Tips for coaches

I received a nice email this week asking me for my top three tips for new Instructional Coaches. Well, the best I could do was five. I've included my email response here:

First off, I really do believe that you would benefit from the coaching institute. Just so you know, I don't benefit financially from the institute, so I'm not trying to sell tickets. My point is simply that the institute simply prepares people well for the whole job of coaching, by explaining what coaches do, what the partnership principles mean for coaches, some powerful communication strategies, and what coaches should do to function as leaders. We talk about issues like how to get buy-in up front, the kind of relationship a coach should set up with a principal, how to determine which intervention to use when, how to deal with conflict, and so forth.

Tip Two: Read the Partnership Principles from the Fieldbook, which you can download for free. Think deeply about which ones you agree with and disagree with. I think it is very important to know what you stand for. Whether or not you like those principles I think it is very important to consider exactly what the principles are that you base your actions on.

Tip Three: Identify which interventions you want to share with teachers (pick a few, in particular that you are really keen on sharing) and then make sure you know them inside and out. Read the manual several times, and think of stories and analogies that help illustrate what is important in each part of the strategy or routine. Also think about the road blocks your teachers are going to encounter, and figure out how you'll help them get around them. For example, what are you going to do to help teachers do scoring and feedback if they have large classes? You need to prepare short clear explanations of what you've got for teachers, and to do that, you need to be sure you know what you're sharing really well.

Tip Four: Prepare stuff in advance for your teachers. Make folders, overheads, learning sheets, whatever they might need. I think you should think of your job as removing all the barriers that might stand in the way of a teacher planning to implement.

TIp Five: Schedule a meeting with your principal(s) and ensure that you are regularly scheduling meetings. During the first meeting, you should work out what your role is. You are there, I imagine, to support professional learning, not to be a substitute teacher or provide services to students. You need to make sure that you're not swept up in doing too many things that are not helping improve instruction. You probably also need to explain the partnership approach described in the Fieldbook. You don't want to find yourself working with teachers who are told they have to work with you. A better approach is for the principal to apply pressure if a teacher needs help, by telling "things have to change in your class. You might want to talk with Pam, that's up to you, but things have to change, and I'll be back to observe."

Tip Six: Take it one step at a time. You don't need to do everything, and it's better to do a few interventions well than it is to do a ton poorly. Take your time to get to know things well. Take it a step at a time.

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