My Favorite Books About Instructional Coaching, ep. 261

My Favorite Books About Instructional Coaching, ep. 261, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran (00:01.806)

Hey coach and welcome to instructional coaching with Miss B. Today we are talking about my favorite coaching books. This is part of the season seven kickoff mini series where we’re gonna tackle a bunch of different little things that you can add to your toolbox that might help you think differently about your coaching work. So when I was a new coach, I asked a friend about what I should read. I was just gonna get started. I had found out over the summer that I was going to have this job and I was like, you know, like, well, now what? I don’t know anything about this.

and she recommended a book about literacy coaching. And it did have some handy ideas, but it was more about how to function as a support person and not at all about how to like get into classrooms and work alongside teachers as a partner. And so I kind of walked into coaching with a bit of the wrong idea of what my days would look like. Like I pictured cozy PD conversations, like with coffee.

and creating a library of resources that people would just wanna check out all the time because everybody was like this independent learner. then teachers just naturally wanting to partner with me and inviting me into their rooms. And I don’t know why I thought that was gonna happen because I’ve been a teacher and I knew that’s not the way it worked. But anyway, over the years, I’ve read a fair amount of books since then and I’ve dug into even more books over the last few years as I wrote my own book about building your coaching strategy. my gosh.

What is happening guys? Your coaching strategy toolbox. I already signed a contract with ASCD and we’re working through a very slow publishing process to get that book out to you hopefully this summer and I would love for you to buy it but it’s not out yet so I’ll let you know. Anyway, I would love to share some of those titles especially some that I really spent more time digging into over the last year or two with you today.

Now, if you want to get more ideas or other book suggestions or help with your coaching plans or anything, or even just like people to commiserate with about how this is not an easy job, join Instructional Coaching with Miss B, the Facebook group. If you go to Facebook, you type in in the little search bar Instructional Coaching with Miss B, it’s the group with my picture on it. And so we would love to have you there. So let’s talk about, I’m gonna kind of give you like the basic description of each coaching book that I’ve chosen.

Chrissy Beltran (02:09.836)

and then I’m gonna tell you what I love about it. So it’s gonna be like basic description, you know, that they put out about the book and then I’ll tell you what makes it special to me. The first one is Onward, Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators by Elena Aguilar. And I’ve had her on the podcast twice. If you love to listen to her, go back and hunt down her episodes and I’ll put them in the show notes, of course. She’s been a guest twice to talk about, once was about…

transformational coaching and then most recently, I think we talked about Onward possibly. I don’t know. I can’t remember. It was last year. Okay, so I thought it twice. Check it out. Onward discusses the big, like this huge issue of educator stress and it gives you an actual framework for taking the burnout out of teaching. So this book offers a path to resiliency. That’s like the main focus is resiliency to help teachers what they say, weather the storms and bounce back and work toward banishing the rain for good.

It gives you an actionable framework with concrete steps that you can use to, quote, rediscover yourself, your energy and your passion for teaching. And you’ll learn how to a simple shift in mindset can affect your outlook. So you want to take care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. And that is foundational to the work that you do. There’s also a workbook that’s like a companion. And what I love about this book is it like goes, it follows kind of like I talked about coaching through the seasons in the previous episode.

It talks about the seasons of coaching and teaching and it helps you think about what you want to focus on or work through each each month of the year. And that’s what I love, because I feel like it’s actually responsive to the reality of teaching as seasonal work, because our work is not the same as everybody else’s. Like if you’re in, you know, the private sector, it doesn’t look like this. This is not normal. So, I mean, even has a little threat that I mentioned the other day about.

the first year at teachers attitude toward teaching. So I love this book. It gives you some really actionable things that you can do and some strategies you can do with teachers to hopefully build their resiliency and reduce their stress. That’s a good one. The second one that I love is student centered coaching the moves. And that book is by Diane Sweeney. And I actually have her scheduled for the podcast later this summer. So I’m excited about that. Student centered coaching is is evidence based coaching model. It’s a universal coaching model.

