How Do I Know If I’m Getting It Right???

Carrie Sand contributed this post. Click here to read more of Carrie's thinking.

My most recent blogs have been centered around the ideas from Elena Aguilar’s book The Art of Coaching (see "A Protocol for Empowering Teachers to Examine Their Beliefs"). As previously mentioned, I was excited to see her in Milwaukee for a coaching conference I was attending with my district’s Math Coach. As the only Literacy Coach in my district, I was glad to be able to share a common coaching experience with a colleague, and the conference was a great opportunity for us to connect about coaching ideas not specific to content. If you are a singleton Literacy Coach, I would definitely recommend getting creative about ways to learn with people in similar positions outside of your content area.

Using some of the quiet time at the conference to just sit and reflect, I found myself thinking about the quickly approaching end of the year. Here my mind went to that nagging question: “How do I know I’m getting this coaching thing right?”

In her book and at the conference, Aguilar discusses how part of the coaching work plan should focus on identifying standards and criteria with the client in order to select tools that will help determine growth. These tools may include district created measurement tools, teacher/coach selected tools, or self-created tools. In addition, a coach should determine “indicators of progress” to demonstrate progress toward the goal of the coaching cycle. Tracking indicators of progress and applying a measurement tool may help keep the coaching conversations purposeful and focused. They may also help a client see progress in a concrete way. Using indicators of progress to formatively monitor a coaching cycle and then using a tool or rubric at the end as a summative may also help me, as the coach, feel more confident in answering “Yes...I am getting some of this right!”

Another idea Aguilar presents is carving out more opportunities for formal reflection. While many coaching conversations dip into the reflective nature, scheduling time for a mid-year and end of year reflection may give a coach the chance to help a teacher refocus on their strengths and growth, especially during stressful times of the year. These reflection tools might help a teacher’s resilience and set them up to be in a place for more growth to occur. Additionally, a coach may use a personal reflection log or protocol to help ground his/her practice. This log might help a coach track things like what prompts they used or what activities they implemented in their sessions, and may even provide opportunities for the coach to dig deeper into questions like:

• “When did your coaching feel effective today?”
• “What was challenging in today’s session?”
• “What do you think was “not said” by your client today?”
• “What would help your client move forward?”
• “What do you want to do or say in your next meeting?”

Asking teachers to provide formal feedback may also be another lens in which to reflect on our practice as coaches. A good resource from Choice Literacy, including a feedback tool, can be found here: https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=300

By doing a better job of reflecting after a session rather than rushing to the “next” thing I have to do, I might be able to more consistently say “Yes….I might have gotten a little of that right.”

As a coach, our work is often under the surface. I know that I will never get it all right, all the time. However, I believe that if I am purposeful in my coaching and reflective as a practitioner, I may be able to get some of it right, some of the time. In this hectic time of year, I have to show myself the same kindness I give to others and celebrate those successes!

For more information on these tools (Midyear or End of Year Report, Midyear Report Reflection, Reflective Prompts for a Coach) and more from Elena Aguilar, please see her website, which can be found here: http://elenaaguilar.com/resources/coaching-tools/