Evaluating Coaching Work: A Coaching Call with Dianne Farlett, Ep. 147 Instructional Coaching with Ms. B

Evaluating Coaching Work: A Coaching Call with Dianne Farlett, Ep. 147 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:02

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Chrissy Beltran  00:43

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 Chrissy 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  01:07

Hey, coach, and welcome to Episode 147, evaluating your coaching work. This is a coaching call with Diane Farlett, and I am so excited to talk with her about how she can try different things to sort of evaluate her coaching impact. This last series of episodes is all about been all about your coaching impact. And we’ve been talking about ways that you can evaluate your work and figure out what’s important for you to do next in terms of coaching. If you have been stuck in terms of where do I even start figuring out how to evaluate my work, I want you to grab this free webinar that I have for you. It’s at buzzing with MS v.com/webinar with a capital W. And the reason I think it’s so important is it’s going to help you really define your coaching role. communicate that with teachers and admin, because if you don’t have that in place, you cannot really figure out where do I go next. You can’t evaluate if you’ve been effective, because you don’t have an established purpose for your work. So definitely grab that free webinar. And there’s a hand handouts that you can download to. We’re going to talk today about how we can evaluate this viscous sort of role of coaching and try to figure out if you’re making a real impact. And that’s why I’m so excited about this conversation. So let’s welcome our coaching friend to the podcast. Welcome, Diane. I’m really glad you’re able to join me today.

Dianne Farlett  02:22

Well, thank you for having me.

Chrissy Beltran  02:24

I’m happy that you’re here because we’re going to talk about such an important topic. And before we get started with this topic, I want to hear a little bit about your coaching work. So if you want to tell us a little bit about yourself, and what kind of work you actually do as a coach, we’d love to hear it.

Dianne Farlett  02:36

Okay, well, I’m in my fourth year as a reading coach, and I was a former first grade teacher for many, many years. I am in when I first started as a coach, we were only in one school. So I had that experience of doing just one school and totally everything that that school did. However, the last three years, we are now district coaches. And we share schools. So I have two schools now. And I this year is new, because we do one week at one school and one week at another school. And so it’s that flip flop back and forth. But it’s we have about nine schools in the district for elementary, I would say nine schools in the district for elementary school. And we have five reading coaches. So we all have that to school, and then we meet together and collaborate as a as a district coaches

Chrissy Beltran  03:37

some How interesting. Okay, well, let’s get that you have colleagues at least to meet with, and to talk a little bit about your work, especially whenever you’re you’re transitioning between two schools like that. I know that can be a challenge. It is. And one

Dianne Farlett  03:51

of my schools, I mean, they’re totally opposites. They’re literally on opposite ends of the district, which is very rural. And we have about 250 D students, I would say they’re both all of our schools are tied to one. And then my other school is about 800 students. And it’s, you know, in the town, so it’s they’re just totally different population, and demographics and that sort of thing. But the interesting thing is that both of them are doing the same curriculum. So because not all the schools are doing the same curriculum. So that makes it tough. But both of my schools are doing the same curriculum, so that helps me at least be able to coach into those schools.

Chrissy Beltran  04:35

That’s probably an interesting perspective, because you’re looking at the way the curriculum is being done from two different schools with two different groups of kids.

Dianne Farlett  04:41

Yes, and two different places as well. So this school, we started rolling out the curriculum four years ago when I was here, because we had a new administrator, principal, and that’s what she mandated. So I was on board and we did that. So but since then, We’ve had a lot of turnover, a lot of turnover. So it’s almost as same as my bigger school, where this is our first year implement. So it’s that’s been, that’s one of the reasons why I was asking about, you know, evaluating the work, because we’ve had such a huge turnover. And now with the shortage of teachers, we have teachers that are, you know, just not certified, or we have long term subs, things like that. So that’s been an experience.

