How to Leverage Low-Impact Coaching Strategies into Coaching Work, ep. 209

How to Leverage Low-Impact Coaching Strategies Into Coaching Work, ep. 209, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:01

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Chrissy Beltran  01:23

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Chrissy Beltran  02:09

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  02:35

Hey coach and welcome to instructional coaching with Ms. B we are looking at episode 209 today, leveraging lower impact coaching strategies into meaningful coaching work. So a couple things that I think will be really helpful to you as we’re trying to figure this out about how to take lower impact strategies and move them into higher impact I have a free download for you. It’s a coaching menu form and on it, it includes different strategies that you can use to share with teachers, to show exactly how you can support them. So you can grab that at buzzing with Miss b.com/menu and then I also have some coaching cycle forms that I think you would really like. They are in my TPT store or on my site, at buzzing with Miss b.com they’re just called coaching cycle forms, and they include all the forms that you need to document the work that you’re doing with individual teachers. So I am excited to share this with you, because we are starting a new series that I just know you’re going to really love this series. I love talking about it, and I have been hearing so many great questions and feedback from from coaches about it, because for the last couple of years, in the sessions that I’ve done for the assembly coaching Summit, and for the simply coaching workshops that I did with Nicole Turner, those sessions have been about these coaching strategies and about low, medium and low, moderate and high impact strategies, and how we can use them to leverage our coaching relationship and grow it and build into really strong coaching work. And so I hear so many great questions about it that I know that it’s a really good tool for people and that they want to use it and they just need more information. So I’m excited to share this with you. I’m actually writing a book about this toolbox, the coaching strategy toolbox, is my own concept, and I’ve been working on it for years. And so if you’re excited about learning more about it, you want to know more about it, grab the free coaching menu form, and you will get emails teaching you how to use the toolbox what’s in it. And also, you’ll be notified, obviously, whenever I launch my book, which I don’t know when that’s going to be, but I am super excited working on my book right now. I’m actually going to go today and print out my draft, my first draft. It’s, you know, a lengthy one, and I’m going to take some time and make some revisions, and then I’m just really excited about sharing this with you. So here’s the basic idea of the coaching strategy toolbox. You have a toolbox, and in it are lots of different tools that will help you do your coaching work. The coaching cycle is one tool, and it’s a really good tool that can really. They do a lot of things to change classroom instruction right? It’ll do a lot of things for you and for the teacher you’re working with, but it’s not always the right tool at the right time. If you think about it like this, it might help. You’re driving down the road, you’re going to your friend’s wedding, and your car suddenly swerves, and you realize that you have a flat tire, and so you pull over to the shoulder, and you call roadside assistance, and you’re like, Okay, this is the expert. They’re going to know what to do when they arrive. They insist on opening up a hood and banging around with their wrench. And you’re like, it’s just a flat tire. I just need you to help me replace it. And they’re like, sorry, ma’am, this is what we do. This is our wrench, and it is our go to tool. And if the wrench can’t fix it, it cannot be fixed. When you’re working with a teacher, maybe you’re building a relationship in the early stages, or working with someone who feels overwhelmed, or that coaching for them is one more thing on their plate. Pulling out the big guns, the coaching cycle isn’t always going to work for us, and why not? Why would that be a problem, even that we know it’s a really great, effective way, and it’s one of it’s like one of the most impactful ways to change classroom practice. Well, it can be overwhelming to a teacher. It can feel like it’s going to take a lot of their time, and having somebody in your classroom right away that’s like they’re watching everything you do, or they’re teaching your kids, it can feel like a lot too quickly. And on top of that, your schedule as a coach can probably only support a few coaching cycles running at a time, depending on what your other duties as assigned are, right? And so that means that, do you just neglect everybody else? No, obviously you don’t. You can coach teachers in different ways. You can reach them in different ways, depending on where they are and what your relationship is and what they need from you at the time. So this is how we’re going to differentiate for our teachers, because we don’t want to get stuck doing the things that are just going to be time fillers, right? We don’t want to get stuck making copies and watching the class while the teacher runs to the restroom. But we also might not be ready to jump into co teaching with a teacher. We have to differentiate and see where they are and what they need at the time. And while that CO code a coaching cycle, and co teaching, modeling, observing, all of that is very high impact, it might not be the right tool at the right time for the right person. So today I’m here to share with you why low impact strategies are not bad strategies. They serve a purpose. They get us to where we want to go.

