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Developing a Positive Coaching Mindset with Dr. Todd Whitaker, ep. 218

Chrissy Beltran sitting on a couch smiling while holding a clipboard. These words are on the image "Developing a Positive Coaching Mindset with Dr. Todd Whitaker ".

This episode is sponsored by Kind Cotton

Today, we’re talking about developing a positive coaching mindset!

Instructional coaches face a lot of challenges, and some days, the work can get us down. It’s easy to focus on frustrations or setbacks.

When that happens, we may get stuck in a fixed mindset about our coaching.

But shifting to a growth mindset can change the way we support teachers and how we feel about our coaching work.

Developing a Positive Coaching Mindset

This month we’re exploring ways to love our work with a good coaching mindset. In the second episode of our mini-series, Dr. Todd Whitaker joins me to discuss how to develop a positive coaching mindset.

During the conversation, Dr. Whitaker shares actionable tips for improving our mindset and supporting teachers. We talk about the importance of a growth mindset and why it’s essential for instructional coaches. He encourages coaches to focus on their successes rather than their problems and to look for the good in their work.

Dr. Whitaker also suggests starting with the most receptive teachers and going for the easiest wins to build momentum. We discuss how positive reinforcement can create a supportive environment and strengthen relationships with teachers.

Lastly, we chat about the principal’s role in supporting instructional coaches, including modeling positive behaviors. You’ll learn how to help teachers become like the best teachers and so much more!

Growth Mindset for Coaches

While we can’t control everything in coaching, we can choose how we show up – and that starts with our mindset. In this episode, we explore ways to reframe our work and build a more positive mindset. It’ll get you to reflect on the impact you have, where you’re making a difference, and where you can go next to not only support the teachers but feed your soul!

I really enjoyed our conversation, and I think it will help change your outlook. You can listen to this episode using the player below, or wherever you get your podcast.

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 218 – Developing a Positive Coaching Mindset with Dr. Todd Whitaker

  • Developing a positive coaching mindset and creating a joyful view of our work
  • Challenges for instructional coaches and finding support
  • Celebrating successes and progress, rather than focusing on problems
  • Starting with the most open and receptive teachers
  • Going for easy wins to build momentum
  • The role of the principal in supporting instructional coaches and the impact of support on coaching effectiveness
  • Making instructional coaches the heroes who provide support
  • Using positive reinforcement and modeling behaviors to improve outcomes in our schools
  • Looking for the good in teachers
  • Cultivating a growth mindset for coaches
  • Tips on how to get all teachers to become like the best teachers

This episode is sponsored by Kind Cotton. Kind Cotton donates books to kids with the proceeds from every purchase.

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Podcast produced by Fernie Ceniceros

Developing a Positive Coaching Mindset with Dr. Todd Whitaker, ep. 218, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran 00:01
Hey, Coach, I can’t wait to share this amazing business with you. Kind cotton is a small clothing company started by a former kindergarten teacher and her husband to help increase children’s access to books. For every item purchased, they donate a book to a child. To date, they have donated over 174,000 books. All of their items are unique, and you’ll find so many T shirts, hoodies and fun, meaningful accessories too. They make great gifts. I purchased the inclusive books tote bag as a Christmas present, and my friend loved it. Head to kind cotton.com and check out their website full of beautiful, kind messages for yourself or for a friend.

