Week 1: Why It’s Important for Instructional Coaches to Situate Themselves in the School System with Intentionality, ep. 196

Week 1: Why It’s Important for Instructional Coaches to Situate Themselves in the School System with Intentionality, ep. 196, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:00

Hey, Coach, when you think about the beginning of the school year, how do you feel unsure, doubtful, overwhelmed. You’re not alone. Since the dawn of time, instructional coaches have been left to figure things out on their own, resulting in frustration and failure. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, let’s start the year with a roadmap that tells you exactly what to do each day for the exponentially important first 20 days of school. The things you do that first month of school will make or break your coaching year. Let’s do the right things together. Head to buzzing with Ms b.com/startup to join the waitlist for my instructional coaching startup course. The course opens in mid July, but if you join the waitlist, you’ll receive a coupon code for 15% off when the course opens up. I can’t wait to help you start strong and coach better this year.

Chrissy Beltran  00:52

Welcome to instructional coaching with Miss B, where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach and every coach does too. I’m Chrissy Beltran, an elementary teacher who became a coach, and I had to create my own coaching program that worked. Now I teach coaches how to design their coaching programs, build a school wide action plan and use differentiated strategies to support teachers. Plus, I’ve got a special spot in my heart for literacy coaches. Now let’s dig into the episode.

Chrissy Beltran  01:19

Hey, Coach, welcome to episode 196. Why it’s important for instructional coaches to situate themselves in the school system with intentionality. This is part of our theme series about the first 20 days of coaching. Last year, we started our episode talking to David White, one of my instructional coaching startup students. And we’re moving this week into really what you can do the first week of school or prior to the first week of school, you’ll get if you join instructional coaching startup, which is open right now, you can get all the step by step instructions. And every single document and form you’ll need at instructional coaching startup, which is at buzzing with Miss b.com slash startup, you can also grab a free email course, we’re going to help you design your coaching role with your three by three vision. And you can join our Facebook group for the live challenge. Or you can get the email course sent directly to your email. So that’s a buzzing with MS b.com slash Jumpstart. Or you can join the Facebook group instructional coaching with Miss B. And we will walk through that challenge together very soon. So if you’re not already part of that group, it’s a great time to do it.