Chrissy Beltran  07:27

So let’s talk about what they are and how to use them to move you into higher impact strategies. We’re going to talk about leveraging what is the benefit of a low impact strategy. It can feel less invasive to the teacher. It can demonstrate credibility, because you are able to show how you can support them in small ways and give the teacher a quick win. It can help you show empathy. You’ve listened to me, and you help me do something in the moment, so I know that you actually care about what’s important to me, right? It can help you initiate a coaching relationship, because jumping into the coaching cycle that’s that’s definitely a baptized by fire type of way to build a coaching relationship, but not everybody is going to welcome that. I know you can picture teachers who, if you even mentioned doing that kind of work for them, they would just slowly pull the door closed, right, or maybe not so slowly, right? So we want to keep in mind who we’re working with, and you can also leverage these low impact strategies into more impactful work in level two and three strategies. So low impact strategies include things like a check in tech support, sounding board and recommending resources. Those are the four that I categorize as low impact strategies. Some of these are probably things that you’ve been told to do. You’ve been told not, I’m sorry, told not to do. You’ve been told to avoid tech support, and you’ve been told to avoid recommending resources because they don’t give you coaching mileage. And that’s true in itself. They do not you recommending a resource to a teacher doesn’t necessarily impact their teaching at all. You going and, and, and, you know, this is a true story. When somebody’s speakers aren’t working because they’re plugged into themselves.

Chrissy Beltran  09:05

Actually, a double teacher that was, it was pretty funny. That did not change her teaching practice at all. Right, you can get stuck just being a resource when somebody wants something like manipulatives or a new book to read aloud, if that’s all you do. That’s why low impact strategies can be not a great way to spend your time. If you spend your whole day frittering it away, fritter you know, I love that word, frittering away with just, you know, doing all these little tasks, giving stuff to teachers, helping helping out, then you’re not going to get very far in coaching, right? You’re not going to really change your practice. So I don’t recommend making this for a main focus or like a service that you provide. Don’t make a form for teachers to request support, because that will be your new job, right? If that’s all you do. So instead of doing these things as one task, and you check it off and you never see any change in the class. Classroom, which is what will happen if we, if we take that approach, we are going to change the way we think. We are going to go into these interactions with teachers with the understanding that you are using this interaction as leverage. What is leverage? Okay, it’s something that we can use to we use it’s using something. It’s not something. It’s we are using something to its fullest potential, often to make something else happen, right? So that’s what low impact strategies are for. They help you build the relationship between you and the teacher by giving the teacher a quick win, they can demonstrate empathy and credibility, which build trust, and you are showing that you are willing to be helpful, and you are listening to teacher needs. You also are demonstrating that you have some knowledge right, your credibility, that you know about resources, about what would be good for what lesson that they’re trying to teach. And if you are able, if you have that background in technology at all, that you can support with instructional technology, and you show that you’re going to show up, you’re present. You are visible in the school. And being visible is a part of being a coach. But we don’t want to stop there. If you stop there, that’s when you get stuck at low impact strategies and you don’t really move forward in your coaching work. We’re talking about leverage here.