Chrissy Beltran 00:41
Welcome to instructional coaching with MS 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 01:07
Episode 218, of instructional coaching with Miss B today, we are talking about developing a Positive Coaching mindset with my guest Todd Whitaker. This is part of my theme, loving your work with a good coaching mindset, and it is actually one of the topics that was requested in the survey that I sent out a couple months ago. The idea is that coaches struggle with developing a growth mindset moving forward. Whenever coaching work is getting them down, we’re facing so many challenges, and I totally get it on some days, it’s really hard to love your work. You might love it like 80% of the time, which I think is a pretty good percentage, honestly, as work goes, or you might just like it, maybe 60% of the time. Some of that is just circumstance, and some of it is because we are dealing with things that are out of our control, and they are creating lots of stress or frustration. But some of it is actually in our control. Todd Whitaker is just about the best guy I could interview to talk about this idea of developing a Positive Coaching mindset and the way that we think about our work and our faculty can really change the way that we interact and feel about our jobs. I cannot wait to share this interview with you, because it can literally change your life before we jump in. I want to share with you about two things I think you should know. One is that you can grab my free jump start course for coaches. If you feel like you need a coaching reset, you need to set yourself up for success this summer, go or sorry, this semester, go to buzzing with Miss b.com/jump Start, and that will help you redefine what coaching means to you, and set yourself up with a really positive framework. That’s the first thing.

Chrissy Beltran 02:44
The second thing is, this is the way that I bring joy into my life. I am a huge celebrator of seasons. I love the seasons. I love the way we can mark the passing of time with them. And so I recently created some resources that were seasonal data forms for PLC meetings. I know that might seem silly, but I loved it. And so you can grab them in my TPT store. If you go to teachers, pay teachers.com and you search for Chrissy Beltran or buzzing with Miss B, it’ll pop up. You can look for my winter forms that are currently out. I already had some fall forms. I’m creating forms for holidays. I’m going to add to it and make a bundle. But for now, we have a few of them out there, and I just thought you might want to check them out, because they certainly bring joy to my work. Without further ado, let’s welcome Todd. So welcome Todd, and thank you so much for joining me today.

Dr. Todd Whitaker 03:34
It is truly a pleasure for me, and I’m very honored and excited and looking forward to working with the group. All

Chrissy Beltran 03:39
right, thank you. As a quick way to introduce yourself, I would love to hear about a few things. Who do you help, and how do you spend most of your time and energy at work?

Dr. Todd Whitaker 03:50
Who I help? I guess you have to ask them if I helped or not, who I attempt to help. Help. I work with everybody that doesn’t do background checks. I do a lot with school leaders. I do a lot with teachers. I do a lot with everything in between, in terms of instructional coaches or people that work in curriculum. I also work with a fair amount of businesses and things, but primarily I’m highly educational focused. Awesome. And then how do

Chrissy Beltran 04:17
you spend most of your time whenever you’re trying to help these people? What does that look like?

Dr. Todd Whitaker 04:22
It really just depends. I’ve written 65 books, which I hope at least two or three of them are decent and helpful. I don’t know, but they’re me talking. I do a lot of presenting. I also do a lot of individual coaching. I Some things are like keto type things. Some things are like with individual schools or districts, some things are ongoing. Really kind of depends so much in schools is really, what do they have time to have the opportunity to have that’s true, you know? And so that’s kind of where that comes from. And then I work with a lot of individual people. I hear from multiple individual people every week, and it’s a treat for me to try to help them in their setting. I always say. Okay, as long as you’re on the side of students, I’m on the side of you, and so I do whatever I can to try to help individuals when possible, too. That’s perfect,

Chrissy Beltran 05:07
because then you’re in the right spot. And I have kind of made it part of my mission this year to help instructional coaches remember that they are humans and that they should have hobbies and things that they enjoy doing outside of work. So I’ve been asking all of my guests, What hobby do you love

Dr. Todd Whitaker 05:24
two things? One, I’m a big sports fan, particularly University of Missouri sports fan, but I kind of follow all sports. And then I also enjoy exercising every day, believe it or not. At least, I enjoy it when I’m done, and kind of have the satisfaction of it. I i live in Columbia, Missouri, and I leave my outdoor pool open all year, which is like, No, I may be the only person in town, but I like it, because if it’s three degrees, you feel like you did something. I have a heater on, but it’s not that warm. And so that’s it. One of my daughters runs with me two days a week, which is awfully nice of her, that she has pity toward me, and then the other five days a week, I lift weights and run, and I’ve exercised for 40 some years and never miss amazing. Been very blessed if you saw me, it isn’t so amazing. It sounds amazing if you watched it isn’t so amazing. But anyhow, that’s kind of what I enjoy, and I enjoy hanging around with my family when I can All right,

Chrissy Beltran 06:21
so what we want to talk about today is developing a Positive Coaching mindset, a positive view of our work, to where we can actually get joy from the work that we do, even though we are faced with all of these hurdles and challenges and pressures. So how do the happiest coaches view their work? How do they look at their job?