Chrissy Beltran  05:32

Yes, absolutely. I’m imagining those teachers who aren’t certified, so they’re not certified at all. Are they working on their alternate certification? Or? Okay, well, the

Dianne Farlett  05:41

ones I have are working on it. So that’s good. They are in school and learning. We do have some schools that have teachers that are that are literally just starting out. So yeah.

Chrissy Beltran  05:56

Okay, so the, the long term subs actually is really challenging as well, because those teachers may or may not have anything to do with education at all. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, were my most challenging situations as well sometimes embed, they’d be there for months for FMLA, or whatever leave the teacher was on. And then you just, you’re working with somebody who has no background in working with kids necessarily. And then they don’t always know what you’re there to do.

Dianne Farlett  06:29

That’s yeah, that’s

Chrissy Beltran  06:31

stressful. So what are some of the things that you have thought about in terms of evaluating your work? Have you ever tried to do that before? Or what kinds of thinking have you done around that?

Dianne Farlett  06:38

Yes, when I Well, when I was in one school, it was, well, I did the Google forums, you know, and I would always get teacher feedback. And I do that to an extent I like to get teacher feedback, and see what they think and how they think things are going. But you know, I’m also looking right now at data. And we just actually just had a meeting today, and which is coming from the top down, but, you know, we’re, we’re looking at core instruction. And the, the results, the test results are not going in the right direction. They’re either staying the same or they’re going down. So as a core reading coach, then I’m looking at, okay, well, how can I help these teachers? And how can I know that my work is, you know, being being productive. So I don’t know, those are the things I really just done the Google forums where you get their feedback, and then just looking at data, I would also say I have done literacy, I call them literacy walks, where I’ll just be, okay, teachers, today’s the day, I’m going to come around and just kind of 10 minutes and every class and just look at something that they want to showcase. So I have done that, which helps me get a feel for how much they’re implementing the curriculum that we’re using. And that’s where we’re, I’m struggling with some of that, because when I go in, I can tell, you know, we’re not doing what the principal has asked, or the district has asked. And, and I don’t it’s yeah, that’s been that’s been interesting. But we’re also seeing it in their data, too.

Chrissy Beltran  08:24

Right? Yeah, there’s like there’s a clear connection between the instruction and the data. What you know, on one hand, I will say that means that there’s room to grow, because whenever you’re teaching looks great, and your data looks bad. You’re like, what is what’s happening, and then usually building the bridge to whatever the assessment looks like that the kids are struggling with that and the teachers have not done that. But But yeah, if the teaching is not in place, then you know why the data looks like the way it looks. So something you might think about is it was learning walks that you’re doing, are they kind of like informal, you just kind of observe and take some notes in general about what you’re seeing?

Dianne Farlett  09:00

More, I think, well, they are informal, and then I’m just I am just taking notes about what I’m seeing. And I do, leave a post it note and sometimes, like, the teachers have known, like, this is what I’m counting. I’d like to see your phonics or I’d like to see your reading whatever that is. And I’ll usually leave a little tree in a post it note but I’m only there 1015 minutes. Okay, I’ll on other times, I will try to do an impromptu dropping in. But that’s been honestly that’s been difficult for me, because it’s awkward when when they’re not a try. I know that we should be building that experience of where they’re just used to people coming and going. But when you walk in and they’re not expecting you, it’s you know, oh, how can I help you? And then it’s like, oh, don’t worry, I’m just I’m just here to just here to watch just to

Chrissy Beltran  09:54

write. One thing you might consider with with to address that specific part is to send them a mess. such an email to say I’m going to be coming by this week, sometime this week. And that way, at least I mean, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to be on their toes all week. That’s not even what you’re looking for. You want to see what’s really happening. But it does mean that they know you’re coming so that whatever you do come, hopefully they don’t go, can I help you? And they don’t stop their lesson. And you can even say, there’s no need to stop your lesson. No need to interrupt the teaching. I’m wanting to see what’s going on. So I can figure out what next steps I can take to support you better.

