My Top Five Ways Instructional Coaches Can Grow Teachers: The Coaching Podcast, Ep. 2

My Top Five Ways Instructional Coaches Can Grow Teachers: Instructional Coaching with Ms. B, Ep. 2

Chrissy Beltran [00:00:02]:

Hey, coach. Don’t worry. We’ll get to your episode in just a second. I just wanted to let you know that if you’re listening to this in December or January, it’s time for instructional coaching with miss b to take its little holiday hiatus. Every year from December through January, I take a season break. Then in February, the new season comes roaring in, and I share all the latest coaching strategies, troubleshooting, and ideas with you. I plan the season starting in January. So until then, I’d love to hear from you. Head to buzzing with miss b dot com slash survey to share your thoughts on the podcast. You can help me plan episodes and chat with guests that really help you with your everyday coaching work. I want these episodes to be meaningful and helpful, so please tell me what you’re thinking. If you complete the survey, you’ll also be entered to win a $25 gift card from a place of your choosing as long as I can grab it online. Head to buzzing with missb.com/survey and let me know what you think about Instructional Coaching with Miss b, the podcast, and enter twins, sir, the giveaway. I’m also using this hiatus to share some of the most popular episodes from the last six years. I know. Crazy six years. Maybe you’ve missed some very special gems that would help you out in this next semester. So keep looking for an episode every week in your podcast player. And, of course, you can listen on the blog at buzzingwithmissb.com/podcast. Happy holidays and happy coaching, everybody. Happy New Year, coach. By this time of year, you might feel like your coaching is a little out of your control. You might be spending days on random tasks that don’t actually impact teaching and learning. You might have taken on responsibilities that are keeping you from coaching teachers. Let’s get your coaching on track in ten minutes a day. Head to buzzing with missb.com/newyear. The five day challenge starts January 12. Can’t wait to see you inside.

Chrissy Beltran [00:01:47]:

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. Hey, coaches. Thank you so much for listening in on my next episode. Today’s episode is all about defining your role and providing support for teachers that actually works. So we’re gonna talk about a few of the different tasks that t that coaches can do, and then we’re going to look at the kinds of coaching support that you really wanna be spending your time on so that you can actually be impacting classrooms. So this is why this is really tricky. As an instructional coach, you take on a lot of tasks and roles that really aren’t coaching. And that’s not a criticism. That’s just the way the world works. Right? I know that I would sit down in leadership meetings, and we would be told 800 things that need to happen that week, and we’d have to volunteer for some different things that needed to get done. And sometimes it’s more of a voluntold situation like, who needs who can who can help us out on, the day of the field day? We need five people, and there’s, like, six people in the room, so you’re like, well, I guess I’m gonna be one of those five. So, it is it is tricky because you are trying to manage a million and one tasks that aren’t coaching, and then you’re trying to really make an impact with classrooms, in classrooms with teachers by focusing on the stuff that really matters. And so I’m gonna talk a little bit about some places you can focus your energy when it comes to coaching support. So first, let’s look at the kinds of things you have to do. You probably have to do a lot of administrative tasks unless you live in coaching heaven, which you might live there and you don’t even know it. And maybe by the end of this podcast episode, you will realize that you do live in coaching heaven, if you don’t have to do these kinds of tasks. So administrative tasks might be perhaps, certain data needs to be

Chrissy Beltran [00:03:48]:

completed for, QM folders, and they need somebody to help peel all the stickies off of one sheet and stick them onto other sheets. Or maybe you have to collect, documentation for summer school, and so you have to go through every single teacher and make sure that they have completed all of their forms properly. Or perhaps you have testing responsibilities. Or for example, in Texas, we have TELPAS, which is a language assessment. And so as support teachers, we would have to, evaluate the writing samples and make sure that they met a certain list of criteria. So you have to take your online course and you have to be certified in order to complete you know, check off these writing samples, and then you have to check off every teacher’s. And if they need to be corrected, you have to give them back, and then the teacher gives them back to you. I mean, as you can tell, it’s a really streamlined process. Right? So so there’s a ton of administrative tasks that coaches are responsible for. On top of that, I used to have to do things like, make sure that teachers had their assessments from the district on time. And I actually would have those copies made by a volunteer, but I had to sort and create the originals and create the model of what they needed to look like, and distribute them to teachers if needed. Actually, I always distributed them to teachers. I needed to make sure that I had printed out all of their bubble sheets because the district required bubble sheets for many grades, and then I had to make sure they were all collected and scanned on time. And then I had to analyze the data, print it out, and chart it up on the wall for at least one grade level and sometimes more than one, and, we would meet with those grade levels to disaggregate that data. So that was a whole thing that, of course, data is important to look at, but it was a huge chunk of time every week. I also was responsible for hosting certain school events. So if you’ve ever seen my blog or my Teachers Pay Teachers store, you’ve probably seen my family literacy night events, and those were so much fun, but, of course, they did take some time in planning and preparing. So that’s another huge task that I was responsible for that took time away from actual classroom work. Do I need to mention the meetings? Because I don’t even think I could put together a complete list of how many meetings I sat in. But, you know, leadership alone was

