David Tutera, Literacy Coaching, and Pixie Dust

Today's post is brought to you by Lisa Weiss.

One of my guilty pleasures of the television nature is David Tutera: Unveiled. I love that guy! I like to think we’d be friends if I lived in Los Angeles, but that is a delusion I will save for another time. Every time I view an episode, I am amused by the connections between his work and mine, his attitude and mine. Our end products are grossly different, but the journey to our end products, and the roles we play throughout the journey, are freakishly similar!

I’ve written about this before, but it is worth repeating: we need to be visionary! While the lovely David Tutera envisions over-the-top floral arrangements, sparkle, and fancified receptions, we also must be visionary in terms of what we want our students to know and be able to do independently, and then devise a plan that is collaborative with teachers, in order to meet that goal. David’s fundamentals in include a venue, a dress, and a theme, while a coach’s fundamentals include a vision, a plan for implementation, and accountability. Both require thinking, creativity, collaboration with others, individual planning, and reflection.

As it turns out neither David nor literacy coaches are licensed practitioners of fortune telling, so it is impossible to know when plans will derail, but there are often warning signs; wise wedding planners and literacy coaches will have an awareness of those warning. However, there are times, in planning weddings and planning professional development, when things go catywampus, and when that happens, there are many roles to be played. Most popular is that of the therapist, assessing the root of the problem via listening, and using the data to be a problem-solver. David Tutera often finds himself in the middle of controlling brides and pushy family members, but he handles those situations by listening to both parties, and considering what he can do to make everyone happy. He’s a problem-solver, a therapist, and a mediator when these issues arise. Much like a coach is in these sticky situations, he is a soft place for a frazzled bride to land, just as a coach is that soft spot for the frazzled teacher.

David’s show really is about him—his work, his business, his life outside of work, but as a wedding planner he knows when the spotlight is “on” him, and when it should not be on him; he understands that there is a boundary. While the show is all about him, he understands that a wedding is all about the bride. He knows that, at the wedding festivities, he needs to step back, be still, and enjoy what he created. The same is true of a wise coach; she invests in the professional lives of her colleagues, and then sets them up for the spotlight when they are ready. An astute coach knows that there are times that she will live in the spotlight (and sometimes the hot seat as well), but because she has worked so hard with teachers, there is a time for the teachers to be in the spotlight, with the coach silently cheering those teachers on!

While there are many similarities between David’s work and that of a coach, I do feel as though there is one area where we are quite different. His work, without fail, ends in perfection, jaw-dropping perfection. The journey is often messy for both David and literacy coaches alike, but his final events appear to be without a flaw (or maybe they are just edited out of the program). His magic wand actually works, but mine must be low on pixie dust because, although I am not dissatisfied with the professional development I offer, mine are never the picture of perfection that David’s are. The upside of this is that each opportunity brings new learning for me; it’s just a shame that I can’t forever edit out the messy parts…