Dr. Todd Whitaker 06:42
I think that people who are productive and positive tend to all view their jobs the same. And I’m saying this in a positive way. I think they focus on we all have problems and we all have successes. And I think the more effective, people focus more on the successes versus just centering on the problems. One of the things that I like to say, and it’s somebody else is saying, I don’t know who, or I’d give them credit, is, if you want to go from zero to 10, the hardest thing to go is zero to one. And I think it’s, it’s realizing that if you can get one person to do something, that’s way better than if you get no people to do something. And many times, we focus on the most resistant. And I think successful people always start on the least resistant, on the points where they can make a difference. And people go, that’s low hanging fruit. And I’m going, right. And it’s sort of like people go, isn’t that singing to the choir? Well, if you don’t sing to the choir, then and the choir stops coming. You don’t have anybody at church. And so there are always people who want to be more successful. They’re always and I think everyone does. It’s just some. It’s closer to the surface. You know, they’re more readily willing and available. And take those take those wins, take the wins that people really value, spending time with you, and where you’re not trying to make them do something, where they’re open to ideas. And I think that’s where all the foundation starts. And then you can add other people to that once you’ve got a level of kind of confidence and a level of satisfaction. I also think that a principal’s role is really important in all this. The principal can make an instructional coach a hero or a villa. And I work with, believe it or not, I work with as many principals on how to deal with how to effectively lead instructional coaches than I do as much as I do instructional coaches. Because I think if the principal’s effective and they’ve hired correctly, the instructional coach can be a hero in the school. They can be a tremendous asset. And versus the principal can distance themselves from the instructional coach and and then there’s almost no chance it’s really going to be effective, because then you’re sort of playing because then you’re sort of playing mom against dad, and you don’t win there. Yeah, in my opinion, totally.

Chrissy Beltran 08:47
And I’ve seen that happen plenty of times, where the coach doesn’t feel supported by the principal, the principal doesn’t have a vision for instructional coaching, and it’s very hard to feel like you’re doing a great job, because you’re kind of just, you’re playing Whack a Mole. You’re usually spread in so many directions. You’re just trying to kind of figure out what you can check off of your list. You don’t have any support for ongoing things. So you start something and it failed, and it fizzles and and then there’s no alignment or anything. So

Dr. Todd Whitaker 09:10
yeah, the only thing I can offer in any support for that, for the instructional coaches, you don’t feel supported, and there’s a really good chance no one else in the school does either. And there could be individual situations where that’s not true. So I’m not pretending that’s 100% but I think in general, if a person you know, if you have an instructional coach, that’s trying, I’m not even talking highly skilled trying, and they don’t feel supported, then my guess is there’s a lot of other people who are making an effort who don’t feel supported either. Make your job easier, but at least it’s less personal, right? It feels personal, but it isn’t.

Chrissy Beltran 09:49
Yeah, that makes sense, because then at least you can say, well, maybe there are some people who would like some support out there that aren’t getting it, and I can start with them

Dr. Todd Whitaker 09:56
and see they’d like a buddy. You know, it’s really funny, teaching. Is the most isolated profession, which is weird, because you’re never alone, but at times you’re lonely, yes, and instructional coaches fall into that too. Principals fall into that too. There’s a lot of lonely jobs, and so I think people are looking for a colleague, looking for a buddy, looking for a peer, looking for someone they can trust in terms of opening up to and for guidance and direction. So I think there’s always people in every school for the instructional coach. I truly do, unless the instructional coach is just terrible, there’s always people who really would like to have that guidance and direction and

Chrissy Beltran 10:33
support. Yeah, so you mentioned really focusing on our successes, rather than kind of dwelling on our maybe spots of resistance or our stickier spots. How can we develop that over time, like, how can we cultivate that as a habit? How do we develop this positive mindset of really celebrating and looking at at the wins?

