Search results: coaching work plan

My First Week Back and the Giveaway Round-Up

Goals and Motivation, Instructional Coaching, Organization

Wow oh wow. You guys are seriously amazing. Really though! I received over 200 (!) entries in response to the giveaway for The Simplified Coaching Planner. So many of you offered super smart and insightful Top Planning Tips that couldn’t have come through at a better time for me.

Last week was my first full week back at school, and man was it a busy one. No kids until this week, but we had a full week of PD with teachers, so I felt like a classroom teacher: greeting, planning for, and working with her students their first week back. Phew. Anyhow, I found myself with a bit of free time on Wednesday night, so I plopped down on the coach, opened my laptop, and started reading through all of the submitted planning tips. As I read, I found myself thinking, “That’s right!” or “I should do that!” and “Why am I not doing that?” then finally, “Kristin, you’ve got to get it together girl.” This last thought came from the fact that this past week wouldn’t exactly go down in the record books as being one of my most organized. To give myself some credit, it wasn’t that bad, but I did some pretty scatterbrained things like forgetting to put on my mascara one morning and then forgetting my laptop the next morning. I know. The forgetting my computer morning wasn’t great.

But luckily I had you guys and your Top Planning Tips to help me get back on track! Here’s a synthesis of my reminders/take-aways:

Schedule & Plan

Make a weekly ritual with yourself to plan for the week ahead. Then set aside some time at the end of the day to check in on your plan, do a brain dump, then plan for the next day. This is a tip a lot of us know to do, but how many of us consistently do it? Maybe if I had been a bit better about this last week, I wouldn’t have had the “I forgot my computer” morning.
Put it on your calendar…immediately. Don’t think you’ll remember to do it later.
Color coding can be helpful for your calendar and in lots of other ways!
Share your schedule with your coachees.

Organize and Prioritize

This was a big one.

Get some organizational systems together sooner than later, then work your systems. Organization and efficient systems prevent the dreaded overwhelm, large paper piles, and other back-up.
Keep everything together in one convenient place.
You’ve got to prioritize. You’ll have a lot going on at school and at home when the year gets started. Determine what’s most important and reduce the time you spend on what’s not.

Focus

I had a hard time with this one this week.

Be realistic with yourself and what you can get checked off of your to-do list each day.
Write it down. Avoid multi-tasking.
Carry your planner or a journal or a piece of paper with you everywhere.

Accept Imperfection

This was probably my most important lesson this week. As much as we might really, really want to be…we’re not superheroes. We’re not always going to be perfect and that’s okay. Sometimes, no matter how much planning we do, things don’t go according to plan. Actually, this happens a lot. Flexibility, reflection, and revision are always key ingredients to successful days and weeks.

So now…

I’m ready for a fresh start this week. And I’ll bet that if we all practice these planning principles throughout the year, we’ve got a pretty darn good shot at a great year.

But wait!

There’s more. You know how I said earlier this was just a synthesis of all the great Top Planning Tips I received? It just wouldn’t be fair of me to keep them all to myself. Which is why I’ll be sharing them with you later this week in another post…hang tight!

READ: 31 Top Planning Tips Post

I hope you all have a great start to the school year and I’m really excited to continue learning and growing with you here on the blog.

If you have a Top Planning Tip that you weren’t able to submit in the giveaway and are dying to share, please share in the comments below.

Thanks for all your support and have a great week!

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Thank You for Signing Up

Welcome to the Ms. Houser community!

I’m looking forward to sending you some great new content. Meanwhile, I’ve included links to a few of my most popular posts to get you started.

Thanks again and I’ll be in touch!