Chrissy Beltran  11:14

So every time that you’re doing these small things, every time that you’re providing tech support, every time that you’re checking in, every time that you are recommending a resource, every time that you are serving as a sounding board where you feel like, oh boy, I’m just like, so run down. I don’t know if I can listen to this teacher complain about this kid one more time, right? We are not doing that thing and then done. We are not once and done. We are thinking, how can I turn this into more coaching work that is actually going to impact the classroom. What is the opportunity I have here to move the conversation forward? So what you say and do during these interactions can help you turn this one time thing into future coach. Future coach, oh my goodness, I am having trouble today, into future coaching, work with your teacher. So here are a couple of examples about how you can keep this leveraging thought in your Have you ever heard Okay, let’s think about leveraging. If you’ve ever sold anything. I sold Cutco whenever I was in college. Cutco are the really fancy knives, and it’s like not the easiest thing to sell because it’s super expensive, but it is actually a really high quality product. And no, they do not sponsor me, that would be fantastic. But I do still own my Cutco set from when I was in college, and these knives are incredible. And I don’t It’s been a long time, guys, it’s been okay. It’s been 24 years. I just It’s been 24 years since I sold Cutco. What is that? That’s when I bought that set, and I still have it, except for one piece. At one time, I took it to school, which I know I shouldn’t have done it. I took it to school because I made a coffee cake, and somebody took my knife. They took my spatula, spreader. How dare they? That was horrible. Anyway, everything else I still have. And they are incredible, nice. So aside, whenever you are learning to be a salesperson, whenever you are learning to sell, whatever it is, even if you’re only, you know 20 and you’re in college or 19 year in college, you learn about, always be closing ABC, always be closing is the idea that you’re always working towards the sale. You’re always moving towards that sale. You’re that from the first interaction with the customer, you are moving towards the sale. Now we’re not being cheesy here. We’re not being cheesy salespeople. We’re not trying to sell them a used car that grandma only drove once a week to the grocery store. We are sincerely trying to support them. Our teachers could benefit from our help. Just because you benefit from working with another person, you just do so if you are working with a teacher, you always have to think about leveraging. I’m always leveraging. How can I take this and turn this into something else? Instead of saying, Hey, let me know how it goes. Let me know if you need any help. Those are the words we say, and those are the words that put a period on the end of our interaction and do not move it forward. We say, let me know. That puts the onus of action on the teacher. But we can’t do that because a teacher’s not mostly, usually a teacher is not going to take that and go, Okay, I will let you know. How often do people really let us know? When we say, let us know. When do they let us know somebody has a new baby? Let me know if you need any help. They need help. Guys, they need help. They need meals. They need somebody to clean their kitchen. They need help. If we say, let me know, they don’t let us know. So we have to think about, how do we take the action? How do we forward the conversation? We’re the ones that know what’s possible. We’re the ones that know what we can do. So here’s some examples, if you’re providing tech support, instead of saying, Okay, bye, or Oh, good, I’m glad we got that figured out, or whatever, little thing usually put the period at the end of the interaction. We’re going to bridge to the next thing we’re going to say, This is so cool. How are you using this? For your lesson, and then you’re going to talk about instruction. You say, Oh, I love this technology tool. Oh, I I love it. Whenever you use Padlet, Oh, I love using, I don’t know, plickers with my kids. How are you going to use it? You could say, Hey, I noticed your students are working on presentations about the Civil War and the causes of the Civil War. How’s that going? You can start engaging them in the instructional conversation, even when you’re there to provide tech support, because you know where tech support usually happens. Oh, but usually it happens in the classroom, and sometimes it happens in the moment that the lesson is not working, but you’re there in the learning you see what’s happening. You can take that and turn it into more coaching conversations. Here’s another example. If you’re recommending a resource, you can say a few different things, lots of different things, actually, to help you turn that recommendation into action, you can offer to visit the classroom to see the lesson in action. So you could say something like, oh my gosh, you’re gonna I would love it to see you’re gonna use this with your kids. I would love to see what this lesson looks like. You can offer a read aloud, and you can offer to read it aloud to their students. Hey, I heard you were working on point of view. I have this book that’s so good for point of view, and I would just love to come read it to your students. That gets you in the room right, and then you can have dialog about it, and you can do a little modeling naturally during your read aloud. You can ask if they would like you to find other options that could work. Well, I have this, but what exactly is it that you’re trying to do with it, because I want to make sure that this is a good fit for you, right? You could ask if they would like to see a colleague using that resource. Hey, you know, so and so uses those kinds of manipulatives whenever they teach percentages. Do you want to go observe a lesson? I bet they would let you to come see it. It’s really good. So my challenge to you is to keep leveraging in the forefront of your mind and look at every coaching interaction as an opportunity for more impactful coaching work. ABC, always be coaching. There it is. That’s what we talk about. We are leveraging up our coaching every minute we interact with people. Always be coaching, even whenever we’re plugging in speakers to not themselves anymore. It’s crazy. Okay, so don’t forget, you’ve got that coaching menu that coaching menu that can give you some ideas about different coaching strategies and how to share it with your teachers. That’s a buzzing with ms b.com /menu and the coaching cycle forms are fantastic. They’re great for working with individual teachers. They’re actually my best selling resource of all time right now, which is crazy. They have unseated another resource that my binder, Mega Pack, the coaching cycle forms have unseated that binder as my best selling resource of all time. So you can get that at Teachers Pay Teachers, or at buzzing with ms b.com

Chrissy Beltran  17:47

Next week, we are going to continue to build your coaching strategy toolbox with some moderate impact strategies that can that you will be able to leverage into high impact coaching work. Today we talked about those low impact strategies you’ve got in there. You got recommending resources, you’ve got tech support, you’ve got sounding board. We didn’t really talk much about sounding board, but I have a fantastic chapter in the book that I’m writing about it. Oh my gosh, you’re gonna love that, Trevor. And we talk about check in. So those are the four that we talked about today. A little bit we’re going to move those into moderate impact coaching work, and that’s what we’re going to talk about next week and until next week. Happy coaching!

Chrissy Beltran  18:27

Now that you’ve got so much to think about, head over to buzzing with Miss b.com to grab some free downloads, become a VIB and check out the podcast. Show Notes. Happy coaching!