Chrissy Beltran [00:05:59]:

a weekly meeting, which was essential and important, but it was frequent. PLC meetings, which, of course, I ran, data meetings with grade levels, anytime we were each assigned a grade level. So anytime my specific grade level had a special meeting, I was supposed to be present for that. If there was a special event going on at school and we needed to prepare for that, that was another meeting. If we had to, become certified or take online tests that the, state was requiring for assessments, we had to do those as well. So you have to do just a 100,000,000 little things whenever you’re a coach, and that can take a lot of your time. It makes sense because who else does it? If your school has a different system, that’s amazing. And maybe you can share that with me online somewhere. Maybe Instagram is a great place to get my attention. But, many schools do not have other support staff who can take on some of these responsibilities. So they go to the people who are not in the classroom, which you and me. So in addition to doing all of these tasks, lists, things that have to be done, you also have to do some coaching work. Right? You have to get into classrooms and support those teachers because that is where the magic happens. Magic doesn’t happen in your office. Magic doesn’t happen in the hallway, although sometimes you can get some great ideas there. Magic doesn’t happen in the data room. Magic doesn’t happen during PLC. Magic happens in teachers’ classrooms because that is where teaching and learning happens. So the tricky part about providing coaching support in classrooms is that it’s not a one size fits all approach. Different teachers need different kinds of support. Whenever you think about providing support to teachers, think about what you would do in your own classroom. You would never blanket everything with all your kids and just hope that it worked out. You’re going to teach something to everybody and you’re going to differentiate and make sure that everybody’s getting what they need. That’s the same thing we do with teachers. So you wanna choose the kinds of support for teachers that will best meet their needs. And to do that, you need to know what options you have. So I’m gonna introduce, different kinds

Chrissy Beltran [00:08:02]:

of support that you can provide to individual or group groups of teachers. And then over the next few weeks, we’re going to dig into each one a little more specifically. And I’m gonna talk you through how you can actually prepare for them and use them with teachers, in in a specific way. Okay? So I’m super excited about that because if you are trying to figure out different ways that you can meet your teachers’ needs, this is the episode that you’re gonna wanna start with. So these are the top five ways that you will support teachers that are gonna make the most impact. Okay? Making these available as options to teachers can help you define your role as a coach. So that can look like a coaching menu or just a presentation at the beginning of the school year or at any point to show teachers what is available to them, in terms of the support that you can provide. So let’s talk a little bit about what these different options are. These are the top five ways that you can support, teachers. Number one is coaching cycle. Two is modeling. Three is co teaching. Four is planning support, and five is digging into data. And I have these five in this order purposefully because I personally believe that this is the order of impact. The most impactful, I have as number one. So let’s talk about the coaching cycle. This is a very effective method of supporting a teacher and helping them grow, and that is because it’s usually conducted in three parts. So you’ve got the first part as a preconference. The second part is an observation or a model lesson or a co taught lesson. The third part is a debrief. And, whenever you use all these three parts in a cycle with a teacher, you’re completing a coaching cycle. So let’s talk a little bit about each of these components and why they’re so important in supporting a teacher. And then, of course, I will have an episode next week on the coaching cycle so that you can see exactly how