DIY Teacher Planner/Binder

Updated Coaching Notebook

Student Engaged Assessment

And be sure to check out the Simplified Coaching Planning Kit…

6

Different Sections

5

Cover Options

21

Total Printables

Here is the full list of tools to help you get organized, plan and prepare to be an awesome coach:

Coaching Convo Plan
Coaching Log
Coaching Schedule
Debrief Tool
Coaching Workplan
Grade Level Notes
Idea Tracker

Kickoff Meeting
List It
Meeting Notes
Monthly Map
Notes
Observation Tool
Password Keeper

PD Planer
PD Goals
Project Planner
Resource Checkout
Small Group Observation Tool
Study Group Convo Log
Time Tracker

See the Coaching Planning Kit

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

Goals and Motivation, Instructional Coaching

These summer months are prime time for doing some reading, learning, and psyching up for the coming school year. Since I know many of you are entering into your first year as a coach, I wanted to share a few of my favorite, go-to resources. Ones that I’ve read and used to help me figure out the role of instructional coach. And even if this isn’t your first year, don’t forget about shoshin or “beginner’s mind.” It’s a concept in Zen Buddhism that reminds us:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

Pretty good little saying, huh?

OK, let’s get to it…

1. Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction by Jim Knight

I’m a big fan of Jim Knight. He’s like the guru of instructional coaching. This book is packed full of great tools and practical ideas for coaches. One of the ideas/tools he introduces is a framework called “The Big Four” which is made up of four high-leverage instructional practices that I think serve as helpful “buckets” for guiding your observations and feedback to teachers. This was the first book of his I read, and it has some great tools and practical ideas to offer.

2. Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction by Jim Knight

After reading Jim’s first book on instructional coaching, I was on the hunt for more! I read this book last summer and really enjoyed it. One of my favorite chapters was on facilitating workshops for adults. I was able to apply much of what I learned from this chapter to the weekly professional development sessions I help facilitate with teachers. If you’re looking for some tips in this area, this would be a great book for you to check out.

3. Leverage Leadership by Paul Bambrick Santoyo

I heard about this one through the Coaching Teachers course I took on Coursera. The chapter of the book that I’ve gravitated the most towards, is on Observation and Feedback. Reading through this chapter, in conjunction with the Coaching Teachers course, gave me a new way to frame my debrief conversations: probing questions to ask, examples of bite sized and high leverage action steps and building in time for practice/implementation.

4. The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation by Elena Aguilar

I’ve written about Elena’s book before, but it’s just so great I have to gush about it again. What I love most about this book is it makes coaching feel really approachable…like, “Yeah! I can do this!” Sometimes I get overwhelmed just after reading the first page of a book, but not this one. I just read and read and felt better and better about what I could do.

5. Simplified Coaching Planning Kit

Last, but certainly not least, I’m really excited to share with you guys a planner I created just for us coaches. It’s a planning kit actually, made up of all the different tools I’ve used to help me plan, organize, and coach. More info to come on how I plan to organize/use mine, but in case you’d like to take a peek and get a head start, you can find it here!

The Simplified Coaching Planning Kit was designed work alongside the Time & ToDo Planner. These two put together, make a strong team!

And now for a few more good ones. While these resources aren’t specific books or sites about instructional coaching, they have still helped me improve my work in different ways.

6. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

This books has somewhat of a cult following and I’m a member. I learned so much about effective systems and strategies for managing your time and tasks from this book. As a coach, you need to be reliable, dependable, and organized…someone who does what they say they’ll do when they say they’ll do it. This helps you build trust with teachers and can’t be overlooked. Having effective systems and structures in place helps you to be that kind of coach.

7. Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky

As a coach, your head is often swimming with ideas of “what could be”…from a personal level, to a classroom level, to a schoolwide level. The trick is deciding which ideas are worth taking action on and then making those ideas happen. And as a coach and leader, I would even say it’s your responsibility to capture those ideas and work on bringing the worthy ones to life.

8. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

I really liked this book because it helped me take a close look at how I budget my time. When the school year starts, things can get crazy real fast and it’s easy for all of your time to get sucked up by school. Don’t let that happen! Interesting teachers/coaches lead interesting lives…that means they make time for side hobbies or passions, exercising, cooking…whatever it is you’re into outside of school. Right now would be a good time to start thinking about how you’d like to budget your time to make room for all the things that matter to you and see about making it happen!

Did I leave something off the list? Have a favorite book, blog, or other resource that you’d like to add? Share it in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

How Sharp is Your Saw?

