The Coach-Administrator Role

Today's post is brought to you by Heather Zimmerman.

Producers know that storylines about a boss/employee relationship can lead to good drama and comedy.  If you watch The Big Bang Theory, you have seen the far from ideal relationship Sheldon and Dr. Gablehauser’s shared, though Sheldon’s mother would not argue about it.  Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada was far from an easy boss to work for.  And then there is the world of Sterling Cooper and Partners in Mad Men, which highlights a whole business world of people trying to be in charge and work with each other.  

In the real world of work though, employees would rather leave the drama out of their job.  Having a strong relationship with principals is key for literacy coaches.  I was lucky when I started this role, because I knew both of the principals I work with.  Here are a few tips I find important for literacy coaches:

• Clearly define role- When I was hired I made sure I had a good grasp on what my role included.  I wanted to make sure that not only the teaching staff understood my role, but also the principal and I were on the same page.  I also wanted to be clear that I am not an evaluator.  I do not think this issue would ever come up with the principals I work with, but I feel it is important that teachers do not see me as an evaluator.  To continue to be welcome in classrooms as a teacher and a coach, it is important that teachers feel they can trust me and that I am not there to judge.  That is what keeps the classroom doors open, and both of my principals understand that.
• Honesty- If I am not sure of something I make sure to be upfront about it.  But, if I do not know something I make sure to find answer.  This also includes being honest if there is an issue not agreed upon.  It is important to have that conversation together right away, so issues can be addressed.  
• Prioritize and Step up- Literacy coaches sometimes get the freedom to plan and prioritize their schedules.  This should be done thoughtfully, so coaches are always working in the best interest of students, teachers, and the school’s goals.  Also, if there is something that needs to be done, stepping up to help out is important.  It is necessary that literacy coaches play an active role in the school.  But it is also important to notice how full the plate is getting.  I would not want to take something on that I cannot follow through on.
• Teamwork- Working together on projects is important.  That way everyone can share input and be apart of the goal.  I think it is important that even though something might be literacy focused, the principal and others on the team, all work together.  One important side note is that the principal and literacy coach are a team.  Sometimes, literacy coaches might feel they are the only one on their team, but literacy coaches are actually on a lot of different teams in the school.  It is important literacy coaches do not put down any of their team members.  That can quickly burn a lot of bridges.   

Both principals and literacy coaches play an important part in schools.  It is essential that both are working together and pulling in the same direction, and the drama can be left for the storylines.  

The Coach-Administrator Relationship

The topic for the next two weeks is the coach-administrator relationship. Below are a few quotes to get you thinking about this pivotal part of a coach's success.

"Literacy coaches are powerless without the direct support of the principal. Some principals 
find it effective to include the literacy coach on the school’s leadership team so that he or she sees the big picture and begins to understand schoolwide decision making. Regular 
communication provides an opportunity for the coach to share updates on successes or challenges with the principal so he or she can provide needed support (p. 25)."
"Three Techniques for Successful Literacy Coaching"
Rosemarye T. Taylor, Dale E. Moxley, Carol Chan Ter, and Don Boulware

". . . the coach needs to be seen a supportive resource for teachers. To support the coach as a resource, knowledgeable other, and ally, administrators cannot ask the coach about an individual teacher’s performance. If coaching is to be accepted as a school improvement initiative, administrators cannot assign coaches to teachers who have experienced trouble or difficulty. And administrators cannot interfere with the development 
of collegial relationships between the teachers and the coach (p. 3)."
Coaching Considerations: FAQs Useful in the Development of Literacy Coaching
Douglas Fisher, Professor

Supports for Literacy Coaching Success:

• Clear, detailed job description
• Commitment to developing a school literacy team and a vision for literacy learning
• Assistance in building trust
• Assistance in using time, managing projects, and documenting their work
• Assistance in organizing study groups
• Assistance in planning effective professional development for teachers
• Assistance in helping teachers analyze data
• Access to instructional resources
• Opportunities for professional development
• Feedback on their work

What Supports do Literacy Coaches Need from Administrators in Order to Succeed?
Nancy L. Shanklin

How Do You Build Relationships With Teachers?

Today's post is brought to you by Bobbi Campbell.

Image taken from this source.

Find a Role Model:

Some of you sports’ fans might remember John Wooden. I am not a sport’s aficionado, but I am interested in what makes a good coach.  John Wooden was a good coach. He was one of those coaches who inspired his players to be better, work harder, and achieve more.  He did this by listening to his players, providing numerous instructional lessons. He always gave feedback, a heck of a lot of his time, a clear vision to his players, and he did this with more patience than I could ever imagine.