Dianne Farlett  10:29

Awesome. Okay. Yes, I will do that. Yeah, just to just to help that part.

Chrissy Beltran  10:34

Yes, that one small thing that does make it difficult to see what’s really happening. The other thing you might consider is I’m thinking about your learning locks, and how you’re you really, truly are trying to figure out, Okay, what’s going on what is happening in terms of, you know, this curriculum that we’re using, we’re trying to align this curriculum, and we’re rolling it out, basically, a new in both schools. And one thing you might consider is take that curriculum, and make some sort of a document that will help you focus on the pieces of the curriculum that you’re looking for the most. So you might have to isolate. Okay, what’s most essential? I can’t focus on everything right now. What are the four main things that if we’re not doing this, we are not doing our teaching of reading? Like, it’s not happening, right? So pull out those most essential things, and then get really specific with it and make it into almost like a checklist or like, I mean, let’s say that academic vocabulary is one of the components. While you’re in there, make a little box on your form. And while you’re in there, Tally, how many times you hear academic vocabulary being used, write down the actual words, who’s using them, teachers or kids, you know, kind of something like that, if you’re looking at questioning, have a little box for questioning, actually record the questions that are being asked all of the questions, you know, by teachers and by kids. So you could maybe do a two column saying if you want to do it that way. You know, there was one year that we were rolling out a behavior program, we had created this behavior program as a committee of at our school, because we were trying to align behavior practices across our campus, everybody was doing their own thing. It was not working. So it wasn’t a perfect program. But it was something to start with. So we created this program. And what we did is I just made a little sheet, and then we ran through the whole school. And we recorded based on the program, what’s in place this this, this, this, this is in place this this this, we have no checkmarks here, there’s this whole little section is missing. And that really helped us to say, Okay, on our next professional development, our next PLC our next coaching cycle or learning opportunity, we’re going to come back to this because this is not in place.

Dianne Farlett  12:34

Yes, yes. I can. Yeah, we it’s interesting that you said that because just we’ll probably end right before Christmas break. When we came together to collaborate as the District coaches, one of the things that we were told or tasked to do do is to do something similar to that to see what’s exactly happening and Phottix. You know, what, what exactly are we using? Because we that’s one thing that every school in our district, we do have the same phonics curriculum. So okay, all coaches go out, get the data, see whatever, see what components of that as being used and what’s not. And that was very interesting. Very, but that was very good, then we can see what we need to work on.

Chrissy Beltran  13:21

Right? Did they provide you a form for that one? Or did you have to make your own?

Dianne Farlett  13:24

They did, we do have the components to look for? That that was actually even part of it was provided by the company itself? Like, okay, it had a plus for us. So we could use that. The reading and writing curriculum, though, across the district is different. That’s what’s that’s what’s hard. Because, you know, out of the nine elementary schools, they’re using, you know, some are doing this curriculum, some are doing that one summer, we’re just not all in the same place. Yeah. But definitely, I did start working on something just yesterday, for the curriculum that I’m involved with creating something what you’re saying, I think, like a little checklist, to see what I could do as well. And I’ll share that once I get it done. But I haven’t finished. I’m just trying to get tips from other coaches as well. Hey, you know, what do you think about these components are these important, but, but I like what you were saying about the the questioning and doing the kids versus, you know, what are we seeing kids versus teachers and vocabulary is another big piece of ours as well.

Chrissy Beltran  14:37

Okay. Do you have what so you would look at questions? If you’re thinking about the components that you might consider you’re thinking about questioning academic vocabulary.

Dianne Farlett  14:46

Are there any teacher practices that that are like well, we’re mental pieces? Yes. workshop model is big here. Okay. And so that’s been one of the things that we did it that is mandate Did it just workshop model what you the curriculum you use to get bears, you know can be different, but it still needs to be a mini lesson format and then be able to pull small groups, things like that. So the mini lesson is one of the things that when I do go around to the classrooms, that is one of the things that I’m seeing is is hard for, like the teachers, you know, many is supposed to be many, we’re supposed to be concentrating on one teaching point. And, you know, we’re, but I’m seeing 1520 minute lessons. And then worksheets, and that’s one of the things that our curriculum is like, do less Worksheets and more authentic work. So those are the things I’m trying to see. Hmm,

Chrissy Beltran  15:48

have they seen it in action?