Dr. Todd Whitaker 10:53
Well, I think of and this is true in any any level. In grade school, you just have to share one example. Let’s pretend you have five second grade teachers, and two of the second grade teachers are dead set against the instructional coach, dead set against the principal, maybe even dead set against the kids. I mean, I hate to say that, but, you know, potentially and but there’s a new second grade teacher, or there’s a teacher who really does want to get a little more direction, just to even get feedback, just to have somebody have a conversation with well, you start with them, and then what happens is, now you have a sales person on the second grade team, and maybe never toward the two people that are most resistant. I’m not there’s no mirror. Sometimes there’s not a miracle. However, potentially then the second most accepting or the second least resistant person, and then the third and then maybe then you. That’s it for second grade for the time being. You know what I mean? Until let’s and use your talents where your talents can make a difference. Don’t just use your talents where you feel like I’ve got to do this here, because I’d rather you in my school. I’d rather you get to 65% of my teachers then work with five teachers over and over and over. You be miserable. You be horrible. Even if you sort of make a breakthrough, we didn’t gain near as much as if 35 teachers benefited from you. And it may be the 35 most open, but great. And you also switch the dynamic. Then from what happens is, as you’re working with the first person, potentially there’s pressure on them not to be, not to be, not to join the instructional coach. The negative people may not. Once you get the majority. Do you see how now the pressure is joining the instructional coach? But if you don’t start from the place of, and I say easy wins, and I don’t mean there’s no easy in education, but relatively speaking, easier wins, I think that you gain credibility, gain support, and then the other thing is an instructional code, especially if it can be any period of time, make sure you nab all the new teachers, because then you’re infiltrating every department or every grade or multiple hallways or multiple dynamics, because you can’t Lose them, and there’s always a welcoming committee for new teachers. I just hope it’s good, positive people that are doing most of the welcoming. I always say the negative people always have a matching bowling shirt just in your size. Seems that way, and they’ve already invited you to the Tuesday night League. I’m just telling you. And so do you see how those are people that want guys they and I don’t mean want a friend, but I do mean want a friend. You know, I they want some social dynamic, even if it’s just at the job. They, you know, they don’t want to go out Friday night or whatever. That’s great, but just during the job, they’d like some peer support. They’d like a colleague, they’d like colleague, they’d like an ear. Look for those. I think that’s where you start. And feel more valuable as you add new people, you can quickly jump up numbers if you have if there’s much turnover, or if it’s a large school, and I think that’s where you where, wherever you can make a difference is where you get your satisfaction from.

Chrissy Beltran 13:51
Yeah, you mentioned something. It made me think about how we set coaches up for failure at so many schools, because they use them as kind of a fix it model where they’re like, Okay, these are the three teachers we want you to start with. Get in there and get these. Make these classrooms completely different. And it’s it’s not effective. It sets them up for failure. It sets up the coach as somebody who goes in to try to fix you, and then nobody wants to work with you. You feel really frustrated, right?