Chrissy Beltran (04:26.754)

And it shifts the focus from like fixing teachers into collaborating them based on what students are doing. Like the student outcomes is what drives every conversation that you have. So it shows you what day-to-day coaching moves you can use to actually build coaching relationships that impact instruction. The coaching moves can be used before, during, and after lessons. And it talks you through what that can look like. It includes field tested tools and practices. It also has video clips that you can use if you’ve got

access to the book and it has a bunch of anecdotes which I love the anecdotes when I read a coaching book because it helps me envision things. That’s one of my favorite things so I love this. What I really like about this is how practical it is. it’s, I mean it talks about like what do you do. It’s not like the theory behind everything although obviously it’s based on that. It’s really like what am I supposed to, micro modeling, what does that look like?

If I do it, what will I be saying? What will I be doing? What will the teacher be doing? It’s like super specific sorting student work with a strategy that I loved. And I feel like that’s such a valuable one that you can easily apply, really regardless of the coaching model you use, but especially if you focus on student-centered coaching. So that’s a good one. The next one I want to talk about is the EduCoach Survival Guide by Lindsay Deacon and Angela Harkness. And this is such a unique book for coaches.

The way they describe it is that it gives practical real world solutions to 58 challenges instructional coaches actually face. So, you you’re trying to do your best to support teachers, but their job is complicated. And it’s like, how do I address this situation or what do I do to deal with XYZ that’s happening with my admin or this is the problem that I have with, you know, the way that my school functions. It’s got tons of, I mean, 58 different challenges and it describes.

what you can do in that situation. It’s like, just try this. And it even includes printables that you can use, or you can make copies of them, so that you can use that when you take the action that it’s recommending. What I love about this book is that it is practical, and it includes solutions that we don’t always think of. Because what’s beautiful is it took two coaches communicating together. Lindsay and Angela are friends. I got to meet them in person in at

Chrissy Beltran (06:41.664)

at Region last summer in Austin, in Round Rock, it was so fun. But they are friends and they communicate about their work. And so they were able to like put their heads together and come up with these really great responses to things they’ve actually experienced and then things that coaches have actually talked to them about. And so I love that it’s realistic. It’s so good. It’s concise. It’s not too wordy. It tells you exactly what to do and it helps you figure out how to do it. So I love that book.

The PD book is number four, Seven Habits That Transform Professional Development by Elena Aguilar. So this, you can see my stickies if you’re looking at the video on YouTube, you can see all my little things that I have marked, parts that I really liked or things that I used, that I referenced in my book. So I love this because it really guides you through thinking about professional development a little differently. It addresses the idea of resistance and how you can support teachers and like be better able to receive information.

It talks about adult learning, how to bridge to the classroom. I love this book, it’s very practical. this is their description. It’s a wealth of practical tools that help you transform professional development. You’ll learn how to inspire adult learners, the importance of having a clear purpose and how to navigate power dynamics in a group, which we don’t talk about that a lot, but it is so legitimate. We are not bosses, we are not admin, yet we are asked to stand in front of people and tell them things that they really should be doing, and that can be stressful.

You also learn a new way to plan PD that allows you to attend to details and be a responsive facilitator. Dozens of tips and tricks, anecdotes and research and tools and resources available to you in this book. It’s a good one. I love it. And isn’t the cover pretty? I just, know that’s not really relevant, but if you’re seeing this on YouTube, it’s so pretty. Okay. The next one, Get Better Faster by Paul Bambrick Santoyo. This one I love because it digs into, well, let me read you the description first.

In Get Better Faster 2.0, a 90 day coaching, sorry, 90 day plan for coaching new teachers, Paul Brambrick Santoyo shares a practical guide to new teacher development inspired by over two decades of working alongside highly effective school leaders. These instructional leaders are skilled at developing new educators and Brambrick Santoyo has organized their best practices into a comprehensive actionable guide that keeps teacher growth and student learning top of mind. Now what I like about it is how nitty gritty it is. It’s like,

Chrissy Beltran (08:59.85)

If your teacher is struggling in this one tiny thing, change this one tiny thing and you can see an effect that is larger than that one tiny thing. And it’s really specific. So you can like use the little tabbies on the side, how it’s organized. It’s got like rigor management, our different sections. And it helps you identify what to do within those issues that teachers are having. It gives you specific strategies for coaching that you could use.