Dianne Farlett  15:51

Yes, yes, we I have taken well, I did try it while I’m, I’m actually doing this this week, is I started doing what some like a mega lab. And so I was really, it’s the first time I’ve ever done this. And I met yesterday with two different grade levels, they had half a day. And we went and did an observation appear observation. So they got to see it in practice. And we came back did a little bit of work. And then they got the plan their own lesson and then go teach it in their classrooms. So that was very eye opening, I just, I just hope that they can continue that

Chrissy Beltran  16:31

I love that approach. I love that they get to see it, and then they immediately plan and then they immediately try it. I just love that that is such an effective way to get people to try something different. And then they try it out right away. And they can get a feel for like, Well, where am I stuck? You know? So following up on that is going to be so important and asking. Okay, so let’s look at how did that Listen, go? Can we talk about what went well, what you want support in, it’s a good place to get ideas about where you can like structure coaching cycles around. Right? Conversations,

Dianne Farlett  17:02

that will be good. And then so that leads into my question too, with with registered yesterday. So just before, well, the just this morning, I was and I’m not I haven’t sent this out. So I’m not even sure I want to, but I’d love to get your feedback. So knowing what we did yesterday. So then I thought, Okay, what could be my follow up with these teachers to make sure that we do continue the work, that’s gonna go over, I was going to have them sign up for an observation where I can come in and offer feedback and see, you know, week down, so now, you know, give them a week or so to practice, and then go in and see how you’re doing and offer that feedback. I don’t know if that’s something I should do, or that’s kind of where my head was going.

Chrissy Beltran  17:45

Yeah, you could definitely include that you might meet with them prior to that. Discuss how it was when they tried it out. Because if it’s something very new, they might have tried it. And still then like, I still don’t know if I’m doing this, right, you know, so they might want to talk about it and say, Well, this is where I had trouble. And so you could do like a dialogue about it. And you know, like reflect on the lesson and what they can do differently or how they can make it work for them. And then that you can have them sign up after that. You might also give them sort of a coaching menu of options. So maybe not just an observation, maybe they don’t feel good about it yet, and they want to do some more learning. So you could also give them like three choices. Do you want me to model? Do you want to co teach? Do you want me to observe? You could try that? Or do you want to observe another classroom? Do you feel like you need to see it at a different grade level or something like that? depending on what’s available to you, you know, internet coverage and stuff like that, right? That might kind of if people are how are they feeling stressed about it? Could you tell?

Dianne Farlett  18:41

I have two different grade levels yesterday one is stress because they really truly are not embracing. They don’t like this method anyway. That I was and I told him, I said, Well, I’m hoping that with this particular PD that we did that that can help them become more comfortable, and understand it a little bit more so that they can start using it more and more. And they were very nervous to go in. But I told him, you know, afterwards, they they really did a wonderful job. They and I really, it was wonderful. And I told him I said see we can practice it in a non judgmental, you know, environment. And so they did appreciate that. The other grade level, they’ve been doing it, but they’re they’re new. They’re all like first year teachers. for them. It was an opportunity for them to practice more with their teammates and to work on something together and to kind of cement it more

Chrissy Beltran  19:45

refined, kind of refine what they’re doing and say okay, exactly I was doing but now I see Matt Okay, I’m gonna change it to that, you know, get this.

Dianne Farlett  19:53

Right. So I did have two different Yes, it was two different experiences. But they were both good.