Coaching - whether it is for sports or for teaching, is complicated business.

So what does John Wooden have to do with Literacy coaching and building relationships with teachers?  I believe he had the secret formula for success, and it all began with his great relationships with his players built by his great listening skills, and his ability to respond to his players’ needs.

Imitate Your Role Model:

       

Listening is not second nature to me, but rather is something I have developed over time.  It is what I believe drives the foundation of good coaching. Wooden new this and he was a master at it.  I spent my entire first year building relationships by listening.  It was no easy task and was quite exhausting.  Sometimes you have to listen to conversations repeatedly that one might consider to be counterproductive, (Or at least I thought some of them were).  Sometimes these conversations were aimed at you directly, and sometimes it was about circumstances beyond your control.  Instead of screaming, “I am not a Teflon pan!” like I  would like to some days, I remind myself to be patient and listen – let them verbally process their angst, concerns,  or  opinions.  My job is to listen, and I spent an entire year doing just that.

Choose a Goal and Reflect:

So I spent a year listening – that was my goal.  I asked myself, what did I really do as a listener, and did listening build the strong relationships I wanted to build?  The simple answer is yes and here are some of the reasons. I listened and it allowed me to collect information and ask good questions. Listening well helped give me the pieces to the instructional puzzle, it allowed the coach or teacher to feel heard; it helped me to determine our next steps so we were constantly moving forward.  By the end of my first year, I was in sync with the needs of each individual I coached.

Continual Reminders:

Listening to teachers and other coaches is an art to do it well – a skill not to be taken for granted or ignored.  Teachers’ time is sacred, and if you do not listen carefully for those coachable moments, then you have missed an opportunity to build confidence, trust, and capacity in your teachers.  I did this, but I need to remind myself every day to listen with the end goal in mind.

Why I Need the Reminder:

One of Wooden’s attributes was his ability to be patient while listening and watching for the coachable moment – a personal nightmare for us Type A’s, we always want to jump five steps ahead and do not want to wait for anyone to catch up. I am not sure if I would consider myself completely Type A, but I really do not have a whole lot of patience.  The problem with people who struggle with listening, often struggle with patience (me).  Hence why it is something I remind myself to do EVERY day. I also have to keep telling myself, building strong relationships through listening takes time. Trust does not happen overnight, and iImpatient people who coach (me, again) struggle with the time it can take to build the relationships that ultimately, if developed properly, have a strong impact on student learning. It is really a simple formula:

Listen+Time+Lessons+Trust = Student Achievement  

Of course, it is not that simple, but over time, the relationship a coach has with a teacher matters.  If you listen, and respond to targeted needs, you will build trust.  Over time, you will improve practice. John Wooden new this formula and was quite successful because of it. I, on the other hand, am a work in progress.

Tools to use to Collect Data and Target Needs:

The tools I developed are designed for new coaches, but could also be used as a reflective tool for more experienced coaches.  I used Step One with fourteen coaches from my district.  We, as a district, are redefining the roles of coaches in all of our middle schools, so many are beginning the role of coach in their school building. Step Two was designed to be used as a planner for professional development.  Our district has a train the trainer model.  Once the coaches have been given professional development, they are then expected to deliver  the same professional development at their individual schools. The tool takes into consideration individual school data aligned to their school improvement plans (SIP).

Self Reflective Tool

What is the intended professional development topic? What essential learning will be accomplished?

How can I personalize the professional development for my building/my teachers? What data should I include?

What evidence will I see as a result? What are the “Look Fors” I will use to see if the  intended outcomes are transferred to classroom practice?

Help! I’m a Literacy Coach and It’s the First Day of School

Today's post is brought to you by Julie Schwartzbauer.

How appropriate to have our first blog be about building relationships with our teachers.  

A week before school started, I was meeting with some of our building Literacy Coaches.  We were planning staff development for the week that teachers come back.  This is usually a very busy time for our coaches.  As we were sitting in my 2nd floor office with no air conditioning on a 90 degree day, one of our new coaches asked, “I am wondering, after next week, what am I supposed to do?  She went on by saying, “I am feeling very useful now, but I am afraid that once school starts, teachers will see me sitting in my office pretending to be busy.” One of our veteran coaches then commented, “I am not really sure how to start the year as a coach either.”

Of course I went into rescue mode telling them, “Don’t worry! I’ll help you.”   After they all left, I knew I needed to act fast. After all, the start of school was only a week away!  My wonderful colleague and I started to brainstorm ideas of how we could help our new and veteran coaches.

