Getting Teachers to Initiate Coaching Cycles, Ep. 87 Instructional Coaching with Ms. B

Getting Teachers to Initiate Coaching Cycles, Ep. 87 Instructional Coaching with Ms. B

Chrissy Beltran [00:00:02]:

Hey, coach. Don’t worry. We’ll get to your episode in just a second. I just wanted to let you know that if you’re listening to this in December or January, it’s time for instructional coaching with miss b to take its little holiday hiatus. Every year from December through January, I take a season break. Then in February, the new season comes roaring in, and I share all the latest coaching strategies, troubleshooting, and ideas with you. I plan the season starting in January. So until then, I’d love to hear from you. Head to buzzing with miss b dot com slash survey to share your thoughts on the podcast. You can help me plan episodes and chat with guests that really help you with your everyday coaching work. I want these episodes to be meaningful and helpful, so please tell me what you’re thinking. If you complete the survey, you’ll also be entered to win a $25 gift card from a place of your choosing as long as I can grab it online. Head to buzzing with missb.com/survey and let me know what you think about Instructional Coaching with Miss b, the podcast, and enter twins, sir, the giveaway. I’m also using this hiatus to share some of the most popular episodes from the last six years. I know. Crazy six years. Maybe you’ve missed some very special gems that would help you out in this next semester. So keep looking for an episode every week in your podcast player. And, of course, you can listen on the blog at fussingwithmissb.com/podcast. Happy holidays and happy coaching, everybody.

Chrissy Beltran[00:01:21]:

Hey, coaches. I’m just gonna pop in here really fast because I wanna share something with you that I am so excited about. My course for elementary literacy coaches, the confident literacy coach, is live. It’s up and running, and you can get access to it right now. So here’s the deal. When I started out as a coach, I struggled. I had trouble defining my role and communicating it with teachers and administration, and I honestly didn’t even know that was something I was gonna have to do. I dreaded PLC days because getting my teachers to collaborate, to speak the same language and create lesson plans together was a total nightmare, and I was so stressed out by modeling and co teaching in classrooms that I actually avoided it for a long time. It was not a happy time for me, but things got so much better. I figured out processes to help my teams of teachers work together. I focused on best practices in reading and writing and identified some high impact strategies to support alignment on my campus, and I began to spend more time in classrooms after I planned thoroughly with teachers before lessons. Basically, I started coaching with confidence. I’ve collected all the processes and tools that I used to do this work, and I’ve put it all together in one place so you can coach with confidence too. The confident literacy coach is your one stop shop for everything literacy coaching in elementary school. You’ll learn how to define your role and communicate it to your administrator, what best practices you should spend your time on, and my process for collaborative planning, plus so much more that will take your coaching life from frustrated and overwhelmed to effective and confident. You can check it out at buzzingwithmissb.com. Just click the confident literacy coach at the bottom of the latest post, and you’ll learn exactly what’s in the course and why it will change your coaching for the better. I can’t wait to see you there. You’re listening to Buzzing with Miss b, the coaching podcast, where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach and every coach does too. I’m Krissy Beltran, an instructional coach, resource creator, and coffee enthusiast, and I’m your host. Stay tuned for practical tips and honest coaching talk that will help you coach with confidence.

Chrissy Beltran [00:03:35]:

Hey, coaches, and welcome to episode 87 of Buzzing with Miss B, the coaching podcast. 87 episodes. That is insane to me over two seasons. This is the last episode of season two. So my season usually runs from February through November, and then I take a little hiatus in December and January to make sure that I am ready with amazing content for you for the next season. So this is the last episode in season two. If you haven’t listened to all of the episodes, you can, of course, go back and listen to everything since episode one. But in the meantime, be sure to get those downloads, try things out, and to let me know what it is that you want to hear about in season three. Because you can absolutely send me an email or tag me on Instagram at buzzing with miss b, and say, hey. I would like to know more about and then we can actually include that in season three whenever I start recording that, which is going to be happening right about now. So today’s episode, as the last episode in season two, is really important because it is about coaching cycles, and coaching cycles are the bread and butter of instructional coaching. It is how we make impact in classrooms. So I’ve shared several episodes in the past about coaching cycles and what they can look like. We have talked about the basic process that goes into a coaching cycle That was in episode three, and you can go back and listen to that one if you haven’t already. And then we talked about different strategies that can happen during the classroom work portion of the coaching cycle, such as modeling, co teaching, observing, that kind of work. And those are in episodes let’s see. Episodes five and six is modeling and co teaching. And that way, you can actually kinda get in there and do the good hard work of coaching that happens in the classroom. So that’s really about how to get or how to structure your coaching cycles. Right? So if you’re unsure about that, check those episodes out. In episode 18, I talked about ways to get in the door. And from there, we looked at a little bit about, how to kind of get your foot in the door for instructional coaching support and six