Chrissy Beltran  19:59

That’s great. Well That’s, that’s fantastic. So, okay, so as you’re thinking about, you’re talking about, okay, you’re going to do this, these this round of visits, where you’re going to like, basically sweep across your home school, and you’re going to figure out what’s in place what’s not. And then you’re going to set some goals for your own work around, that is what I would recommend. So you go visit all these rooms, you see everything that’s going on. And this is this, what I would say this would be separate from the observations that you’re talking about planning in response to the visits that you did the other day. To me, this is just like a tweet, with your form that you make based on your curriculum, you’re gonna look at everything, right? And then and they don’t have to be like hour long visits, it’s not like a punitive thing. So it’s kind of like you either see it or you don’t, there’s either evidence for it or there’s not, you know, and you can tell teachers, I am looking to figure out where to focus my support, I’m just going to come across the school and see everything, okay, don’t worry about what I’m looking at. This is for me to figure out my goals as a coach. Right? Okay. And so then then you can set a few goals around that work. And I think if you really focus on those goals through PD, PLC and coaching cycles, then after six weeks or two months or so, you can go do another sweep. Okay, and that’s when you can kind of see, okay, has this made an impact? The things that I focused on? Do I see evidence of that? And also, you know, now what, do I keep doing this? Do I do something different? You know,

Dianne Farlett  21:22

right. I like that. Because then I can make it more data driven. So that when I do the first round, and I’ve got that checklist, I can keep, you know, kind of check and see, what is the majority? What are we doing? What are we not? And then six weeks later, go back and do that again and see the comparison? See if we’ve come up with the use of certain things? Yes, like that?

Chrissy Beltran  21:47

Yeah, you’ll have some targets for your PLCs some targets for your coaching cycles. And granted, we do work on teacher goals for coaching cycles, but you can, you can know, kind of the areas that they’re trying to grow in, because you’ve seen it in action in their classrooms. And then you can also for your PLC, do you have PLCs with your teachers?

Dianne Farlett  22:05

Yes, and that’s the other thing that’s a little off this year, I have to say, you know, this year, just, you know, COVID changed a lot of things. So before COVID, and even during COVID, believe it or not, we continue doing piece PLCs pretty much every week. I mean, it was standard on every Tuesday, they knew they were going to come meet with either me or the we have an MTS s coach to so they would meet with one of us. So I was meeting with them two to three times a month. Whereas, but then we got a lot of feedback across the district. You know, we don’t have time we don’t, you know, they there was a lot of feedback about that. So the coaches, we all backed off. And it was supposed to be like one a month now. But really, truly, I did more. I don’t know, coaching cycles, I guess. But but now we’re seeing in our data. And in the what we’re hearing from Admin is that, oh, and he’s coming off the bandwagon, like we’re all dropping off. We’re all doing different things now. And so once we stopped meeting, things are not in the forefront anymore. So I think this semester, the goal is to have more like I just I think one of my one school is going to do me once a month. And then I think my smaller schools wanting me to do two times a month.

Chrissy Beltran  23:31

So that’s probably good. Yeah, alignment growth, especially with new teachers. I know how does it happen? You know, it doesn’t.

Dianne Farlett  23:39

Exactly with me sharing schools. I’m not here every day. It’s so it’s so hard when you go in and you’re trying to help a new teacher, and we set the goals and, and we’re everything the momentum is going. And then it’s like, okay, now. So here’s your goal. You’re gonna work on this all week? I’ll be I’ll come back in two weeks, and we’ll look. It’s been hard, but but I think we’re figuring it out now.

Chrissy Beltran  24:05

Sounds good. Getting into more of a routine as far as how to support the two campuses.

Dianne Farlett  24:09

Right, right.

Chrissy Beltran  24:10

Yeah. For PLC, what is the nature of it? What kinds of things do you do?