Chrissy Beltran  02:19

So let’s talk a little bit about what you want to do either the first week of school or prior to the first week of school, because it’s very easy for the first few weeks of school to pass by, without us even getting into classrooms, talking to any teachers or anything. Maybe you’ll hand out consumables, or help parents get their kids to the right place, or monitor the lunchroom because kids are learning routines or help out with assemblies, or so many of the random back to school tasks that can always use an extra hand. Sometimes we find ourselves saying the teachers won’t even want me in their rooms yet. And I personally push back on this having said it myself, I push back on it. You know over time, I have realized that it’s so important for us to be visible. Because you need to establish yourself as a part of the school community. Teachers need to begin to get comfortable seeing you in their classrooms. And your presence counts, it matters in the school. So there are a few things that I recommend you work on before the first week of school or no later than the first week of school, including including reviewing data to set goals for your work and creating a coaching space that is functional and that you love. But on top of this, it’s essential for you to situate yourself in the school system that is made up of very different roles. As a coach, you have a very unique role in the school system. There may be one or two of you at your school. You’re not a teacher, and you’re not an administrator. And because of that some very intentional work has to go into establishing yourself and your place. Teachers are unfamiliar with the coaching role. Many times many administrators are even unfamiliar, you might even be unfamiliar. When I started out as a coach, I had been coached a little bit by our we had a school wide project coordinators, but they called us at the time, I had been coached a little bit. But that coach primarily worked with different grades. We we only saw her maybe during PLC meetings and things like that. So I was not familiar with what that coaching work looked like from the coachee standpoint. So I had to get really familiar with my role before I could help explain it to anybody else. And you’re gonna have to decide what being a coach will look like for you. Even if you’ve already I had experienced coaching work as part of that relationship. And even if you’ve been a coach for years, you can change what your coaching role looks like. You can actually join the Facebook group for a live challenge or you can do this anytime ever at buzzing with b.com slash jumpstart to really think about how you want to design your coaching role and what it’ll look like this year and in that jumpstart course I walk you through to finding Your three by three vision for coaching, including your coaching vowel values, vowel, you don’t need valve, coaching values, goals and the main strategies you’re going to want to focus on. And then we write your elevator pitch to help you get set up for actually interacting with teachers and introducing yourself. And we talk a little bit of the logistics of coaching. So the reason I selected those things is because defining what matters to you as a coach, including your values, your goals, your main strategies, is so essential, because without it, you will be untethered, you will bounce from task to task without a sense of what’s important, and what will ground you. And you will say yes to all of the things instead of saying no to the things that don’t really align with your main work. So with this framework, in the Jumpstart course, you will actually know what the coach you want to be looks like, and how they spend their time. So that foundation is essential. Once you’ve identified what is important, and how you will show up as a coach, you are going to want to do a few things, you are going to make sure that you are situating yourself in the school system, including having a clarity conversation with your administrator, building a coaching menu and a support plan. And meeting teachers with a positive interaction. This is what I’m actually going to walk through coaches through really soon. In instructional coaching startup at buzzing with b.com slash startup, that course is one that takes you through the first 20 days of school. So we’re going to work through each week, one week at a time, one day at a time. And this is some of the things that we’re going to do in the first week, we’re going to have a really good administrator conversation, okay, that conversation is essential, because it will help you get clear on your role. And you’re going to want to know what kinds of things you should be doing in your weekly and monthly plans, maybe what special tasks you might want to be responsible for, you want to be on the same page as your administrator, especially when it comes to what you’re responsible for in coaching cycles. So I’m going to share a little bit about this in the episode a little way down the road, whenever we talk about your 90 day action plan for the beginning of the school year. But for now, we want to make sure that we get really clear on who will be coached and what that will look like. So if you are only coaching new teachers, you need to know that if you are only coaching teachers who approach you, you need to know that if you are not allowed to pop in and visit classrooms and provide feedback randomly, you need to know that all of those things are important because they define your coaching role. And that role that you’re going to share with teachers, as well as how you’re going to plan your time and spend your days, you need to know what your administrators vision is for what you do. Because if you don’t know what their vision is, you can’t do it. And they’re the boss. Now, that doesn’t mean that you are always going to agree. But you are going to probably try pretty much to accomplish what their vision is. So you need to know what their goals are for the school year. What is it that they’re trying to accomplish? Where are they trying to lead teachers in the school so that you can support them in doing those things. And you want to know what responsibilities will fall onto your plate in order to accomplish those goals. Another thing you’re going to want to do, either before school starts or the first week of coaching, is you’re going to want to plan a coaching menu and figure out what supports are going to go on to that menu. I have a really great episode A while back about your coaching, how to use a coaching menu with teachers, I had a guest who shared about how she used her menu and it was really informative. And people have liked that one. So you can check that episode out, we’ll put that one in the show notes. But basically, your coaching menu is going to take all the different kinds of supports that you’re prepared to offer teachers, um, this could be anything that’s in your coaching strategy toolbox. So it could be, you know, recommending resources,

