it reminds me about stuff.

Then I’ll write everything I need to do down in a new notebook. Writing helps me think, plan, and process. But last year things got all mixed up and lost with this system. Not good.

Bah!

Many of us coaches/teachers/administrators go through a “school’s starting soon, gotta get organized” revelation mid-summer.

Since we know that being organized is such a key piece to our success (and happiness!) throughout the year, when we’re freed up with a bit of extra time over the summer, those pushed aside thoughts of getting things together resurface and start nibbling their way to the forefront of our mind as we think of August quickly approaching.

Can I get a “Hey Yeah!” if you can relate?!

If so, what I’ve found helpful is to use a few of these summer days to get a solid planning system in place that will help you feel confident and prepared as you begin and move forward with a new school year.

And to help you get going, I thought I’d tell you a little story of how one coach keeps it all together. So go ahead and kick your feet back up, and keep sipping your iced peach green tea.

Meet Melissa. Melissa is a busy instructional coach, who really loves the work she does in schools everyday.

Melissa will be going into her second year as a coach. She supports two different schools, and has lots of responsibilities on her plate. On any given day, you might find her doing any of the following: planning or facilitating PD, gathering and reviewing resources, coaching up to 7 teachers in one of her coaching cycles, creating a school welcome board, or highlighting an important section on close reading in a book she wants to share with a teacher.

Melissa is a highly motivated, “can do” kind of gal and has worked hard to tweak and refine her planning system, to ensure she keeps all her ducks in a row.

Curious to get to know Melissa and her got-it-together system a bit better?

Cool. Let’s take a look:

1. Melissa has a weekly planning routine

One of the key routines that Melissa makes sure to schedule every week, is her Weekly Review. The Weekly Review is Melissa’s time to check-in, process, and plan. Her most preferred day for this weekly meeting with herself is Friday after school. She loves heading in to the weekend with her time and to-dos for the following week scheduled, and her head clear. So each Friday afternoon Melissa pops open the Iced Tea she packed that morning, grabs her Frixion erasable pens, computer, phone, Weekly Review checklist, and gets started.

2. Melissa figures out her time commitments for the week

Melissa has a hybrid planning system, using both digital and paper planning tools. She appreciates the strengths of each, and has learned that she really does prefer using both to keep it all together.

Melissa begins her Weekly Review by opening her computer and looking over her Google Calendar. She scans over all the hard commitments/inflexible events she has scheduled that week, including: personal or professional appointments, hard project deadlines, and any special holidays or birthdays. She transfers these into the weekly view in the planning spread of her Time & ToDo Planner. Melissa is a visual planner, and likes to see the time blocks of her week clearly laid out in front of her. She can also be easily distracted by her computer or phone when trying to reference her calendar, and appreciates the focus that paper provides.

 3. Melissa writes out her priorities for the week

Next, Melissa references the goals she’s set for herself this year, and uses these to set her focus for the week. This week she’s really trying to work on her three “P’s”

4. Melissa lists out her to-dos for the week

She looks through a few different locations to gather these up and identify what needs to go on this week’s plan. She starts by looking at last week’s plan to see if there were any “Upcoming To-Dos” she captured. She decides whether any of these will go on this week’s plan or if they will be put on her Master List, which she can come back to later.

Melissa’s Master List is a very important piece of her overall system. This is where she gets all of the tasks out of her head and recorded so she doesn’t get overwhelmed with a super long weekly list. She’s relaxed and assured that she hasn’t forgotten anything, and knows she’ll get to these tasks eventually, just not this week. Melissa prefers a digital tool for her Master List as it’s super flexible, allowing her to organize her list by category, rearrange, and add/delete.

She goes through the same process when going through emails, her physical inbox, and coaching notes for the week.

As Melissa analyzes her to-dos for next week, she decides to group them by Project. Super smart. This will help her batch her work throughout the week and be more efficient with her time.

5. Melissa figures out where to fit it all in

Here’s where Melissa balances it all. She checks her to-dos against her time and decides where her task-tackling work blocks will be for the week. She puts a box around these larger chunks of time on her schedule, so she can head into that particular day knowing exactly what she needs to do, and when. If she’s trying to do more than she realizes she has time for, she feels comfortable getting rid of some of the less important to-dos and transferring them back to her Master List.

She has fun with this part, as there’s just something special about writing on paper. It’s like there’s a part of her brain that gets fired up when she writes by hand, that doesn’t work as well when she tap-taps on her phone or keyboard. She can bullet, color-code, circle, star, bold, and doodle out her plans for the week. She’s not sure what the science behind it is, or if there even is any science about it. But she knows the magical-ness exists, so she uses it, and calls it: PAPER POWER!

6. Melissa maintains her system throughout the week

Things inevitably change throughout Melissa’s week, so she understands the importance of being flexible. A routine that has helped her stay on track is the 15 minutes of time she sets aside each morning and afternoon to check-in on her plan and revise as needed. Erasable pens are key here! When her days come to a close, she draws a line through the day to indicate it’s time to shut down and enjoy the evening.