Dianne Farlett  24:16

Well, everything from looking at data like so for instance, I’ve got one coming up next week, actually, where we we also are MTSS district. So we have like I mentioned, we have MTSS coaches as well as reading coaches. And so they focus on tier two, tier three we focus on I’m a tier one. But we’re going to work next week, and we do core plans for corn instruction. But then I’m also we’re also going to bring up data with we do acadiens With dibbles. So we’re going to look at our data and then see what does that mean and have each teacher look at their data to see okay, what are we what are we needing to work in specifically to to bring that up. So that would be one type. The other is okay, now that we know, we need to work on this, I’ll do some PDFs on, you know, what is phonemic? Awareness? What, what are some strategies that we could use? We talked about guided, I’ve done videos on guided reading, how to do strategy groups, things like that. But it’s, you know, when you’re just in a planning time, you don’t have a lot of

Chrissy Beltran  25:27

time, right? Yeah, it’s not a lot has to be quick, right? One thing that might be helpful is planning those teaching points for your mini lessons, because you talked about how you’re seeing many lessons that are not really focused on one thing. So maybe like looking at looking at data, looking at assessment data, looking at the curriculum, and from there saying, Okay, what teaching points are we going to work on for the next few weeks? In our mini lessons that might help them target that. And that might be one way to support that area in your whenever you’re, you know, during your sweep, and you know, already that that’s probably going to be a need. So that could be one way that you work on that.

Dianne Farlett  26:00

Oh, I like that. I really liked that idea. A lot. Because then that would, it would get us focused on the minimum on the whatever that point is. But then I’m also modeling as well. And

Chrissy Beltran  26:14

yes, you’re building the bridge to okay, this is what we keep talking about during PD, this is what I’m seeing in the classroom. So PLC is your way to say let’s apply it like, here’s, you know, PD, you know, the practices. But how do that? How do you make it happen? The PLC is a time that you can say, let’s get some stuff ready. So when you go into your classroom, and you’re working on your lessons, you already have a piece of it prepared in the structure that we’re asking.

Dianne Farlett  26:37

That is, okay. That’s actually one of the best things like, okay, I can do that. That would be really good, because then I could do the exact structure of a workshop so that they, we do the mini mini lesson, the teaching point, whatever that is. And then they have just just like an workshop, the kids get that independent time and they work on and apply that skill, then the teachers could work on and apply whatever skill it is we’re talking about.

Chrissy Beltran  27:05

And then you can have your closing share at the end closing shares, just like you would with your students to say, How did you apply this?

Dianne Farlett  27:11

I really like love it.

Chrissy Beltran  27:12

I love the way you’re looking at. That’s such a good idea.

Dianne Farlett  27:15

I really liked that. That’s, I think that’s exactly what we’re gonna do. That’s right, you can make

Chrissy Beltran  27:20

it super explicit to like with a pie chart, you know, where you show the different components? This is what we’re Yes, this is where we are. Yes, this is where we are supporting people who need it, just like the teacher would be doing with their small groups, you know,

Dianne Farlett  27:32

right. Yes. Wow. That’s, that’s the best thing I’ve heard.

Chrissy Beltran  27:38

I’m so excited. That sounds great. That sounds fantastic.

Dianne Farlett  27:43

I never, you know, it’s funny, you know, we preach, we are like, okay, you know, I need to see workshop mom. Oh, this is what it is. And like said, I’m just not seeing a lot of it all here. But I am doing workshop model, but I am doing workshop model. When you go in, it’s not going into the practice, and they’re seeing it with me. And my what I’m doing in my work, it will start saying oh, that’s what that is. Oh, okay, I need to get one teaching point. Oh, I need to get shorter with my lesson. Student engagement.

Chrissy Beltran  28:20

Yes, a purpose purposeful, you know, independent practice where they’re applying what they just learned. And so that I love the way that you’re thinking about that, because that’s a really good way to bridge it for teachers. So they can hopefully envision it and having experienced it, and maybe they’ll be more likely to feel comfortable trying it,

Dianne Farlett  28:36

right. And then you get the differentiation as well, because that’s one of the big feedbacks as well. How can you do this for every single grade level, we’re not all the same. So I can go to that one, the main, the quote, the core, and then when they break up, okay, now let me help you with your need to.

