Must-Do #2: Instructional Coaching→ Defining How to ServeHow You Serve
Teachers are all over the place in their journey as an educator, and so are instructional coaches. In the first part of this series, we discussed why it is important to define your role as an instructional Coach. Once the role is defined, it’s time to move into building trust in the program and, more importantly, building the staff's trust in you. Establishing trust may seem like a no-brainer. And that is true, but how do you do that? If you like to toss around catchphrases, you might say use a "lens of compassion," "lead with empathy," or create relationships. And these are all correct. But at the same time, they are also a bit ambiguous - easy to say and hard to do. This makes choosing how you will serve them all the more important. Here are two theorists we can quickly look at for starters. Jim Knight, in his book The Impact Cycle, addresses three types of coaching you might use. Each has its place, and if you are tuned into the teacher, you can figure out which one fits best. The first type is facilitative coaching. This type of coaching has the coach and teacher as equals. Knight will reference a "partnership approach." The coach listens and asks questions for the teacher to find their own answers. This is a great method for those who are open to being facilitated, have experience in the classroom, and are open to new ideas. Next, there is directive coaching. “Directive coaching is the opposite of facilitative coaching,” according to Knight. This is where the coach has the capacity to be the expert and guide through advice-giving. Who is this good for? New teachers. They often don’t have the years of experience to integrate new knowledge or frameworks into what they do in the classroom. If you choose this model, you need to communicate directly and listen deeply. Finally, Knight speaks of dialogical coaching. This model is all about using questioning techniques and deep listening to help a teacher uncover the answers he or she already has. This takes lots of skill. Lots. You have to know a few inquiry models of questioning and practice them frequently so you can use them at a moment’s notice when the opportunity arises. Don’t think you won’t struggle with this. The most experienced coaches I know feel vulnerable here. Elena Aguilar is another thought leader in this space. She speaks of transformative coaching in her book, The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation. This model goes deep in examining behaviors, beliefs, and ways of being. Vulnerability is key for success with this model. Trust isn’t a catchphrase here, you will have to be ready to live it. People have to know you have a level of confidentiality like attorneys and clients do. If you can’t provide that, this model doesn’t work. A structure of questioning that works well in this format is the question series from the book The Coaching Habit. Author Michael Bungay Stanier provides a coach with seven easy-to-use scaffolded questions to get at what the heart of the matter is. No matter the amount of time you have for a coaching session, these questions get the coachee talking. If you feel you struggle with what questions to ask, the Coaching Habit questions are a great beginner's guide. Master these and you will be able to find moments to go deep with the work from Aguilar or Knight. The theorist you pick matters on many levels. You will get better as a coach when you see the strengths and areas of growth in each model so you can start to mesh them together in order to address the needs of those around you. How to Measure and Message Impact You can, and should, start to measure the impact of your efforts once people trust you enough to work with you willingly. There are multiple ways to measure impact, and also to reflect on the techniques you are implementing: Surveys, observations of your coaching, video recording a coaching conversation, peer review, student improvement data, and the list goes on and on. It is important to know what your administrator wants for evidence of your work. This is a direct conversation to have. Make sure that you both have a clear understanding of the need for this evidence to still remain confidential, because any inkling that you are an arm of the administration will stymie your efforts to partner with teachers. It is imperative to protect the relationships with the teachers you have developed. A teacher or administrator will approach you and ask who you are working with and what you are talking about. Think about how you can share information that helps the administration understand the important work you and teachers are doing without revealing teachers' vulnerabilities. In Summary: Know Who You Are, How You Serve, and How to Measure and Message Your Impact The first step as a new instructional coach, or as a seasoned veteran who is ready to set the reset button, is to truly know what your mission is. This will set you up for how to navigate the journey to making the deepest impact with teachers, and to communicating effectively with administrators. They will know what to expect because you will know exactly who you are. Establish how you will function based on the relationships and outcomes you seek with the people you serve. Look to the leaders in the field for direction here. Philosophy of coaching and adult interaction abounds. Make a plan for measuring your impact regularly and messaging it in a way that serves all stakeholders. Now here's where it's going to get a little dicey ... the next step is to break through the theories above and see what it all looks like in action. This is your so called "boots-on-the-ground" moment, and here's where practical "what should I do next" type of discussions need to take place. Part three of this series is all about moving from theory to practice, what you need in your toolkit, and how to get there. Click here to jump back and review Part 1: Step One: Defining the Role of a Coach You do not have to walk alone. Feel free to message Agile Ideas Leadership for any questions or thoughts at info@agileideasleadership.com. Cheers! Ross Herdina, Co-Founder, Agile Ideas Leadership
0 Comments
Must-Do #1: Define what the position is and what it doesPut thirty instructional coaches in a room and ask them to define their roles based on their current duties. In all likelihood, there will be loose agreement with weak patterns of responsibilities, along with many, many differences.