We came up with an idea for a professional development session with our coaches.  We titled it “Help! I’m a Literacy Coach and It’s the First Days of School.”  We truly pride ourselves in coming up with unique titles for our staff development sessions.

As our coaches gathered in our office we started by having them do a quick write on what literacy coaching means to them.  It was not meant to be shared – but as a way to self-reflect.

We then felt that we needed to define the role of a Literacy Coach.

In the WSRA position statement, “The Wisconsin State Reading Association believes the role of the literacy coach is to provide professional development for staff in the implementation of best practices in reading and writing instruction throughout all curricular areas.”

What does that actually look like, and what does that mean for a coach at the start of the year?  I know that it’s unrealistic to think that all coaches will be working side by side with teachers during those first few weeks of school.  So, what can they be doing?

We split our coaches into groups and asked them to each read a different short article on coaching.  The conversation that came from those articles produced a consensus that in these first few weeks and even months, their job would consist of building relationships with their teachers.

One might ask - How do they do that?

The first thing a coach might do in order to begin building relationships is to LEAVE THEIR OFFICE!  That’s right, get out of the office, leave the emails, and messages behind.  Attend professional learning communities.  Engage teachers in conversation.   Ask a lot of questions, and spend time listening.  Talk about teaching.  Talk about students.  Talk about family.  Talk about what interests them.  Find out what their strengths are.  Your goal is to build trust with your staff.  I wish you all the best of luck.

Building Relationships with Teachers

Today's post is brought to you by Penny Antell.

I cannot think of a single more important topic to discuss than relationship building in regards to coaching.  Without establishing a relationship, all attempts at improving practice will be unstable: accepted with a tentative ear.

http://www.itproductivitytools.com/articles/howtobeagoodlistener.html

As I begin to write about building relationships, I envision many components.  First I picture a listener.  Coaches MUST be good listeners.  They need to be present with the person they’re working with listening not only to the language that is being shared, but to what is beneath the language.  Coaches are always listening to hear the unstated message, the strengths, belief systems, and fears of the person speaking.  Listening to hear what matters most, what goals the person has and what is being left unstated?  Listening attentively honors the speaker making them aware you’re truly interested in what they have to say and what is occurring in their lives and classrooms.

http://blogs.falmouth.k12.ma.us/simplysuzy/2009/10/29/duck-rabbit-which-are-you/

Including our own interpretations of another person’s words is human nature.  Listening carefully and completely is just a first step. To assure understanding it is helpful for the coach to reflect upon what is shared in conversation. By stating this back to the speaker one can ensure assumptions have not been made. This is not done as parroting, but as an opportunity to indeed discover that what is stated is understood.  Is it a duck or is it a rabbit?  Find out – rephrase and/or ask for clarification.  Through this, the coach will more clearly define areas where s/he can impact the instruction within the teacher’s classroom and impact student learning.

http://www.extendedfamily.org/whoarewe.html

Approaching the coaching setting with an extended hand either physically or virtually encourages a relationship through the ease of workload and the possibility of increased positive outcomes within the job setting.  Assuring teachers that the coach is present to support classroom practice and to help improve student performance provides a sense of ease and assurance as well as tension for some.  To allow for the growth of a positive relationship, discovering areas the teacher is comfortable discussing and beginning to create action plans around these will allow for a foot into the door where the literacy coach is able to prove their ability to create shift and desirable outcomes.

TIME

 

http://megworden.com/2013/01/25/there-is-always-enough-time

While we find ourselves rushing from one setting to another throughout our day, it is essential we take the time necessary to be in the moment with others.  Stop and listen.  Really listen.  Show the speaker you’re truly interested in what is being said and you’re there to help.  Rushing off, appearing too busy, or uninterested, will break down any relationship that has been started and shred opportunities to make a difference in the education of the students within the classroom and building.   There is nothing as important at the trust that is built between the coach and coachee.

INTEGRITY

http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/clsr/campaign-integrity

As a coach, employee, and person in general – maintain your integrity.  Without your integrity well established and known, you will not be able to create the change desired as trust will be lost.  Be kind, caring, and honest in all your actions.  Maintain confidentiality.

What Are You Reading? (October Edition)

The stack of coaching books that sits on top of my too-small cube-land bookshelf.

Coaches work to cultivate a sense of lifelong learning in their colleagues. So, we need to be lifelong learners, too. What better way to do that than reading?

We will begin each month around here by sharing a few things that we are reading. 

Use the comments to let us know what you are reading.

