How should a principal refer teachers to coaches?

Principal referral can be a powerful way to accelerate the impact of coaching in a school, but it has to be handled with care. If the partnership principles are ignored and struggling teachers are told they must work with the coach “or else,” coaching can be seen as a punishment, not a support, and future coaching opportunities may dry up.

 I suggest a different approach, one consistent with the partnership principles. Rather than telling teachers they must work with coaches, I suggest that principals focus on the teaching practice that must change, and offer the coach as one of several possible ways the teacher might bring about the change. Thus, a principal might say, “Sonny, when I observed your class, I noticed that 10 of your 24 students were off task during your lesson. You need to implement ways to keep those kids on task. Our coach Cher is great at time on task, and you might want to talk with her about this, but if you can find another way, that’s fine too. What matters is that more kids are learning. I’m going to check back frequently, so let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”

 In this way, the principal can put the onus on the teacher to change results while not dictating the solution. By offering coaching as one option, the principal increases the likelihood the teacher will see the coach not as an obstacle, but just one option—not a punishment, but as a lifeline.

Fear Factor Time Management

I read time management books the way some others read diet books.  Reading them makes me feel like I am actually doing something about time management, even if all I’m doing is reading a book.

            I have learned some good strategies, which I’ve written about in my other blog at www.nsdc.org.  Recently, however, I’ve been trying out a new strategy, which seems to be working.  Since most who read this blog are probably feeling a bit like me—too much to do, too little time—I thought I’d share my new strategy here.

            I got this idea by reading Jim Collin’s ideas about leadership.  According to Collins, the most outstanding leaders all have one thing in common:  they do the hardest to do jobs first each day.

            That has not been my approach, I have to say, at all.  I dilly dally.  I check out my fantasy hockey team. I re-organize my iTunes playlist. I fritter away time.  Then I often tackle the most enjoyable tasks, first.  Consequently, the more complex and difficult tasks start to pile up and I find myself buried under a pile of tough stuff to do.  Of course, the fact that I’m not tackling these thorny problems eats away at my emotional well-being, and I always feel a little drained knowing that I am a little bit (or a lot) behind. Sometimes I feel worn out even before I start.

            So I have found a way to fix this problem, which I call Fear Factor Time Management. What I do now is list the challenges I face that are causing me the most stress.  That is, what are the challenges that I can do something about that are waking me up at night or are the first things that pop into my mind when I wake up.  These are the tasks, that if I complete them, will bring me a little peace of mind.

I list all these tasks, and then prioritize them according to how much better I’ll feel when they are done. Usually the least enjoyable tasks, when done, bring the most peace.

Let me give you an example from last week. At the top of my list were three (of 12) tasks:  creating a job description (which was long over due), reworking a scheduling conflict, and writing a project officer about getting some new equipment for a research project.  I have no real idea why I wasn’t tackling these tasks, but when I made my Fear-Factor Action List, they ended up on top.  Then I listed when I expected to tackle each fear task.  Those three I knocked off right away, and truly, I felt a real surge of energy knowing that I had dealt with them.  I’ve been sticking with this plan each day, and it is working wonders.

One caution:  I’m not suggesting that our time should be totally driven by fear.  We need to be intentional about long-range planning, building in time for joyful, life-giving creative activities, which can be accomplished by applying the strategies I’ve already written about at the NSDC blog.  But I’ve found that applying the Fear-Factor approach can be very helpful.  In fact, now that I’ve written this blog and posted it, I’m feeling a little better about my time management skills as I’ve knocked off another task on my list.

Finding Thinking Devices

I recently received an email asking a great question:  "Where can I find good Thinking Devices for my math class?"  Thinking Devices, in case you don't know, are provocative objects we share with students to create lively conversations in the classroom. In fact you can download a mini-manual for Thinking Devices at this link and read about and download other mini-coaching manuals at the Big Four Ning. 

Coincidently, the day I received that email, I was talking about the very same topic with Laura Parn, an instructional coach in Lincoln, NE.  Laura was looking for a video to use as a Thinking Device for her elementary students to talk about measurement.  What Laura did helped me understand how I could find good Thinking Devices. 

Laura told me she sat at her computer and took a few minutes to think about things students needed to measure and convert to other forms of measurement.  She said she wanted something that would be very familiar to her students, and she came up with something simple: pennies. So, she just googled pennies and video and a bunch of options came up.  In less than a minute she found a great thinking device for a lesson on measurement, you can view it here.

I decided to try out her strategy on a higher-level topic, and I chose statistics.  Again, in less than a minute, I found a famous, but great Thinking Device for my topic.  You've probably seen it before, but watch it again as a way to introduce statistics in a high school alebra class.  You can view it here.

So here's my advice. If you're looking for video Thinking Devices, all you have to do is go on You Tube, search for your topic, poke around a bit, and you should be able to find appropriate Thinking Devices.  And if you find any great ones, we'd love to see you post them on the Big Four Ning.  

By the way, a simple way to download video from You Tube, if you haven't tried it out, is Kick You Tube.

Video and coaching

This year the coaches I work with in Kansas and Oregon are experimenting with video to support a variety of approaches to coaching.  In most cases, the coaches use Flip Cameras, iphone3Gs, or other micro cameras. These cameras are used to (a) record teachers as they try out new practices so that the video can be used for coaching conversations, (b) record model lessons that can be downloaded right onto a teacher's computer so they can review them when they wish, (c) record coaches, who then watch their coaching practices to see how they can improve.  

My friends and colleague are using video in other innovative ways.  Jean Clark in Maryland has coached teachers to record themselves teaching and then to edit the video using iMovie to create clips showing a good teaching practice and a teaching practice that could improve. The teachers then share the clips in PLCs and everyone constructively discusses what they see. Jean has found that teachers find it to be extremely powerful to edit their own video--the multiple reviews of the video, she says, are highly informative.

Lynn Fuller, an instructional technology coach, uses the iSight video camera on her Powerbook to record herself during facilitation sessions.  She just opens up her laptop, turns on the camera, and records away. Lynn says she finds reviewing the recording to be extremely educational, and she now records herself all of the time.

Watching yourself is a revelation, and it is not for the faint of heart.  Having watched myself way too much recently, during my workshops, I now know I need to diet and maybe tuck my shirt in a little better.   But watching yourself, aside for challenging your vanity, reveals information that you have no idea about until you see it. I now know that I could do a better job of providing advance organizers during, and I'm going to be working on that starting tomorrow. In fact I'm going to ask someone to tape me tomorrow, so I can see how I do.