And it gives you also like how teachers can kind of implement this the things that you’re working on together and how you can build that independence. I love that because sometimes we feel like we go into a classroom and we’re like, my gosh, what do I start with? Where do I go first? Even with experienced teachers? I get it that it says it’s for new teachers, but you know, there are gaps in classrooms. Even if a teacher has been experienced over time, we start to see these gaps, you know, so this can help you address like very specific nitty gritty issues like

Student Prompting Students, Verbal Lists, no, that’s a bad example. Individual Student Corrections, and it provides you with the least invasive intervention. And then how you can help teachers respond to student learning needs. I mean, it’s really very specific and precise. That’s a great one. If you have teachers you’re like, I don’t know where to start with them. Just start there, grab that book. Student Focused Coaching by Jan Hasbrook and Darryl Michael. I actually have had Jan Hasbrook.

On my podcast as well, we talked about roles for student focused coaching. I really love her responsive coaching model. And so this book says that it’s about helping you master three key roles of coaching facilitator, collaborative problem solver and teacher learner. Well, you know, I know I love those names, right? Because isn’t it true that we kind of shift through those three roles?

It says, you’ll discover how to build respectful and mutually beneficial professional relationships with every teacher from the most eager to the most reluctant and work together to help all students learn and thrive in a classroom. It offers practical activities. It includes materials, application exercises, reflection exercises, coaching tips, tons of downloadable forms like 20, 20 some pages of forms you can actually use in your coaching work. They’re very simple. And so I love it because it kind of talks about the different strategies you would use.

Chrissy Beltran (11:11.84)

under each role and what your job can look like as you are trying to perform that role. Like for the facilitator role, it talks about what it looks like to be successful when you’re supporting teachers, how you can build professional relationships in that area, how you can implement systems of support as you are the facilitator. So this is a really good one. And I really enjoyed talking to Dr. Jan Hasbrook. The last one I decided to add on a whim, not a whim, but because I kind of hadn’t thought about it, is coaching conversations. It’s Linda Gross-Kaleides and I don’t know if it’s

Is that correct? Marsetta Fleming Riley. So this is, it’s about specifically how you change your school through conversation. And personally, I think I’ve mentioned before, and I’m definitely going to talk about it next week, I’m a problem solver type. And the collaborative part of problem solver is something I’ve had to really work on. So I love that this book really teaches you a little bit about guiding teachers and supporting them and having conversations with them that are not just

kind of top-down directive or that you try to solve all of their problems. It helps you develop reflective conversation skills with staff members. It builds your skills for discussing maybe more complex or tricky subject matter. It helps you build some habits that can help improve the way that you communicate with teachers. I love this. this is a great book. I’ve referenced it a lot, as you can see, with all of my little stickies. I love the little graphics. Graphics are always helpful. And so definitely check that one out.

debriefing conversations or conversations about teaching and learning have been a challenge for you because, and don’t feel bad, they’ve been challenges for lots of us. I have got a really fun, special thing for you to do today. We all love to know what type of cheese we are or what kind of shoe we would be, or hat if we lived in Downton Abbey. So I have a quiz for you that’s made especially for instructional coaches, and I think you’re really gonna like it. It’s a two minute quiz. What’s your coaching personality type?

and it’ll help you kind of unlock your coaching superpower, which you’re really good at, that you might not even know, and what you can help yourself grow in. So your past personality as an instructional coach really affects the work you do with teachers every single day, and you might not even realize how. Learn about your coaching personality, what it is, what your strengths are, and how to become an even better coach at buzzingwithmissbe.com slash quiz to take the two minute quiz. Just in quick summary, I’m gonna run through those books again.

Chrissy Beltran (13:36.854)

We have Onward by Elena Aguilar. We have Student-Centered Coaching by Dan Sweeney. Educoach Survival Guide by Lindsay Deacon and Angela Harkness. The PD book by Elena Aguilar. Get Better Faster by Paul Bambrick Santoyo. Student-Focused Coaching by Jan Hasbrook and Darrell Michael. And Crucial Coaching Conversations by Linda Gross-Kaliades and Marcetta Fleming Riley. Those are the seven books that I’m sharing with you today. I hope you check one out. And if you do, please.

Pop in the Facebook group, Instructional Coaching with Misty. Let me know which one you loved. Next week, I’m sharing an episode that I really think you’re gonna like because I’ve had some requests for it. It’s all about the qualities of a great instructional coach. I cannot wait to share this with you and for you to see how many of the amazing qualities you possess as a coach. Until then, happy coaching!