Goals and Motivation, Instructional Coaching, Teaching Tips, Time Management

What are you doing to support your own growth and professional learning? This was a question our principal recently asked us at a staff meeting. Later that week as I reflected on my Teacher Professional Learning Plan (do you guys have these?), I noted “dedicate more time to sharpen my saw” as a next step.

So what does sharpen the saw mean? Well, it’s a saying that refers to staying fresh, or renewing in all four areas of your life — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The saw I’m referring to in this post and the one I’m going to focus on sharpening is my mental saw; learning, reading, writing…continuously improving your skills and knowledge. As an educator, you’ve got to stay on top of your game. Period. So here’s my saw sharpening game plan:

Put It On Your Schedule…(and stick to it)

If you don’t block off time on your calendar or schedule, it’s not going to happen. I like to schedule my saw sharpening time first thing in the morning. Right now I’m planning for at least 30 minutes a day (including weekends), which would come to three and a half hours a week. I know we’re stretched for time, but that’s totally doable and you’ll be 3.5 hours smarter each week!

Be honest with yourself and schedule your saw sharpening at a time when you really will be able to honor that commitment. A time when you know you’ll be able to focus and won’t have to battle distractions. Setting a timer during your study time can also help hold you accountable.

Track Your Progress

Tracking your progress allows you to see the results of your efforts and seeing results makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Accomplishment feels good, which gives you the motivation to keep it going the next week. I like to track my progress in my notebook, marking off 15 minutes minute intervals in boxes. It looks something like this:

I also added an “Evidence” section to my coaching notebook so I can track the impact of my saw sharpening on my work with teachers and students.

Create a Stimulus Queue

Creating a stimulus queue is an awesome idea I picked up from reading The Accidental Creative. It’s a place to record resources and ideas to follow up on during your saw sharpening time. What learning is really going to help you move forward in solving a problem or doing better work? When you come across an idea or resource, write it down. My stimulus queue is also in my notebook and I use it to help me plan my time.

Alright friends, sooooo…how sharp is your saw? Sharp enough to slice through your work like a hot knife through butter? Or could it stand a little sharpening?

If you have any stimulus queue ideas or resources to contribute, please share in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

10 Great Gifts for Educators

Instructional Coaching, Organization

‘Tis the season! We’re in the midst of Secret Santa and while still hard at work coaching, my thoughts have been doing some drifting to cool gift ideas for teachers/coaches/principals/ assistants…you know, all members of the great group of folks who work in different ways to support kids.

Here are a few ideas I put together…

1. Timbuk2 Tartine Tote Bag

Every educator needs a good bag…and I’ve been drooling over this one. It has an interior laptop pocket, interior and exterior organization pockets, and an interior water bottle pocket. Love that. You can even customize the colors and material. Maybe it could be an end of the year, you’ve been good, present to yourself? {wink, wink}

2. The Write Stuff Note Cards

There’s nothing like a good old, handwritten, I appreciate you note card to give as a gift. These Write Stuff cards seem like they were designed especially for educators and…they’re free! All you have to do is download, print, and fold. Boom!

3. Dot Grid Journal

Planning and reflecting is a big part of what we do, and this journal is a great place to make that happen. This journal is an absolute fave of mine…perfect size, geometric dot matrix, and paper as smooth as butter.

4. Bottle of Wine

Just sayin’…my Secret Santa gave me a bottle of wine one year and I was psyched! A simple, yet thoughtful gift, sure to be put to good use.

5. YAY! Teacher Magnets

What’s your YAY!? Whatever it is, YAY! has got your back. These magnets are super fun to give as gifts.

6. Thermos Vacuum Insulated Travel Tumbler

Did you know that us educators are among the top 15 heaviest coffee drinkers? {and the most likely to add flavor to our coffee} Well then, we certainly need a good travel mug…one that’s well designed, doesn’t leak, and keeps our coffee pipin’ hot throughout the morning. I searched many, long years for a travel mug that meets all three of these qualifications until I finally found this beauty. Pass it along.