Chrissy Beltran  08:47

modeling lessons, scheduling a visit to a colleague, looking at data, all those things are things that you can offer to support teachers, and you’re going to put them onto a visual document. So it’s easy to share with teachers, it’s less overwhelming, because you’re not going well. Gosh, what can I do? How can I help you? It’s a lot to try to think about in the moment, because it helps to identify exactly what you can do on paper. So you don’t have to figure it out. It’s a great tool for introducing yourself to teachers, even if you’ve already been at the school because we know that sometimes misinformation persists. And teachers may still have an inaccurate vision of what it is that you’re there to do. So that coaching menu is a really great tool that you’re absolutely going to want to create, even if it’s just for yourself, so you know what it is that you’re there to do and how you’re there you’re going to do it. But it’s also a really great tool to use whenever you are meeting teachers. And that’s the next thing we’re going to talk about this first week or prior to the first week as teachers are working on their classrooms. You can meet teachers with a positive interaction to really set the stage for what your coaching work is going to look like this year. Because I want you to Think about whether you’re new to coaching, whether you’re new to your school, whether your coaching role has changed, whether last year maybe there were teachers that were not super excited about you and your coaching work, which is everybody everywhere, but has this experience, no matter what your experience of coaching is, it is great to set the tone for the new year with this really great positive interaction to start. Because you can establish, hey, this is how we’re going to communicate, hey, I’m here to help you, hey, I’m here to be supportive, hey, I’m positive, but I’m relentless, I’m not gonna give up, I’m coming back, you can establish all those things. And teachers at the beginning of the year, they generally have a pretty great excited attitude about coming back to school, they might be more receptive to hear from you at that time. They also, however, are overwhelmed with new information, new expectation. And it can be it can be a lot for a teacher at the beginning of the school year, even if they’re not a new teacher. So you can actually be a voice of calm, as well as the voice of possibility. And you can start establishing yourself as a go to person who can support them and be there for them, you can basically start building the bridges to coach and work during this first week of school. And it doesn’t mean you’re going to jump right in with coaching cycles with everybody right away. But you can set yourself up for success. And really talk about, hey, this is how I can help this year. This is you know, what we’re going to do this are some of the things that are important, you can really have that positive interaction, you can do that in their classrooms, you can set up a coffee or cupcakes with a coach, which is something I teach coaches how to do and instructional coaching startup. Really special fun events, where you get to meet your teachers, talk to them a little bit, get to know what they’re interested in doing what you’re, you know, what you’re working on things like that, and make sure that you are actually there to be supportive of them. But you basically want to really deliberately and intentionally set up time for a positive interaction with teachers to start the year. This is not the only thing, you’re not only gonna do these three things that first week of school. But these are three really important things that I teach an instructional coaching startup. And I also teach a few other things that you want to accomplish that first week, because you can set yourself up for success by making some really great choices about what to do the first 20 days of school. The purpose of all these things is to make sure that not only that you know what you’re there to do, which is so important, but that your administrator and you are on the same page, and you both know what you’re there to accomplish, and that teachers know not only what you’re there to do, but how you’re there to do it, and what that is going to look like for them. So they know that they are somebody, you are somebody that they can reach out to somebody who can support them, you are not going to be extra work for them, you are going to be a partner, because we need to establish those coaching partnerships early in the year. So that’s what I recommend you focus on this first week. Whenever we think about why it’s so important. It’s obvious about why we need to be really intentional with the way that we introduce ourselves to teachers. Next week, we are going to look at why you need to build relationships and communicate with the three C’s and I’m going to introduce you to my three three, my three C’s acronym, why did I have a list? Why would I choose these? This is where my name my very last name is Sandy settles. That’s like a cruel trick. Right, cool job. So next week, we’re going to talk about why instructional coaches need to intentionally build relationships with the three C’s. It’s a really special episode because we need to be thoughtful about how we’re building these relationships with teachers. We had our positive interaction, but now we’re going to build on it right. So we’re going to continue our series on your first 20 days of coaching because it’s so important don’t forget to check out the Jumpstart course buzzing with Missy slash jumpstart and that will be your free little course to help you decide on what your coaching vision is your three by three vision and really plan out how you want to show up this year as a coach. Until next week. Happy coaching

Chrissy Beltran  14:24

now that you’ve got so much to think about head over to buzzing with ms b.com to grab some free downloads, become a VIP, and check out the podcast show notes. Happy coaching!