The only common theme might be their title, and even that is debatable. Is the position instructional coach or curriculum coach? Are they to work with teachers at-will? Or are staff required to meet with their IC? Whether you are building a coaching program or you are part of an established one, there is good cause to nail down what an instructional coach is and what they should do to serve students and teachers. Too often administrators, board members, and committees of teachers that select the role of a coach don’t really know what a good coaching system is or looks like. It sounds great in theory but how to formulate the job description is difficult. Because of this, the coaching program becomes a panacea to gather up all of those loose ends that need to be tied up and tucked away, and quickly as that, the role loses any potential sense of identity. So what’s a coach to do? Sadly, the answer isn’t a quick Google search away. Most coaches, unfortunately, end up serving too many needs for too many people and this lack of a clear mission causes a significant impediment to success. If success - without a goal - can even be defined in the first place. Words matter, titles matter, and if the title of instructional coach doesn’t have meaning to you and your administration, it surely will not have meaning to the staff you seek to serve. To allow the definition of an instructional coach to be muddied is a sure way to build frustration for all parties involved, and create burnout within your coaching team. Imagine the definition of your role as the destination you type into your GPS. It keeps you on track and helps you know when you have arrived. A driver without an endpoint is doomed to wander endlessly through hill and dale, and while they might see some points of interest and even make some valuable stops, at the end of the day there was no culminating goal, no point of arrival. Imagine the definition of your role as the destination you type into your GPS. It keeps you on track and helps you know when you have arrived. To be candid, most coaches I know end up serving administrators who use them to plug holes in a system that is already fatally wounded. Spend a bit of time in the coaching trenches and you will find your name on the lips of administrators more frequently than you may have expected - “Oh, the coach can do that!” But this doesn’t have to be. Seriously, it doesn’t, and you have more power than you realize to help define your job description if you arm yourself with an understanding of what actually works, boots on the ground. So how do we change this? A simple first step: be more intentional in defining the role. Now you might be thinking, “I don’t make such decisions, shouldn’t the boss be providing the job description to me?" Well, maybe they should, but I bet they haven’t - especially if this is a budding program - so you are uniquely positioned to craft the role in a way that answers the most important, essential question: Does what I am doing improve the lives, teaching skills, and engagement of teachers so that it improves the lives, learning, and engagement of students? If not, a conversation needs to be had. Spend time debating the responsibilities with the powers that be. If the tasks assigned are not student and teacher-centered, take them off the table. Does what I am doing improve the lives, teaching skills, and engagement of teachers so that it improves the lives, learning, and engagement of students? If not, a conversation needs to be had. For a starting point, find theorists who have made a big footprint in the world of instructional coaching, such as Jim Knight and Elena Aguilar. Knight will provide a framework for the philosophy of the partnership approach, and Aguilar will help you understand the psychology behind deep coaching and the social-emotional skills required to meet people where they are. They are great for building a framework of what to shoot for. The thing you will quickly find is that there are a lot of people talking about the reasons for having a coaching program, thinking about methods of conversation that are effective, and even providing templates for documents you can use to track your work. Yet, few start with: “So it’s the first month of having coaches, here’s what you should do …” Add to your network coaches already in the trenches and see what they have to say. And listen. Really listen. The theory doesn’t translate to practice perfectly. It never has. These people will speak truth. Biased? Yes. But you need to hear it. An effective program will triangulate with theory, clientele needs, and boots-on-the-ground-here’s-what-you-should-do-first messaging. So join the Instructional Coaching social media pages, network with coaches from neighboring districts, and seek out specialized instructional coaching training. It truly is a unique position. The next article in this five-part series will focus on what to do once you have determined who you are: "Defining How to Serve.” Recommended Articles: Elena Aguilar: Coaching Educators’ Strong Emotions You do not have to walk alone. Feel free to message Agile Ideas Leadership for any questions or thoughts at info@agileideasleadership.com. Cheers! Ross Herdina, Co-Founder, Agile Ideas Leadership |
Ross Herdina and
|