7. Uno Insulated Lunch Tote for One

I think cool lunch boxes are really neat. They make you feel happier when you pack your lunch at night and add some extra excitement to your lunch break. I haven’t tried this one out personally, but if I were to ask Santa for a new lunch box, I think this is the one I would ask for. It has a built in silverware holder! It doesn’t really get better than that.

8. Fun Pens

Writing with fun pens is much more interesting than using a standard #2 or the boring pens school provides. The Flair Pens by Paper Mate are definitely fun and if you pair a set of these with a pad of colorful sticky notes, you’ve got yourself a great gift!

9. Heavy Duty Three Hole Punch

Huh? A three hole punch? Yes! A three hole punch! My dad got this for me one year for Christmas, and while at first I kind of thought it was an odd gift, after taking it to school I thought it was pretty much the best gift ever.

10. Klean Kanteen Water Bottle

Hydration is important. But it can be annoying when you have to deal with unscrewing and rescrewing the lid to some water bottles every time you want to get a drink. None of that with this water bottle! Hydration to go in a stainless steel, toxin free water bottle that comes in all kinds of fun colors.

Well there you have it. My gift giving {or getting} guide for educators. Am I missing any really good ideas?

If so, please share!

Thanks for reading,

A Groovy Google Site

Instructional Coaching, Teaching Tips

I’ve had a pretty fun project going on this past month that’s taken a bit of time, but has totally been worth it. What is it you wonder? Well, I’ve designed and built a Google Site! Yep, a professional learning Google Site.

For awhile now, I’ve been churning ideas around for how to better provide and organize professional learning resources for teachers at our school…whole staff learning in PD, coaching take-aways, literacy instruction, assessment, etc. And while I have a teacher resource book area in my office, I wanted to share more than that…think videos, example lesson plans, scanned in articles/readings…oh my!

Well, it just so happened that a coaching buddy of mine provided the perfect inspiration. She shared the Google Site she created for her school last year and said she was really pleased with how it worked out. I thought it was pretty much the best idea ever, so of course I proceeded to copy! While the design and layout of my site is built differently than hers, the concept is the same…use a friendly technology resource as a tool to create an online, easily accessible, professional learning space for your teachers.

Here’s how it turned out:

If you’d like to take a closer look, click here for the link.

As I thought through planning for the site, I first considered what resources/information I wanted to provide for teachers and how I would organize it. You can see from my navigation bar that I went with four main “buckets” including:

One of my favorite pieces of the site is the Exit Ticket.

Teachers complete the exit ticket at the end of PD each week. All of the data feeds into a Google form which allows us to clearly see what teacher take-aways and next steps are.

I keep basic communication tied to coaching in the coaching section. This includes an overview of the coaching cycle, a coaching log, and any resources or information used to support coachees along the way. In doing this, if other teachers in the building are also interested in learning about an effective Reader’s Workshop for example, they can check this page for resources or even check in with Mary Ellen or Kati to see what they’ve been working on.

Make sure you’re super transparent with coachees and your principal about what information is shared. The majority of information/conversations exchanged within a coaching cycle should be kept between just you and the coachee. For example, the link to the coaching sysnthesis letter above is locked as private through Google Sites. So only the teacher and I can access it. You can ask your coachee if they’re willing to share their instructional take-aways from a coaching cycle with the principal, and if the answer is yes then you can share the link. Otherwise, what happens in a coaching cycle, stays in a coaching cycle.

If you feel like this is a concept that would support teachers at your school, you should definitely go for it! Google Sites is very user friendly, I promise. And I bet you’ll even have some fun while you’re at it.

If you do decide to give this idea a go and questions pop up along the way or you’d just like some feedback, shoot me an email. I’d love to help out.

Thanks for reading,

Meeting Tips and Tools

Instructional Coaching, Organization, Teaching Tips

Phew! I feel like I blinked and it was suddenly September. It has been one busy start to the school year. If I gave you a copy of my calendar for this past month and asked you to look for trends, I’d bet you would quickly find one word popping up all over the place…meeting. PD planning meetings, coaching meetings, team meetings…meetings, meetings, meetings. No doubt about it, the beginning of the year is prime meeting time. But as coaches, the reality is that beginning of the school year or not, meetings are just a part of what we do. So if that’s the deal, then let’s make sure we do those meetings well. To start, I’ll share three of my top tips for effectively facilitating a meeting then a few tools to support you as a facilitator or meeting participant.