Chrissy Beltran  28:56

Yes, let’s make it fit with what you’re working on right now. Just like right would do in their small group. Exactly. Yeah.

Dianne Farlett  29:03

I’ve never thought of it like that. Thank you.

Chrissy Beltran  29:05

That’s yeah, I love it. That’s great. That actually should be fun.

Dianne Farlett  29:11

That’s what I’m thinking to. Because, you know, a lot of the feedback that we get is, well, you know, it’s a waste of time. We don’t want to sit and listen, we got too much other things to do. And they do really like hands on, you know, things that things that are purposeful. So this would make it more hands on and more purposeful.

Chrissy Beltran  29:31

That’s so true. Yeah. And walking away with something that they are going to turn around in their classrooms. That’s a really good way to make PLC relevant, because they say okay, now I’m ready to do this. You actually save me time instead of giving me more work to do. Yes,

Dianne Farlett  29:46

I Yes, exactly. I really liked that. That’s really good.

Chrissy Beltran  29:50

Awesome. Do you have any other questions about about this evaluating your work idea or anything else you want to ask about real quick,

Dianne Farlett  29:57

right? I’m looking over my notes. I know I’m Like the sweeping and setting the goals that way and coming back and looking at that after a six week period, and this workshop idea for the PLCs. I think that will help. Do you have any other ideas for getting individual teacher feedback? Like, you know, well, I don’t know, sometimes I just, I don’t, I don’t know if they are just going with the flow? Because that’s what I expect, you know, or how do I know? I don’t know how to phrase it. How do I know that they’re really, truly getting something out of it themselves? And that they feel like, this is purposeful?

Chrissy Beltran  30:41

That’s a very good question. One can be like, anonymous feedback, you don’t know individually, necessarily, who said it, right. Sometimes you can kind of tell. But anonymous feedback might be helpful for them to be truly honest about, you know, I still feel like I don’t understand the point of this or whatever. I think and you mentioned using Google Surveys, and I think a Google form that surveys, I think that’s a great place to do that as well. You can also, you know, really, it comes, the more that we listen and validate, the more likely they’re going to tell us the truth. Okay, does that make sense? Yeah. So whenever they are like, going through the process, and and you see the body language, you know, you can see what who’s like not super engaged or who’s not super excited. Or the one I remember one time, this is terrible. I was walking around the room during a BD. And one person said that she liked to type her notes on the computer. I was like, okay, because I was I was walking behind her and she was literally pretending to type fingers, tending to click.

Chrissy Beltran  31:51

Oh, boy, I promise that relationship got better over time, but it was definitely a rough one at first. Yes. So yeah, so there are definitely those who will, who will hide certain things. But if you can see that somebody is disengaged, and that somebody is just not, you know, really with you, they’re not excited about what you’re doing. You can ask them, you know, upfront, you can say, you know, I can I can see that this doesn’t seem like something that you’re excited to work on. Or whatever way you’re comfortable speaking everybody speaks differently, you know, so whatever, we’re comfortable asking a question about what’s going on, you know, are you have Is everything okay, today? Are you having a rough day? Or you know, is did? Is there something that you we feel like you’re really thinking about that you’d rather work on right now, because sometimes we’re just distracted by something else that just happened. And if you can, not only in that moment, but other times, if you can approach people and really listen to whatever they’re struggling with, over time, they will be more honest about, you know, this is not meeting my needs, you know, what I would love to do? And you could also ask, actually, you could try PLC like this for a little while. And then you can say, okay, at a separate time from PLC, or you could also do it as a conversation during PLC, it depends on your structures. You can say, I would love to hear what would your perfect PLCB? What would be the point of PLC, if you think about professional learning communities, and coming together as a team, what do you want to accomplish during this time? Because we’re going to do it. So let’s use it for something that’s going to benefit you. What would be benefit to you do we get and they may say things like? Well, I would like to find resources that actually, you know, helped me plan my lessons. Or I’d actually, you know, like to divide things up and everybody does a thing, and then we share or whatever, they might have ideas that would be really helpful for structuring PLC down the road, if they get to envision their perfect PLC and what that would be. And sometimes we can’t always do those things, but we can at least ask and try to do those things.