Chrissy Beltran [00:05:48]:

different ideas that can get you in the door of a classroom that is not excited to have you around. Well, today, we’re going to take a little bit of a different approach. And we’re gonna talk about a couple of things, how you can initiate coaching cycles yourself, how you can invite people to coaching cycles. And then I’m gonna talk about ways to create a climate in which teachers perceive the value of coaching cycles because they are not scary. They are supportive. And then that way, they will ask you for the support that they need. And if you can get a teacher to initiate a coaching cycle, oh, boy, you’ve really done it. Because that is whenever it’s gonna be so impactful. When they reach out to you and say, this is what I need, that is whenever you have hit you’ve hit hit oil, you struck oil there, because that teacher is going to be so excited to do the work with you, and they are gonna be invested in the outcome of that coaching cycle. So we’re gonna talk about a few different things today that that you can do, that you can implement at any point on your campus. These are not things that can only be done at the beginning of the year. If you feel like you’ve hit a wall and you’re not getting people excited about coaching cycles and they’re not responding to the work that you’ve been trying to do, take a couple of these strategies and implement them, and let’s see what works for you. Because different things are gonna work on different campuses, and I believe that you can make some real impact through coaching cycles if you implement these ideas. You can also grab a free download, and I really want you to grab it because it’s got a lot of stuff in there. I was looking through it again today, and I was like, wow. I put a lot of stuff in this download. It’s my coaching in classrooms free download, and it’s a portion of my coaching in classrooms resource. Those are the forms that you can use whenever you actually coach, and do the coaching work of coaching cycles, in different classrooms on your campus. So the free download is going to be at buzzingwithmissb.com/episode80seven. That’s episode spelled out and then the number

Chrissy Beltran [00:07:40]:

87. You can scroll down, entering your email address there, and then you will get that free download. To get the entire resource, because this is a part of a larger coaching resource in which I share how you conduct coaching cycles, what the gradual release model looks like whenever you’re coaching, and a ton of tools that you can use in order to do that work, then you can visit my TPT store. And that is you can go to tpt.com. It’s teacherspayteachers.com. And you can look for Chrissy Beltran buzzing with Misty. And the resource that you’re actually going to be trying to that you’re actually gonna be purchasing if you want to implement these right away is the image says coaching in classrooms, and you can search for instructional coaching forms and slideshow for the coaching cycle. This will give you the tools that you need to do a lot of the things that we’re gonna talk about today. So let’s get started. In order to get teachers to even know what a coaching cycle is, and to understand what your role is, you really need to start with inviting them to a dialogue about coaching. And one of the easiest ways to do this is a coffee with a coach, a cup for the coach, a cookies with a coach, where you just invite people to participate in a conversation. Now this could be part of a regular professional development that you’re doing to where everybody is present. I personally really, really like that way because everybody is going to be there to get the benefit of this conversation and it’s uses to, like, pop in. So what I recommend doing is scheduling a specific time that is part of a regular PD where you can really introduce your role. So as you are introducing your role and you’re introducing, you know, what it is that you’re there to do, you can use a slideshow and actually include that in the resource that I just shared with you. You can use any kind of presentation. You can just chat, but I really recommend that you have a coaching menu. And you can get the coaching menu in the free download for this specific, episode in the show notes, because that’s how important it is. I think you need to have a coaching menu that spells out

Chrissy Beltran [00:09:47]:

exactly what your coaching support can look like. So this engages teachers in a conversation about what coaching can look like, and from there, you can actually invite teachers to participate in coaching cycles and implement some of those strategies that are on your coaching menu. I’ve created in this resource that I shared with you on TpT, there are the collection new strategy, and I would love to implement this in your classroom. I think your kids would love it, and I think you would too. Can we try this out together? And you can use that to get your foot in the door to start a coaching cycle with a teacher. So now we’re gonna talk about ways to create a climate in which teachers perceive the value of coaching in coaching cycles, and they know they’re not scary, and they are willing to participate with you to the point where they might actually invite you and say, Can you meet with me in order to host this coaching cycle? Okay? If we can get a teacher to invite us, the work is halfway done because that means that teacher is already invested. So the first tip that I’m gonna share with you is a model classroom. Now, back in episode 78, I talked about model classrooms, why you need one, and what to do when you get one. So I recommend that you go back and listen to that because that has a lot of really good information about how to initiate this process and what to do once you’ve done it. Model classrooms are a place where you can have other teachers move in and out of that space. You’ve done a lot of coaching work with a teacher in the classroom, and you are there to support the ongoing growth and learning of that teacher, plus any other teacher who would like to benefit from that experience. So you can be teaching, the teacher can be teaching, you can be co teaching. It doesn’t matter. Other teachers can come in to see what’s going on in that classroom and also to feel the benefits of the coaching cycles that you’ve undergone with that model classroom teacher. So that means that those teachers who come in kind of look around and go, oh, this is what it can look like when a coaching cycle is done