Here are a few titles from our coaches:

Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading
Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst

Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement
Robert J. Marzano

"Why Common Core Matters: What Parents Need to Know"
Susan B. Neuman and Kathleen Roskos for Reading Teacher (September 2013)

A Game for Swallows
Zeina Abirached 
Young adult graphic novel about civil war in Lebanon

Drawing from Memory
Allen Say
Memoir about becoming an artist that mixes genres (graphic novel, comic book, informational text)

Note: This post isn't intended to be an endorsement of any particular titles, authors, or ideas. It's simply a listing of what we're currently reading.

On Fridays, I Cry

Today's post is brought to you by Andrea Reichenberger.

While gathering the last of the materials I needed for today’s staff development, I bumped into an acquaintance who does consulting work for our district.  Tammy* is a change agent/coach and after having only spoken to her on a few occasions, I fell in love with her. She is an expert on research based instructional practices and  has worked with some of the best.  Tammy has even co-authored a book about planning, teaching, and assessment practices that support effective learning and help close achievement gaps

After the usual pleasantries, Tammy and I chatted about coaching and how difficult it is, for her especially, being an outsider. Developing relationships is at the core of our role as coaches. It also requires a thick skin, because we coach for change--and change is messy and uncomfortable. She admitted that the instructional adjustments we need really can't happen until a coach is in the classroom continuing to help guide the process. Tammy was hired that day not only to help deliver the message that change is imminent, but also to help one group of teachers formulate their thinking about instruction.  Unfortunately, it was not a pleasant experience for her or for the group of teachers, but she did get them to where they needed to be.

What really struck me during our conversation was when Tammy said, “On Fridays, I cry.”  She has worked as a coach in other schools for long stretches of time and has been through it all.  She gets it.  It sounds like a weird thing to say, but it’s true.  Now, I’m not much of a crier, I choose red wine instead, but I can relate.  I spend the majority of my time not only listening, but also thinking about what I am saying, how I say it, the tone I use when I ask questions, and what messages my body language may be sending.  At the same time, I am reading the body language of others, offering ideas and suggestions, and gently guiding teachers to find the answers they are looking for within themselves.  There is no other way to say it--it’s exhausting.  By Friday, I am tapped out, and if I was a crier, I probably would--as a release.  But, as coaches, we need to forge ahead in order to create and build on those relationships to make change happen.

Luck Be (For This) Lady…

I have worked in my district for 15 years, so lucky for me, I had some name recognition when I began coaching at the high school.  Relationships with colleagues who knew me or were at least acquainted with me were quicker to develop and build upon.  I was invited into classrooms and began working with teachers right away. Since coaching was my new role--and new to the building--my principal was instrumental in helping me get buy-in from the staff.  He provided the time for me to explain my role at a staff meeting and there I offered a menu of suggestions of how teachers could utilize me.  I also had the teachers fill out an exit slip listing one service they could use from me.  That is where I began.

As Dad Used to Say, “Always Be Aware of Your Surroundings”

My dad was a police officer and detective for thirty-three years and even though he has since passed, his wise words are still with me.  Of course, he used this phrase in a different context, but it is applicable here.  Because I am in and out of classrooms having discussions with teachers about their instruction (which is a pretty darn personal topic because, let’s face it, we are talking about a person’s livelihood here), and then in and out of the principal's office, teacher’s notice.  When having conversations about instruction, I speak in generalities or I base the conversation on data I have collected and that data is always reported out as a whole. I make every effort to send a clear message:  I am not an administrator.  I am still a teacher.  However, it is imperative that I am communicating with administrators to ensure we are delivering the same message and are on the same page.  As a teacher, I am well aware that someone is always watching.  In order to maintain relationships and build trust, teachers need to see that I am willing to work just as hard as they are and sometimes--even a little harder.

Don't water the rocks, because rocks don’t grow (Phrase stolen from my man, Doug Fisher)

It is human nature for people to vent and complain and, yes, I hear it at times.  Some of it is personally directed at me so, working in this role definitely requires a thick skin. I like the phrase:  it’s not personal--it’s business, but our business is kids and it is our personal responsibility to help them achieve. I apologize for the cliche, but there is always a choice, they can be a part of the solution or they can be a part of the problem.  Relationships with "the rocks" can still be established, but they don't move, so it is best to focus your energy on those who want it.  If you, as the coach, have the personality and the mindset, building relationships is easy, but keeping them positive, while simultaneously providing professional development with follow through to implementation is the tricky part.  It isn't my job to police or to evaluate my peers. Providing the information, the data, the tools, the training, and the guidance for teachers to improve their instruction so our students are successful---that’s my job--and it is totally worth it--rocks and all.

*Name has been changed