Throughout the week Melissa captures thoughts and other to-do’s on the bottom of her weekly plan, or on her iPhone when she’s out walking her puppy and thoughts pop into her head. She’s determined not to let stuff float around in her head and bug her.

Relaxed, and feeling good, Melissa wraps up the week and begins again the following Friday when she’ll meet with herself for her next Weekly Review and begins her planning process again.

The end.

Hopefully Melissa’s story got your wheels turning about how you might put a similar planning system into place for the coming school year.

Have any follow-up questions? Want to talk details? Ask them in the comments below – click on the post title, scroll down, leave a comment/question in the box, submit! – Then I reply :)

And if you’d like to get your hands on Melissa’s weekly planning tool, make sure to check out the Time & ToDo Planner.

Enjoy these last few weeks of sweet summer, and I’ll talk to you soon!

Stories from the Field: Interview with Amanda Meachem

Today I’m excited to share my interview with Amanda Meachem. Amanda is in her first year of Instructional Coaching, after 20 years in the classroom!

InterviewAmandaMeachem

Here are some specific takeaways from our conversation:

  • Amanda’s biggest challenge as a new coach, and how she works to overcome it
  • How Amanda collaborates with her coaching colleagues
  • How Amanda supports her professional growth and learning
  • Amanda’s tools and tips for staying organized
  • What Amanda’s coaching schedule looks like
  • What Amanda’s learning about building relationships

Resources mentioned in the interview and shared by Amanda (thanks Amanda!):

And if you have any follow-up questions for Amanda or would like to connect with her further, here’s where you can find her:

Twitter:  @pickmathcoach
Pinterest:
(Teaching & Learning) https://www.pinterest.com/csalt5/teaching-learning/
(Leadership) https://www.pinterest.com/csalt5/leadership/

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.

And a special thanks to Amanda for joining me this week.

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Stories from the Field Interview (all educators welcome!) please shoot me an email.

Until next time!

ms-houser

Are You Giving Effective Feedback?

These past few weeks I’ve been working on a homework assignment.

As part of my district role as a coach/mentor, I was asked to assess the effectiveness of my feedback.

No prob! I thought. I’m totally going to ace this assignment!

So off I went, ready to evaluate and document the feedback I provided in coaching convos.

What did I quickly discover? That I needed to slow. my. roll.

When I really tuned in, and payed close attention to what I was saying to teachers, I wasn’t always certain I would have given my feedback an A+.

Effective feedback = specific information you’re offering a teacher in their efforts to reach an identified goal.

And as I learned through my reading of this Grant Wiggins article, there are seven key factors to keep in mind to ensure your feedback is in fact effective. Scroll on!

7-Keys-to-Effective-Feedback1

Get your free printable of the Effective Feedback Infographic

So now with this new or reinforced learning in place…pop quiz time! Ready?!

OK. Which of the following statements would you consider to be effective feedback?

  1. Nice job on that mini-lesson Sarah!
  2. Next time Tom, I think you’ll want to spend a bit more time on the debrief.
  3. Your lesson would definitely be more effective Melissa, if you used more visuals.
  4. I thought the book you used to kick-off your Ant Expedition was a little unengaging.

And the answer is…none of the above! Tricked ya.

None of these statements would really be considered effective feedback. Here’s why:

  • The first and the fourth statements just name a personal liking or disliking for something, and neither are connected to a goal.
  • The second and the third statements are offered more as advice, vs feedback.

Both advice and praise can be great tools when supporting teachers, and they both have their time and place. However, they’re very different from feedback. Because as we just learned, effective feedback is information that supports a teacher in reaching their goal. Got it?!

Alright-ty. Now, how about we take a look at a few examples of what effective feedback could sound like:

  • One of our goals during this coaching cycle has been to improve lesson pacing. Last week I noted your mini-lesson was 20 minutes long. In today’s lesson I recorded your mini-lesson started at 9:00 and ended promptly at 9:15, which was 5 minutes shorter. What would you say you thought about or did differently in your planning and instruction that supported this improved pacing?
  • I noticed that after you sent students out to work independently, 10 out of the 20 students were struggling with getting started. When I spoke to student x, y, z, they were unclear on the directions. Where do you think the confusion may have been?

Hopefully these few examples give you an idea of how feedback can sound like when it is in line with the 7 Keys outlined above. Oh, and one side note…when giving a teacher more critical/next step feedback, I try to keep it to one-two points.

For some ideas on what areas you might offer feedback on, check out this post.

If you’re still with me, great job! Now if you want to take it one step further, try taking note of the feedback you offer teachers this week. Is it really effective feedback? Or maybe it’s advice or praise. Hmmm…Give it a try! You might be surprised at what you learn.

Oh, and here’s a handy PDF of the infographic above to pop in your planner or post near your desk.

Talk to you soon!

ms-houser