Dianne Farlett  33:43

Awesome. Yes. Okay. I like that. I did, too. That’s good. And then I just had one more question I just thought about when you were just saying that. So remember, I mentioned that there was a drop in our PLCs because of teacher feedback, teacher complaints. So admin, were like, Okay, we’re not going to do this. We’re going to take a break. How do I get one? Like, how do I get admin on board to support the need for the PLCs even though teachers might complain at first because I really think once we get going and we can do some of these things. I think they’re going to be okay with it all. But that initial Okay, let’s get into this.

Chrissy Beltran  34:29

Yeah, the structure is at first in starting up a new structure whenever people feel like it’s taking their time is very challenging. So, you know, two things that you might consider is one look at the data and to the data that you collect from whenever you sweep across your school with your focus document about the curriculum, those two things together and say, Look, this, this shows me that we need alignment, we need our frequent support. We need it more than just meeting with individual teachers. individual teachers are important but If we’re going to make sure that our kids are all getting the benefit of an aligned curriculum that we supposedly believe in, we need to make sure that, that all the teachers have access to that learning too. And that’s how we can do it is PLC, right?

Dianne Farlett  35:11

I like that. Okay, that helps a lot. Numbers, help,

Chrissy Beltran  35:15

numbers, things in writing things on paper, hard data, you know, that kind of thing helps whenever you’re talking with administrators, because they are, you know, they have a whole set of separate issues that they’re worried about sometimes. And admin, sometimes they get, so the complaints start going over their heads, and they might start getting a little nervous about that. But, you know, if somebody’s over their head says, Why are you doing PLC, and you can pull out your data and say, This is why we do not have alignment on this campus. We do not have teachers who are, are invested in the curriculum that we’re using. So then kids are not getting a fair shake. And that’s not that’s not fair to kids, right? One class should not be different than another in terms of I mean, obviously, there are going to be differences, and that’s fine. But every every kid deserves access to curriculum.

Dianne Farlett  35:58

Right? That’s pretty good. Okay, I have a lot to work with.

Chrissy Beltran  36:06

Awesome. So happy. Yes. Well, you need to let me know how some of this goes. Because I would love to hear about, you know, anything that you try out. I’d love to hear how it went. Okay, well, I will

Dianne Farlett  36:15

certainly do that. I’ll certainly let you know how this goes because I will. This is very, on my on my mind and trying to make sure that I am productive and effective. And you know that we can that I can help the teacher so that we are benefiting the students. So perfect. I love it. That’s where it is. But thank you so much.

Chrissy Beltran  36:36

You’re so welcome. Thank you for joining me.

Dianne Farlett  36:38

All right. Thank you for having me.

Chrissy Beltran  36:43

So that was so interesting. I’ve really enjoyed that conversation with Diane, I love coaching conversations, because they are what’s really happening on campuses and real issues that coaches are dealing with. And she’s not alone in those challenges that she shared. So I hope that you got some ideas that you can try out in your own coaching work. Thank you so much for joining me. Now, next week, I’m actually starting a new series about different kinds of coaching roles. And so I’m really looking forward to speaking with a guest who’s a traveling coach. Actually, she has a traveling Special Ed coach. So even better, because that’s an issue that a lot of special ed coaches have is they’re all over different campuses as well. So we’re going to talk about how they make all the good stuff happen while they’re working with these different campuses and between now and then I want you to grab that webinar buzzing with mfi.com/webinar with a capital W until then happy coaching

Chrissy Beltran  37:37

Thank you for listening to buzzing with Miss B the coaching podcast. What more coaching ideas. Check me out at buzzing with Ms. b.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