Dr. Todd Whitaker 14:17
Yes, no, you’ve been you’re more and what happens is, it’s just people, oftentimes the principal’s afraid of or doesn’t know what to do, so they want to dump on somebody else. It’s like choosing a student who’s a new, highly struggling student, and I said, You got three weeks, and he needs to get in med school, you know, versus Could you take any student and in three weeks, I’d like you to try to improve his behavior. 3% I chose 3% maybe that’s too much. Maybe it’s too little, but you know what I mean, that’s an accomplishable but I think it’s I it’s my job to deal with the most resistant, least effective people. It’s not your job. And if you can deal with the and I’m choosing numbers at rain. Them 85% who basically everyday care and try. They just have varying skill sets, and I’m going to try to get it to 95% who care and try. And then I’ll, as they join that club, I’ll send them your way. But in the meantime, take the easy wins, and then I’m going to deal with the 5% who may not care and try to the degree we need in our school to be successful. You know, it’s really weird with my teachers. And I’m not saying this is right or wrong with my teachers. They used to love it. I used to say, not my instructional coach, just my teachers. I’ll make you a deal. You all take care of the kids. I’ll take care of the adults, and they’d sign up for that in one second. You know what I mean, that I’m going to protect you, I’m going to help support you, I’m going to do everything I can. But in my mind, then the instructional coach is part of my support, not part of my and it’s like if I hire a new assistant, they’re not going to do the evaluations of the three worst teachers in the school. I’m going to do but I don’t mean Ever After two years, they have confidence and they want them great. I don’t I want them to get skills at everything but the instructional coach. It’s the same way. It’s like I want to take the people that I know are going to be the most resistant, and I want you to have the people starting at the least resistant, and as we build become colleagues together, and we work together as a team. Year three can be different. You know what I mean? Year three, it’s like we’re both ready for this next person. But I’ve also hope I’ve helped this person, person become more ready. You know, the teacher to become more ready, more willing, more accepting. They see the impact you’ve had on others. They see how you’re held in regard for others. And do you see now year three, it’s not the same thing as it was in year one, where I’m going get them Social Studies Department, get them, you know, and it doesn’t if, if a group of students get sent to the office for being disruptive together, the first thing I do is separate them. Well, if I have a department, a grade level, a team that is in a negative fashion, the first thing I do is separate them and I, and I would like us to work on who’s the most likely to potentially look to improve first and go from there. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran 17:19
yeah. So I love that starting starting with the idea of, let’s let’s begin with the places where we can get the wins. Let’s begin where we can make the biggest impact with the least amount of stress and frustration, because those other places, we’re going to pour and pour and pour into those classrooms and get very little out. And it’s not that we don’t work with them, but we need to work with them in a different way and at the right time, and starting out is probably not the best place for them. I’m a big believer in

Dr. Todd Whitaker 17:42
teachers going in each other’s classrooms. And when I took over a school, if that was a new concept, I’d always start with the new teachers and the best teachers, because the new teachers didn’t know it was new, and the best teachers would take care of the new teachers. And it was a mutual exchange, and we gradually just add people. What’s interesting is I’ll share this, and I’ll have principals will go, what about the three people who won’t? And I go, in my mind, that’s the last worry. That’s not the first worry. If two teachers go in each other’s rooms and it’s a positive experience, just two, are you better off or worse off as a school? You’re better off. And if three never join but 4342 of your 45 teachers do this, you’re so much better off. It’s not even funny. And look how much lonelier the three people feel. They’re now missing out on something. But if they never join, you’re still better off having 42 teachers do it, then then no teachers do it. And if you focus on the three that won’t, you’re going to end up with no teachers who’ll do it. And if you make them especially early in the process, they’re going to make the new teacher cry.

Chrissy Beltran 18:44
Yeah, it’s miserable for everyone, right? Exactly. And I really

Dr. Todd Whitaker 18:47
want the instructional coach to be a hero. I really want them to be the support. I want them to it’s like a counselor. I never want a counselor having to discipline kids. And I don’t mean they see a kid running down the hallway and they go, Kevin, please walk. I don’t mean that. I’m talking about the discipline. I never wanted to be that, because I don’t want them to lose that potential other relationship. And the same way with teachers, no no instructional coach in a school should ever be the gotcha person, ever they shouldn’t be that. In my mind, I’ve lost them, then I I’m afraid they’ve lost relationships in the school, and then they’re too valuable to lose. That’s that’s just my opinion. You know what? I mean, I don’t and that has nothing to do with you being honest and help communicate with people and helping them trying to grow. I’m talking about any kind of formal anything. I don’t want the instructional coach involved in that? Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran 19:41
really delineating that and, you know, keeping your role very clearly, like what, like, this is exactly what I’m responsible for. This is my purview, and evaluation is not a part of my purview. But that’s one way that we can make sure that teachers know who we are, and that we can also focus on what matters for our job. Because if we are spending all of our time doing other things, we’re working against. Ourselves working against these relationships that we’re trying to build Right