Chrissy Beltran [00:11:59]:

really well. This is not scary. This this teacher is benefiting from the experience of the of working with a coach. The kids are benefiting from the experience of working with a coach. And you know what? I want that in my classroom. It’s kind of like a commercial. So in order to make the most of your model classroom, you can invite other teachers to come and observe those lessons. You can actually have them, set up a schedule. I some people use Pineapple PD, and while it’s I love it. It’s really great and really cute. It can take a long time to get that culture established where people are gonna be popping in and out of each other’s rooms a really long time, and it takes some real legwork from the coach. Now if you’re headed that way, go for it. Just be sure that you’re ready to do the work. If you’re not setting up a pineapple PD kind of schedule where everybody just kind of fills in their own thing, offer it to teachers. Say, Hey, this week we’re doing, mentor sentences. We’re working on that in our third grade model classroom, and I know you had some questions about grammar instruction. Would you like to set up a time that I can schedule for you to come in and watch us teach this lesson together? Inviting teachers to participate in that model classroom shows them what coaching cycles look like in action so that they can say, Hey, I want some of that, and they can book you as well, just like that first teacher did. My next recommendation is to start with a friendly, and I use this phrase a lot, okay? We want to stick at first with the teachers who are excited to work with us and have some good things going on. Please do not beat down the door of the teacher who is the least excited to work with you and who has the most growth needed to make some, you know, basic sustainable changes in that classroom. You will be frustrated, they will be frustrated, and everyone else will say, Ah, this person is here to work with those teachers. And that’s not what you want. You want teachers to know that you are there to work with all teachers, you are there to support the growth of

Chrissy Beltran [00:13:54]:

every teacher, and that you can be impactful in any classroom. If you start with a friendly, a teacher who is excited to do some work and has some good solid practices in place, you can turn that classroom into your model classroom. But if you start out with a classroom that is really struggling and the teacher is reluctant to work with you and not excited, you’re not going to be able to get much leverage out of that. Another thing to consider is that if you have a classroom that the teacher is, like, well liked by other teachers, and other teachers enjoy working with them and learning from them, other people might be more likely to initiate some learning through their classroom. If you start with a teacher who is not as influential, then you may not be able to use that classroom and leverage it to get into other rooms. Another way to get teachers to kind of become more aware of the culture of coaching and what good things can come out of it is to share that motivation with them and to do, like, shout outs and special features of the teachers that you’ve worked with. So in the example of the mentor sentences, you can share during a PLC, hey, I was in Miss so and so’s classroom the other day and we have been implementing the strategy of mentor sentences for a while and we had some really great progress on that. Miss so and so, would you share that with your colleagues so we can talk a little bit about why that was effective and see if that’s something they would like to try out? That highlights the work that was being done in a coaching cycle. It sort of elevates it and says, hey. This is some really good stuff that’s going on, and I want to celebrate that with all of you. So let’s talk about the good work that has come out of our coaching cycle so that you can kind of internalize that learning. You can take it back to your classroom, and also so that you know good things come out of coaching cycles. Right? Good things have come out of the work that we’ve done together, and it’s not scary. You can even have I used to have a bulletin board in my classroom, and

Chrissy Beltran [00:15:50]:

it was called the teacher feature board, and I would take pictures of the classroom work that we were doing together, and I would feature really great things. And that showed, for one, that I wasn’t there to correct people. I was there to to grow alongside them because it was things that we were learning together that we would put up on the board. And it also showed that this was a positive learning experience for everybody involved. The kids had a good time. The teacher learned a lot and had a good time. I learned a lot and had a good time, and we all interacted together in a kind of a community of learning. So by featuring those moments on the wall, it showed that nothing scary was going on whenever I was doing coaching cycle work in a classroom. Another way to get teachers to know your benefit is by helping them with small wins. Small wins may not sound like a big deal because they’re small, right, but to a teacher, fixing a small problem is huge. Now, I don’t want you to be Mr. Fix It walking around with your toolbox and fixing everybody’s problems all the time, because that changes the focus of your coaching role from being a support and collaborator into being somebody who actually solves all the problems on campus, and then no longer are you able to really be a coach if you’re just, you know, repairing things. But if a teacher needs something and you can provide that something, you can provide that piece of information, or that step in the process, or even that physical material that will change their teaching in that moment, you suddenly have value that you maybe didn’t have before. So for those teachers who have been less excited to invite you into work in their classrooms, giving them a small win is a way to really support what they’ve got going on and bring value to the table and show that you are more than just somebody who walks around working with everybody else, and they can’t ignore you because you actually have the tools that are gonna support them. So many times teachers just kind of are like, Ugh, who’s this one again? Right? But if we can be the one who helps them solve a problem in their classroom, whether

Chrissy Beltran [00:17:53]:

that’s a coaching conversation that happens on the fly in the hallway, or something that happens during a PLC where we say, oh, we have a class set of that, would you like to borrow it? That helps them that solves a problem, it opens the door to interacting with them, and it gets you started down the road towards a coaching cycle. Now you can’t stay there. You can’t stay there in small win world, because if all you’re doing, again, is fixing problems, fixing problems, fixing problems, then you’re not really coaching. You’re solving problems. And coaching is not about solving all the problems, but it is a good way to get the door to open. This last one that I’m gonna share is probably my favorite one, where you can actually create this culture of coaching and feedback and dialogue and working together. Okay? Whenever you need to know what teachers need, give them a survey. There are so many benefits to sharing a survey with teachers. They have voice on those surveys. They can give you input. If you include their names or their grade levels, you know exactly who needs what. You are able to respond appropriately whenever they have issues. You can serve as a liaison from the between the teachers and the administration because you know what the teachers really need, and you have the evidence on paper that teachers are needing certain things. So whenever you go to administration and you say, well, this is what my teachers need. This is what our teachers need. They’re not like, is that really, really, is that really that important? Yes, actually 87% of teachers said that this was an issue that they’re having. So you’ve got it in black and white. So this is how I recommend using a survey, and there are a few different ways that you can use it to make it really effective in creating this culture of sharing and collaborating. One is that you can use one at the beginning of the year, or the beginning of a semester, to kind of help teachers think about their goals and where they want to head. What is it that they’re focusing on? What is it that they are really, excited about, learning about, implementing? What is going on in their teaching brains? Right? So you give them the form, and

Chrissy Beltran [00:20:05]:

you can use a Google form, you can use a printable form, it doesn’t really matter, whatever tool is best for you to get the most responses. You might try both and see which one you get the best response from. So you get those that information back from teachers, and then you can use it in a few ways. One, you use it to provide support across your campus, of course, like tier one support. But two, you use it to individually hone in on teachers and say, now that I know what this teacher needs, I can make myself available for that kind of coaching support. I know that this teacher specifically really wants to work on routines because she feels like that was not what was in place in her classroom last year. So I am gonna specifically offer support on routines whenever I go collaborate with this teacher and see if we can get a coaching cycle initiated around that work. Your awareness of their needs makes you a more valuable coach. Another way that you can use a survey is throughout the year in response to work that you are doing together. So you can actually use a survey to say, okay, this is some new learning that we have done. Where are some areas of challenge that you’ve had in implementing these ideas? Are these ideas meeting your needs? Do you need more support around these ideas? And from there, you can take those those responses and say, okay, teachers are doing really well in this area, but they need more support in this area. Maybe this is a whole PD across my campus. Maybe this grade level I can differentiate for in this way, and maybe this individual teacher I can support in this way. If I can support this teacher in this way, we can build a working relationship so that we can initiate coaching cycles around that work, and I have added value to what they’re doing, and they know that I can be of support in an area that they want support in. My last recommendation for using surveys to create this culture around coaching is to get feedback on your coaching work. And it can be hard to put ourselves out there, but we have to do it. We have got to find out what teachers think. We actually