Clarify Norms

Setting or clarifying norms for collaborative work is an important first step in supporting teams who will work together for a period of time. If you’re supporting grade level team meetings or just starting off a new coaching cycle, this would be a great place to start. When setting norms a few things to think about include logistics, timeliness, equal participation, and the decision making process. Create your meeting norms together and come back to them frequently.

Create an Agenda

Agenda, agenda, agenda! This is your lesson plan for the meeting. Just like you wouldn’t want a teacher to head into a lesson without a plan, you don’t want to head into a meeting without an agenda. Include clear outcomes, any materials needed, topics of discussion, and times attached to topics. Post the agenda for others to see and review it at the start of the meeting so everyone knows where they’re headed. Provide the opportunity for meeting members to ask questions or add in topics they would like to be addressed. Even if I’m only meeting with one other teacher, I always have an agenda.

Identify Next Steps

Never let the meeting come to a close before identifying next steps. Who will be responsible for what and by when? You can email these next steps and meeting notes to team members to support accountability.

Here is a note taking template created in Word so you can type directly into it if your prefer taking notes on your computer:

Click Here to Download

If you prefer taking notes by hand, here is a PDF printable you can print in color or black and white and pop into your notebook:

Click Here to Download

Here is a Word doc template you can use to create your agenda:

Click Here to Download

Lastly, a little candy and/or coffee never hurts the spirit of any meeting! Wink, wink.

I hope you find these tips and tools helpful. Thanks to blog reader Anna for sharing her thoughts on putting together a meeting note-taking sheet. If you ever have thoughts on coaching resources/tools that would be helpful for you, please don’t hesitate to let me know! I’ll try to work it into a future post.

Thanks for reading,

Build Your Routine

Teaching Tips

This is a good question to do some reflecting on. Especially at the beginning of a new school year. To achieve great things, both within and beyond our school lives, it’s important to constantly be questioning how we spend our time and energy. Building a solid routine helps ensure that we’re making the most of both. I tend to revel in routine, as I feel a little less stressed when I have a handle on the “when and where” of all the daily and weekly tasks I have to keep up with. When am I going to run? When am I going to work on my blog? When will I do my school planning? When will I do my weekly review and how long will it take me? These were all questions I pondered this week in building my own routine for the school year.

I created a freebie printable for you to download and I hope you use it to build your own routine. Come on, it won’t be so bad! Use it to balance the professional with the personal and to materialize more minutes in your week so you’ll be able to plan awesome lessons AND train for a marathon! (okay, maybe not a marathon, but you know what I mean right?)

Click Here to Download

My plan is to fill mine out and add it to my coaching planner as a reminder of my “ideal week.” Remembering that it’s okay and necessary to be flexible and making adjustments as needed.

Enjoy and thanks as always for reading,

Office in a Bag

Organization, Teaching Tips

As coaches, we’re always on the go. With an observation here and a planning meeting there, whose to say where we’ll be during any given day. When I began coaching I quickly figured out that I would need some kind of “office in a bag” so that I would always be prepared for wherever my day might take me. My first attempt at this was a big, bulky shoulder bag that I had previously used for hiking and traveling. It wasn’t bad really, but it wasn’t great either. It wasn’t organized in any useful way and it needed a good purge.

Sometimes you just need a little encouragement from seeing what others are doing to get going yourself, and that is just what Jen over at iheartorganizing gave me a few weeks ago when I read one of her posts. As I read how she organized her bag for blogging I thought, “I can do that for coaching!” Let’s take a look inside.

The first coaching essential you’ll find is my coaching planner.

And here I have my much needed working folders. I picked up a great tip from David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done.” In his book he shares that he carries an “inbox” folder in his briefcase. He explains that it’s just as important to have a mobile inbox as a stationary inbox. Brilliant! Who needs a mobile inbox more than coaches? No more crumpled up papers floating around in my bag. They will now all have a temporary, but intentional home. I use my “Inbox” folder for important papers that I know I need to keep and will file or process them as soon as I get back to my desk. My “Other Work” folder is used for any other papers I may need, but won’t keep. For example, papers needed for a planning or debrief session that day or copies that need to be made.