Dr. Todd Whitaker 20:03
exactly. And if, like I said, if five years down the road, the thing evolves a little bit great. I mean, you know, and the instructional coach, because, you know, I really like to maybe be involved in evaluation of the first year teachers in terms of the whatever I’m just using, I go, it’s like, great, because everybody has trust, everybody values you. The first year, teachers may even feel more secure with you than they might feel with the principal if they don’t, you know? I mean, so it’s like, great, I have no interest in holding you back. It’s just I have no interest in shoving you in a place that no one’s ready for and then that potentially I lose the value of your position, and your position is way too important for me to lose the value of your position. So one

Chrissy Beltran 20:45
of the questions that I had in this area is about growth mindset, and how we can use growth mindset to kind of contribute to our own positive mindset. Do you have any thoughts on how coaches can kind of approach their work with the growth mindset? How we can keep that centered, because I think that it’s it becomes very easy to be like you said, focused on the frustrations and the failures and feeling like, oh, this person is stuck, or we’ve worked on this a million times and they’re not getting it, and we can get stuck in this kind of a fixed mindset about our teachers. So do you have thoughts about how we can use that, that we can kind of change the way that we think about our work? I think there’s two things

Dr. Todd Whitaker 21:21
that are. One of them is, I always say, look for the good parts. Sometimes you have to squint if you compliment someone, often enough, they start to think you have incredibly good taste. And the reason it has so much power is because of the fact people don’t get complimented. But the other thing is, one of the things that I emphasize a lot, my most recent book is called How to Get all teachers to become like to become like the best teachers, because in my mind, that’s the solution to education, because in every every school, you have somebody who’s cracked the Da Vinci Code. We don’t need anything new. We just need to replicate what we have that’s best, and that’s way more possible than creating something new. But one of the things about that is I talk about teaching versus telling, and I think it’s teaching people how to do it with a high level of specificity, but it’s also establishing expectations in advance. For example, one thing that I’ll ask people about, do you have any teachers that sit behind their desk too much, and almost every school does, and I go, Okay, would you like to get a mouth from behind your desk, their desk in 15 minutes, and they say, of course, like, Okay, what day of school? Pretend, day one’s one all the way to day 180 what day of school is the teacher who sits behind their desk too much least likely to be behind their desk from day one to 180 What do you think, Dave, what day Are they least likely to be sitting behind their desk? Well, I think they won day one, right? Okay, what time day one do you think is the least likely time of day, eight o’clock, nine o’clock, 10 o’clock, that they’re least likely behind being behind their desk early in that morning, the day, the time school starts? Guess what class? Coincidentally, I’m going to walk in at 815, the very first day of school, and I’m going to leave the teacher a note and say, I’ve never noticed this when i Today, when you were walking around, I saw Christopher was so much more engaged than he ever was last year, and I never realized how much your proximity and how just the energy you bring in walking around makes a difference. I’m going to meet with the new teachers. And that you would you care if I used to use an example of just how that proximity changed so much behavior and I’d never noticed it before. And if it’s okay with you, I’m going to share with the new teachers the story of you and what a difference that made. Okay? Have I insulted that teacher, lost that teacher, hurt that teacher’s feelings? No. So day two, I walk in, what is more likely to happen on day two than ever been likely to happen in their entire career. Yeah, and day 52 when I walk in wherever they’re doing, are they likely to get out from behind their desk? Because now, if it’s valued, it’s important, it’s and that’s simplistic, because Todd’s simple. However, that’s really what it is. It’s looking for the good parts, it’s focusing what they because if think about this, if every day I compliment someone’s shoes, at some point, they’re going to wonder what I think about their socks, you know, and they’re going to actually be listening, because they really want my opinion. So in my I mean, that’s simple, but that’s just sort of how it works. I mean, what are your good teachers? Do they talk about how excited they are to see the kids, how proud they are the kids, how, over the weekend, they were telling their cat that how they love this group, because it may be the best group they’ve ever had. And of course, they did say maybe, but anyhow, you know I mean, and it’s that same way. I think it’s looking for this, reinforcing this, valuing this, and that’s how you do you you realize, if you do nothing but increase the positive things in your school, you. Uh, you’ve accomplished, you’ve done a lot.

