Weekly Coaching Roundup: The Best of 2021!

Happy Holidays! We’re thankful for everyone who shares, contributes to, or reads our weekly coaching roundup! Before we leave 2021 behind us, let’s take a moment to look at the top coaching articles of 2021 written by our incredible guest bloggers.

Use a Coaching Brochure to Showcase All You Do as A Coach

Most educators returned to their buildings this year, and ICs found themselves having to remind teachers about all the amazing ways they can support them. It’s no surprise then that Casey Watts’s blog post on creating coaching brochures was our top-read in 2021. If you haven’t already, check it out!

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We can’t ever assume that teachers, or even administrators, understand what we provide as instructional coaches. So, building clarity around our role will allow others to utilize us well, promoting the culture of collaboration needed to unlock the potential inside our schools. . . .
Part of building clarity around your role means setting boundaries and stating non-examples is a way to establish this.”

Coaching is Served: 3 Easy Steps to Create a Coaching Menu

Kayleigh Wright taught ICs how to whip up a coaching menu as a fun way to spotlight their role.

“First, I wanted to design something cute to catch people’s attention. Second,
I needed it to be specific about what I offer as a coach to avoid any guessing or confusion. . . . The structure was easy to create because it was modeled after an actual menu: my appetizers are the little coaching tasks, while my entrées require more time commitment, and the desserts are for the final reflections.”

Empower Your Teachers with “What I Need” Surveys

Have you ever struggled with knowing where to focus your next coaching cycle? Lisa Hockenberry and Rachel LeForce highlighted why going straight to the source through surveys allows them to gain a more in-depth understanding of their learning community’s needs.

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Many of the questions ask teachers to rate their confidence in instructional practices in their classrooms. . . . To provide teachers more voice and choice in how they approach professional learning,
we added questions about how they would like to receive training e.g. planning, after school PD, bite-size PDs, etc. We also asked if they were comfortable sharing their strengths on particular topics with their colleagues. We know how dedicated and talented our teachers are and felt these questions helped us communicate trust and empowerment.”

Kick-Starting Your Instructional Coaching

Allison Peterson showed us how to use Michael Bungay Stainer’s 7 Essential Questions to guide coaching conversations.

“When a teacher comes to you with a problem, it’s normal to immediately give them a solution. However, we should replace this urge with a questioning strategy. . . . By asking Michael Bungay Stanier’s 7 Essential Coaching Questions, you can turn every conversation into a coaching conversation! In fact,
using these questions in your next coaching conversation can open the doors to another meeting next week, and another meeting the week after that. Wait, did you just start a coaching cycle? I think you did!”

One Minute PD

Time felt of the essence this year. Luckily, Rachel Mane passed along two ways to provide quick, targeted PD for her teachers.

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My goal for these resources is to be timely and intentional
. In the emails, I share a resource or strategy with an image and a brief description which can be read in under a minute. 
I try to make what I’m sharing applicable immediately to the current unit of study
, or else I share a strategy they can use at any time. I strive to be intentional in the reason I am sharing the strategy or resource, which can help reduce the feeling of information overload.”

The Secrete to Re-Energizing PLCs

Traditional PLCs are often dull and leave educators feeling like they’re another task to do in their already busy schedules. We looked again to Casey Watts for a few fun strategies that re-shift the focus of your current PLCs to be ones focused on a shared culture of collaboration.

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We can’t ever assume that teachers, or even administrators, understand what we provide as instructional coaches. So, building clarity around our role will allow others to utilize us well, promoting the culture of collaboration needed to unlock the potential inside our schools. . . .
Part of building clarity around your role means setting boundaries and stating non-examples is a way to establish this.”

A Long Look at Look-Fors

Caleb Allen reflected on what it took to create a look-fors framework built on a shared vision of what high-quality instruction looks like within his organization—plus how he uses it with teachers to provide timely feedback.

“The core idea is that
using look-fors as an observational and feedback tool leads to richer, evidenced-based conversations which, in turn, impact student learning and success. Developing this shared language has given everyone in our building clarity around what successful teaching and learning looks and sounds like. . . .
Shared confidence among staff not only encourages students to perform at a high-level, but also
promotes instructional leaders to make this excitement visible to teachers.”

Show Off Your Instructional Coaching Impact

Have you ever struggled to share or summarize the work you do as an IC? If so, you’re not alone! Learn from Lindsay Deacon how you can showcase the impact of your coaching to teachers and district leaders alike.

“Much of the work coaches do lives in confidential meetings or happens behind-the-scenes. It can be challenging to showcase coaching without crossing a boundary or appearing egotistical. At the same time,
finding ways to share the progress and outcomes of coaching is a critical step in validating the work we do. . . . For instance, a coach’s work can be showcased by asking a
teacher to share a short coaching success story at the beginning of a staff meeting.”

Just Show Up!

Trusting yourself is critical in a coaching role filled with victories, roadblocks, and everything in-between. Monica Carpenter reminisced on nine lessons she learned in her first year on the job that allowed her to walk through the halls with her head held high.

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Being authentic and vulnerable gains you the respect and trust of those teachers you are working with. . . . You will experience willing and enthusiastic teachers, educators that are simply compliant and want to get it over with, and others who are straight-up resistant. Start with the willing ones, because
the more you can work with teachers, the more you can slowly start to build up your reputation for coaching.”

Create Your Own #CopierPD

Rounding out the top articles of 2021 was Amy Storer, who led us on how to produce easy-to-read PD for teachers on the go.

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Now, I create a handout each month that includes an instructional focus, tech tip, and meme of the month in what I like to call #CopierPD. To ensure the learning doesn’t stop at the copier itself, I’ve found it valuable to create a QR code for the monthly tech tip. This allows the teacher to scan it if they’re interested in learning more. ”

The most-viewed topic roundup of 2021 is…

On the Fly Professional Learning! Our March topic roundup packaged up a healthy serving of out-of-the-ordinary tactics for providing professional learning beyond the dreaded sit-and-get model that ICs ate up.