Chrissy Beltran [00:22:02]:

talked about this earlier in the season on an episode with Erin Cottman. In the episode Collecting Feedback from Teachers to Guide Your Coaching Work, that’s episode 58, we talk about the different ways that you can gather information from teachers, the kinds of tools that you can use, the kinds of questions you can ask that will really help guide your coaching work in the future. If you can show that you are responsive and you are listening to input from teachers, they are more likely to see that you have value to add to what they do on a daily basis, and they’re more likely to enlist your support. So that’s a really great way to use surveys to get the information you need to do you need to know in order to do your job really, really well and be really, really supportive of teachers. What you can do is ask them for specific feedback around the kinds of support that you have provided and make it clear that coaching cycles are available to teachers. And if they have already participated in a coaching cycle, you can get feedback around that, and that will help you frame the work that you do for your next round of coaching cycles. And if they haven’t, you could even say, so if you have not yet participated in a coaching cycle, can you tell me why? And that question might seem scary, but it’s going to be so eye opening for you and for the teacher who responds to that question. And you know how I know. There’s a podcast that I listen to all the time, and this person says, Leave me a review on iTunes. If you haven’t left me a review for my on iTunes and you’ve been listening for a long time, can you tell me why? And I really have to think about why is it that I haven’t reviewed this podcast on iTunes when she asks me to do it every week? I’m sincerely thinking about that. It’s it kind of bothered me. I was like, why haven’t I done it? It only takes a couple minutes. What is the issue? Teachers can let you know. It’s a time issue. It’s a motivation issue. I don’t, I don’t feel like you’re able to support me. Maybe that’s something that they need to tell you.

Chrissy Beltran [00:24:06]:

It’s not always fun to hear, but it could be the truth that they feel that way, and then you can actually work to address it. They might tell you that they just feel overwhelmed. And then you can use that as a as a gateway to get in the door and say, so what’s overwhelming you? Tell me more about this, because maybe there’s something we can do that will make your teaching life better. They can tell you if they feel like the problems that they’re having are not going to be solved with coaching cycles, and you can say, okay, maybe we can create a specific kind of support around what you really need. What is it that you want to get out of this coaching relationship? Because I’m here to support you and not to support you in the same way as everybody else. You have unique needs. Everybody does. So let’s figure out a plan that’s gonna work for you and put together a real coaching support plan that could involve a coaching cycle, but maybe not in a way they had envisioned before. Sometimes there’s some misconceptions. You can also use a survey to say, what do you think my job is? And then you’ll know what you’re putting out there. Right? You’ll know what’s being perceived by teachers about the work that you’re doing. So that survey, you can use to get so much information from teachers that can frame the work that you do over time, that can frame the response that you give to your school, like your tier one support across your school, your tier one support in grade levels or specific content areas, or tier two support that is, and your tier three support for individual teachers where you really differentiate and get at the heart of what each teacher needs. I cannot recommend it enough. I actually have a resource in the store that will help you do this. It’s a really handy resource that a lot of people have found value in. They are instructional they’re teacher surveys for instructional coaching. You can check them out at teachers pay teachers dot com. You can visit my store, Christy Beltron, Buzzing with Miss b, and look for teacher feedback surveys for instructional coaching. I have printable surveys and the same surveys are available as Google Forms, so our

Chrissy Beltran [00:25:57]:

teachers have check boxes or open, fields where they can write in their responses. And you can really find out what it is that teachers need from you and what it is that they are valuing, what they need help with, where they want to head. The more information we have from teachers, the better coaching culture we can create, and the more likely teachers are gonna say, I believe that you can support me. So check those out. And this on the store, at the store for sure. You can grab those. And don’t forget to grab this free download that I’m offering you at buzzy with miss b dot com slash episode eighty seven. It’s all about, the coaching menu. It has a coaching support planning document. It even has invitations you can use to invite teachers to coaching cycles. And then there’s so much more in there. I really want you to grab it today. Usually at this time, I tell you what the next episode is, but there’s not one. So the next episode that I want you to listen to is one of the ones that I mentioned today that’s gonna really support you in implementing some of this work. Dig back into that model classrooms episode. Dig back into that coaching ep cycle episode from season one. Dig back into the Erin Cottman episode where we talk about feedback so that you can have the tools that you need to respond to what your teachers need from you and to maximize the kinds of support that you’re providing through coaching cycles. I am so happy that you’ve joined me this season of of this podcast, buzzy boom must be the coaching podcast. This is a labor of love. I love to put out this free information for all of you because I know how hard coaching is and how much every coach needs the support of a coach for themselves. So, if you wanna share it with me how this podcast has impacted you, I would absolutely love to see it. Take a screenshot of the episode or take a screenshot of your favorite episode. Share it on Instagram, tag me at buzzingwithmissb, and let me know something that you’ve walked away with because I wanna know how this is supporting you as a coach. Until next February, coaches, happy coaching.

Chrissy Beltran[00:28:01]:

Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Miss b, the coaching podcast. Want more coaching ideas? Check me out at buzzingwithmissb.com and on Instagram at buzzing with miss b. If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too, or leave me a review on iTunes. It’s free, and it helps others find this show. Happy coaching.