Chrissy Beltran 25:04
Yeah, I love that example that you gave, because thinking about how we can take a moment and turn it into like a praise point, right? But then that also becomes, like a teachable moment. It really is the opportunity to say, you know, this is, like, this amazing thing you’re doing. Let’s see, you know, what happens if we keep doing that and then we turn that into a teachable moment for other people as well. Like you said, you turn it over to your new teachers, and you say, Hey, I was in so and so’s classroom, and this is what I saw. And you know, that’s something maybe we should all think about trying this week. You know, I just really like that. Yeah, no, exactly.

Dr. Todd Whitaker 25:33
And in my Friday Focus, if any of read, motivate inspiring teachers, in my Friday the single best leadership tool I’ve ever used, and I think every instructional coach at Evan, by the way. But anyway, in my Friday Focus, I’ll like one of the things I talk about is greeting the kids. Okay, I talk about the first first second me of the year. But in the Friday Focus, I’ll write something like this, you all are three weeks into the school year, anytime in school, but three weeks in the school year, I use example, because the greetings diminished. You know, the first day everybody’s great. And then it gets to me. Then I write, you all are amazing. I don’t know how you do it. Earlier this week, I see teacher after teacher greeting kids, smiling them, making them feel warm, making them feel welcome. You’re amazing. I’m gonna let you in on a secret. You all are the reason the students like coming to the school. Gonna give you another secret. You all are the reason I like coming to this school. Thanks for what you do. What have I reminded people to do? Have I lost anyone? Have I offended anyone? Have I hurt anyone’s feelings? And you know, this will sound really, really silly, and I’m going to use an example, and it’s probably everybody growing up always wanted to be at the popular kids table. And I’m not talking about the popular snotty kids table, I’m talking about the ones that the people like the most you wanted to sit at their table in my school. Everyone’s welcome at the popular kids table. I just help you understand how to join the popular kids table by greeting the kids, being nice to the kids, being friendly to the kids by, you see what I mean by being up and around, by walking around. By, this is how we do it, and there’s plenty of room, and nobody mocks anyone else. But I need you to know this is how to do it, versus me, reliant on your undergraduate education and hoping you student taught with someone exceptional, and hoping that the principal before me made sure your mentor was exceptional, or else you think Ellen the kids is okay, right? Because I’d let your student teach with someone average, and they’ve ruined your career, yep, and so, and I and and so that’s where all of that comes from. And I don’t mean popular in terms of snobby, I mean popular in terms of man. I wish that was my friend group. I wish this was the table I could be at and in my school. Because it can’t be who’s married to the wealthiest person. It can’t be who’s the best dressed I’m talking about among the adults. It can’t be. It’s got to be who’s the best, who’s the best teacher, who’s the best custodian, who’s the best and I’ve got to help people understand what that looks like. And everyone who is greeting kids thinks I was talking about them, and everyone who wasn’t understands what I value now, yeah, I

Chrissy Beltran 28:14
think that’s important. What you mentioned about values, it having an idea of what we need to know what we value, and then we need to put that out there, and that can, that can, that can support us too in the work that we do. Because if we are working on things that we really value and we can see the change that results out of that work, then that kind of feeds us. You know,

