Listen People!

An instructional coach's time communicating often is relayed through emails and the brief encounters in the hallway.  By continuing with the 7 principles of the partnership approach to coaching, communication should be more than just a brief encounter.  With these 7 principles in place the instructional coach and teacher have the opportunity to truly communicate with one another about their values, needs, goals, and next steps.  

I communicate every day. I listen or read every day.  Via twitter, email, facetime, texts, and occasionally phone calls.  However, my face-to-face communication tends to be less and less in an overly connected world.  With our connected world it is more crucial than ever to practice the art of listening.  After all, the art of listening is one of the cornerstones of a qualified teacher.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkuram/5961100771/ 

Chapter 4 of Instructional Coaching outlines 6 aspects of communication: understanding the speaker, employing authentic listening, understanding our audiences, recognizing stores, interpreting nonverbal communication and facial expressions, and building relationships through emotional connection.  Without going into an outline of each, Chapter 4 really is about listening.  We can always refine how we listen.  If listening was not necessary, then why does just about every self-help, coaching, management, and leadership book include a section on the art of listening?

Knight states that over time he has learned that when he listens carefully, the person with whom he’s speaking with almost always becomes a better listener. (Knight, 2007, p. 61)  I cannot agree with this statement more.  I recently tested this with what I would consider a challenging coaching partnership.  Without going into too much of the background details it really boiled down to the fact that both of us were not hearing what the other was saying.  I made a concerted effort that the next face to face conversation we would have that I would make full eye contact, pause and think before I spoke, and ask clarifying questions as needed.  As corny as it sounds it was a magical conversation!  A concept that I had shared with her several times was now a great idea that we collectively developed, planned and prepared for the next steps.  No joke! I attribute the success of this conversation to my body language, eye contact, patient probing questions, and most importantly my efforts to be a better listener. 

How do you communicate effectively as a coach and truly listen to your teachers? 

7 Principles of the Partnership Approach to Coaching

Chapter 3 of Instructional Coaching by Jim Knight outlines the partnership philosophy approach to coaching.  Through his research, practice, and reflection 7 principles are outlined. Equality, Choice, Voice, Dialogue, Reflection, Praxis, and Reciprocity. (Knight, 2007, pp. 37-54) Here is my brief break down of each principle.

1. Equality: Both the coach and the teacher contribute equally to the conversation.  The teacher and coach may not have equal knowledge on all topics, but both points of view are worth being heard and valued as a part of the discussion.  Respect and compassion must be infused throughout conversations.
2. Choice: In a coaching partnership teachers must have choice in the professional development.  Without choice it is hard to define the relationship as a partnership, thus without choice professional development is likely to fail. (Knight, 2007, p. 42) By providing quality choices the teacher can say yes and no.  When choices are taken away the teacher’s professional opinion has been neglected.  Everyone wants to be treated as a professional.
3. Voice: Make teachers feel seen and heard.  Their opinions and needs are heard and do matter.  Even if the coach does not necessarily agree with what the teacher’s opinions and what they have to share, the coach must put their opinions aside to listen.   Listening provides the coach with insight and provides the teacher with an engaged listener with an opportunity to share.
4. Dialogue: In a coaching partnership it is not about winning the conversation, but continuing conversations and bouncing ideas around in a professional way.  I like the analogy of a pinball machine to great dialogue in which it is difficult to keep track of whose ideas are who’s because the conversation is so constant.  Inquiry and innovation occurs through dialogue.  In my opinion, by providing voice, choice, and an equal playing field great dialogue can occur.
5. Reflection: Reflection is a practice to engage in as an IC and teacher during and after during and after implementing a new strategy or content.  Some teachers do not innately reflect on their practices, thus coaches can provided the reminders, prompts, and strategies to do so.
6. Praxis: When a teacher applies a new strategy or ideas and applies to their existing practice, this is praxis.  The teacher may explore, prod, stretch, and recreate a new approach into one's own teaching practices (Knight, 2007, p. 49).  In my opinion Praxis “dove-tails” well with reflection.  As we become more reflective teachers and instructional coaches we tend to be more open-minded and connecting new strategies to practice is simplified.  My enthusiastic teacher example from last week really addressed praxis.
7. Reciprocity:  The coach and teacher relationship is one that provides both parties with learning opportunities.  Both parties have an opportunity to win.  #bestpdever
   
   One coach shares what reciprocity looks and feels like. I can see it in their eyes, that they’re remembering why they loved teaching, that they feel and see why teaching is such a neat profession.  They feel validated as teachers, as professionals, and more important, they feel validated as people. (Knight, 2007, p. 51)

In conclusion, these are really non-negotiables and we don't get to pick a "favorite" principle.  They are all necessary to a partnership.  One coach, Ric Palma states on those occasions when he is feeling unsuccessful as a coach one of these principles had usually been violated or missed. (Knight, 2007, p. 40)

Feel free to share your additional connections to the principles or a principle that you think should be added in the comments section below or twitter using the #ccoach

Winners and Losers

By Michael Jastremski (© 2004 Michael Jastremski.) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Worst PD ever!  

No outlet for the interactive whiteboard (IWB) that I was supposed to be conducting a training on.  Yes, this was the focus of the "spray and pray" training I was set up to deliver.  Not to mention there was not one functioning computer in the classroom to connect to the IWB. Over 40 teachers crammed into a classroom with desk/chair combos. Yes, some were standing. Thankfully, I did have a PowerPoint of various screenshots along with a handout for half of the participants.  We were able to rustle up a projector and project my computer image onto a chalkboard that we had covered with white paper.  I made it through the day.  Did this half day  of professional development send teachers running back to their classrooms to use this newly found knowledge?  I highly doubt it, there was no buy-in from the teacher, a lack of communication, and definitely a need to listen to what the teacher's basic needs were (i.e. outlets and a functioning computer)

We all could share a great tale of our worst PD's ever.  You may even have more than one you could share.

#worstpdever

Then the clouds part and we have a "Cloud 9" day with teacher's and students.  We really do have an opportunity to see the fruits of our labor.  For example the day I modeled an assessment strategy in the classroom, the teacher, students and I debriefed the lesson, the strategies and our next steps.  Yes, the students participated in a portion of the debrief! The teacher emails me before school lets out that day and has two new ideas as to how she and her students can continue these formative assessment strategies the following day and throughout the remainder of the week.

#wewin

These are the days a fellow colleague and I like to call a "We Win" day.   Everybody wins, most importantly the students.

Jim Knight shares in his book Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction  an account of one of his worst PD days.  He was able to take some time to reflect after this awful day and converse and listen to the participants in a more one-on-one environment. Jim points out professional development success can be attributed to taking time to work with individuals one-to-one, listening, demonstrating empathy, engaging in dialogue, and communicating honestly (Knight 2007) These components help to plant the seeds of what Knight refers to as instructional coaching. Any novice or veteran instructional coach can agree with these success indicators.

In chapter 1 Knight goes onto outline the different types of coaching; Executive Coaching, Coactive Coaching, Cognitive Coaching, Literacy/Reading Coach, and Instructional Coaching.  Instructional Coaching will be the emphasis for this book study and our discussion on this blog.

So, we could all share one of our horror stories here, because maybe you just needed to get it off of your chest.  Or we could also share our "Winning" days, because personally these #wewin days are why I skip out of bed.

Share in the comments section below on your #worstpdever or your  #wewin day.