In Jen’s post she shares how she uses a small cosmetics pouch from Target to carry around smaller odds and ends. Love it! I immediately went to Target and snagged one myself. Next to it you’ll see my treasured Dot Grid Journal which serves as my space to write out thoughts and ideas connected to coaching.

In the first pouch you’ll find a few freshen-up items. I can’t live without coffee in the morning, but I’m also a little scared of coffee breath, hence the mouthwash. Also, never underestimate the value of a mini stain stick!

In the second pouch I have a few computer essentials such as a wireless mouse and a traveling mouse pad {that also serves as a screen cleaner, bonus!}. I don’t always use these, but they sure are nice to have on the occasions when I’m working on my computer for awhile.

When I have a few free minutes at lunch or in between coaching sessions, I like being able to pull out one of my favorite education magazines.

One thing I’m pretty well known for {and made fun of for} is my use of screen cleaner. I really, really don’t like having a dirty computer screen or keyboard so this handy spray and wipe gets a special spot in the side pocket of my bag. And my laptop sleeve is a must. Keeps my computer from scratches and wear and tear.

I also place my chapstick, lotion, and a pen in an easily accessible pocket on the side of my bag next to my water bottle.

Although I don’t carry it with me throughout the day, I can also fit my clutch in my bag.

Tada! Here it is all put together. It’s not too big and bulky, yet holds everything I need.

Do you have an office in a bag? What’s it like?!

Thanks for reading,

Common Core Lesson: Asking Questions

Instructional Coaching, Teaching Tips

Earlier this week I modeled a reader’s workshop lesson in a Kindergarten classroom tied to the Common Core State Standard RL.K.1:

This is a lesson that my coaching colleague, Katie, kindly shared with me as an idea for how to teach this standard in a reader’s workshop. Although the lesson was planned for Kindergarteners, it could easily be adapted for other grade levels by increasing the complexity of the text.

Rather than teaching, asking and answering questions in the same lesson, I planned to first teach students how readers ask questions about books. The text I selected for this lesson was Grandfather Twilight.

Hook/Introduction

The hook or introduction during a reader’s workshop serves several instructional purposes. It supports engagement, motivation, and a “need to know” for learning. This is also the time when you can connect to prior learning and introduce the learning target for the lesson.

In the hook for this lesson, I shared with students how excited I was to share one of my favorite books with them. I then introduced the learning target and the words we would use to help us ask questions.

Mini-Lesson/Think-Aloud

During the mini-lesson I modeled the thinking I wanted students to do as readers. For this lesson, I read the first few pages aloud and paused twice to model asking questions.

After modeling, I asked students what they saw me do as readers. I wanted them to notice how I read the words carefully, looked closely at the pictures, and used our posted question words to help me ask questions.

Guided Practice

Guided practice is the component of reader’s workshop in which you create a safe place for students to practice the task before sending them off to work independently. It is also an opportunity to assess student readiness for independent application and address misconceptions.

To begin guided practice, I shared with students that it was now their turn to practice asking questions. I read the next few pages on the visualizer and asked students to follow along with their eyes. Allowing students to better see the text helps support fluency.

Independent Practice

To support students with independently applying the target, I made them bookmarks.

Click Here to Download

As students were reading, the classroom teacher and I conferred with students to see how they were applying the target to their own reading-level appropriate books. I was able to make some observations during this time that I followed up on during the debrief.

Share/Debrief

After students have had time to work on applying the learning target independently, it’s important to honor their efforts with a brief share. For this lesson, you might ask students to share one question they had about a book they read with a neighbor. After students have had a chance to share, make a connection between the specific learning target for the lesson and the larger context. You might ask students, “Why do you think it’s important we practice asking questions as readers?”

Continue to work on this standard using a variety of literature and make appropriate adjustments based on the needs of your kids.

A special thanks to Katie Shenk for providing the foundation for this lesson.

Thanks for reading!