Dr. Todd Whitaker 28:33
the other thing is, and I don’t know if this will make any sense or not, in my Friday Focus or at faculty meetings, I’ll say stuff like the other day a new teacher. I was in a new teacher’s class, and I was like, blown away. I go, where’d you learn that? And they go, Well, Miss Beltran talk showed me, because what happens is, now, do you see how I’m making that person to be a hero? Yeah. And I don’t have to use the teacher’s name if they’re embarrassed, if they don’t want it, if, whatever. But it’s like, well, I go, I go, dang, I go, I wish she’d have taught me. I go, I’m gonna say she can help me with lunch supervision. You know? I mean, I’m talking about, like, help me be better. I don’t mean, but do you see how then you’re making and all of a sudden the next least resistant teachers going, I wouldn’t mind knowing that too. I wouldn’t mind getting some help with this too, and the next, least in the next, and all the time I’m making this person out to be a hero, and then you feel like you’re missing something, and that’s really important. All

Chrissy Beltran 29:33
right. Well, thank you so much. Okay, so how can people find you online or in the real world if they want to learn more? Well, I’ll let them

Dr. Todd Whitaker 29:41
know how to find me and also avoided me, if that would be their real way. So, and I understand that I am my website’s Todd whitaker.com and I don’t have any people and so sadly, it’s just me on social media. I’m at Todd Whitaker on most things Todd Whitaker one on Insta, Todd Whitaker on Twitter. Twitter, Facebook. I’m Todd Whitaker. I’m on LinkedIn. I don’t remember what I’m on, blue sky. Todd Whitaker, whatever the blue sky tag is. And I love to hear from people, and people can contact me anytime they want to. I hear from people every day. I have like, four phone calls I’m making right after this of people who just want to visit about something. And I’m nobody, but I’m a neutral outsider. And so I’m, I’m one of the people that will actually look in the eye, tell you the truth and really work to not hurt your feelings, because if you take the trouble to contact me, you really want to get better, and so I feel obligated to do that’s what I feel like. My role in school is, schools are they could check out my books that they want, but I’m not a book set. Book salesman. I don’t sell bracelets, I don’t have t shirts. I don’t do anything. I don’t write books. So you buy books. I write books so you know exactly what to do, like word for word, what to do, because I want you to be successful. And I really think we can help people to be successful. I truly believe that, and I’ve seen so many changes at school, wide, district wide, individual class wide that I know, I know people can be successful and they want to be. Education is hard. It’s hard if you’re good. It’s impossible if you’re not good. So they want to be they really want to be good. We just get confused. We tell them to raise their test scores instead of teaching. And raise their test scores. We tell them to manage their class instead of teaching and manage the class, but once I teach you to manage your class, I’ve built up so much trust you can’t wait to find out what else I can teach you.

Chrissy Beltran 31:27
Well, I love that, because that’s an example of your Positive Coaching mindset right there, and looking for the successes and the wins. So thank you so much for being here today and and best of luck on your endeavors. Thank

Dr. Todd Whitaker 31:39
you. It’s truly an opportunity, and I want to thank your audience for making a difference. Making a difference every day. What they do is is just incredible, and it goes so far beyond anything they’ll ever realize, but it really makes a difference, and I thank them for what they do, and hope we can cross paths and touch base in the future. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Chrissy Beltran 32:03
All right, Coach, I hope that gave you some ideas about how to kind of reframe your work in your mind and think about what impact you really do have, where you are making a difference and where you can go next to not only support the teachers that you’re supporting, but also kind of feed your soul if you are interested in that jump start, course, that will help you sort of redefine your coaching role. You can grab that for free at buzzing with Miss b.com/jump start. And next week, we’re going to take a really good look at coaching goals. Because I feel like if you are sort of frittering your time away, like I mentioned earlier, playing whack a mole, then you probably don’t feel great about the coaching work you’re doing. So if we can, like, get some focus purposeful work happening, I think you might feel more positive and find more joy in your work. So we’re gonna take a different approach. Next week, you’ve probably heard or used SMART goals before, and I actually have a podcast episode about smart goals, but our next guest next week has the really coolest coach acronym, C, O, A, C, H for goal setting, and I’m really excited for her to share it with you. So definitely come back and join me next week. Until then, happy coaching. You.

Chrissy Beltran 33:23
Clothes, become a VIBee and check out the podcast. Show Notes, happy coaching!

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