Chrissy Beltran [00:09:57]:

to get into each process and how to conduct that with your teacher. Okay? So let’s talk about the preconference. During a preconference, your purpose is to focus and set goals for your coaching work, and I really recommend that you’re starting with a teacher goal. You wanna focus on what the teacher wants to grow and improve in. If you start out with your own goal, they’re not as invested. That’s like somebody coming in top down telling you what to do. You’re never as invested as it is as you are whenever you actually, create the goal for yourself. You also, of course, want a coaching goal, and that is going to be a, the goal that you want your coaching work to accomplish. Okay? And so maybe that is something along the lines of, that you want to make sure that the teacher has access to a model lesson or that you want, to model a process for digging into data that the teacher can use in their classroom. You wanna make a plan for the specific kind of coaching support that you’ll provide. And if it’s a modeled or a co taught lesson that you’re going to do together, you wanna make sure you know what each person will be responsible for during that lesson. So next week, I’m gonna talk a little bit more about this teacher goal and how you can help the teacher set a goal even if they are sort of resistant to that coaching support. Part two, The observation, model lesson, or co taught lesson. So you can kinda decide with the teacher, of course, what kind of support would best benefit them. If they want you to see what’s already going on in their classroom so that you can give them feedback, then you would start out with an observation. So you do your preconference. You talk to the teacher, say, what kind of support can I provide to you? And they’d say, you know what? I really want you to take a look at my, read aloud because something’s not working. The kids are not transferring their learning. I’m not seeing them apply it. So I want you to watch my lesson. You could say, perfect. I can do a focused observation specifically on that component. K? Another option that you have for this is a modeled lesson. In

Chrissy Beltran [00:11:50]:

a modeled lesson, you actually prepare your lesson. You provide the teacher with a copy. You can plan with the teacher together and just talk through that process and say, this is why I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do. And then you’re going to model the lesson for that teacher so they can see what it looks like in action. In a co taught lesson, that’s another option that you have for the lesson. You’re going to actually plan a lesson together with a teacher. You’re going to assign roles, make sure everybody knows what they’re responsible for, and then you are going to conduct that lesson together. So, teacher a will have certain roles, teacher b will have certain roles, and both of those things will be going on to teach a lesson in conjunction with each other to the teacher’s class. So, that can be challenging. So in the next podcast, I’m gonna really dig into what that can look like. So the last component of the coaching cycle is the debrief, and this can be really stressful. If you have not really worked with this teacher before and if you conducted an observation and you’re providing them with feedback, you wanna be kind, but you want to be honest. It’s not helpful to be very, very nice to teachers and tell them only positive things, but then it’s not going to change their teaching. Right? If you see something, you have to say something. So, I recommend that you rehearse this conversation beforehand and you just focus on a few things, something that went really, really well and something that they could grow. And then you can offer a suggestion if you feel that the teacher is totally stumped. I know sometimes they say not to do that, that you should just help like, ask questions to help the teacher arrive at the next steps. But there were times that I was like, look. If I could have figured it out on my own, I would have. I need another idea. And sometimes that’s gonna be your job. So those are the three parts of the coaching cycle. The preconference, a lesson, whether that’s an observation, a model lesson, or a co taught lesson, and a debriefing session. Okay? And whenever you use those three parts in conjunction with each other in a cycle, then you

Chrissy Beltran [00:13:46]:

are really supporting a teacher in a very specific way. And it’s the way that they are interested in growing, which is great. Another really effective way is just to do a modeled lesson, and you may do this as part of your coaching cycle and you may not. It may be a part of a completely different approach. So it’s very effective for certain situations. Modeling can be stressful because you are working with a group of kids who are not your kids, and so they haven’t developed the rapport with you that your own class would develop. So it used to really freak me out. I’d think, they’re not gonna know what I mean when I say this. They’re not gonna know what this looks like, and so, you know, because of that, you really have to be super prepared and you have to have some ideas of how you can keep that lesson moving even with kids that you don’t know. So there’s a couple things that you wanna keep in mind here. You’re showing the teacher how to do something, so you don’t want it to be too long of a time frame because that implies, look. You don’t know how to do anything, and I have to show you everything. But I have had teachers who want to see a big chunk of learning. They say, I can’t get the flow right from read aloud to independent reading to integrating shared reading and word study. Can you show me the whole block so I could see what that looks like? And I would say yes because if they know what they need and

Chrissy Beltran [00:15:06]:

I can give it to them, I’m gonna give it to them. So it depends on the teacher and their needs. Either way, you wanna keep it tight and focused. You want to you you can integrate some teachable moments, but you don’t wanna overwhelm the teacher by straying too much from what your purpose and your plan is because then if they were able to do that, they’d be doing it. They need to see what does it look like. What is a model for this? Doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but it means it’s a model. Okay. A third kind of tea coaching support that you can provide to teachers that’s very effective, co teaching. In co teaching, you assign roles and you deliver that lesson together. So for example, if teacher a is leading a conversation, teacher b could be recording details of that on an anchor chart. That’s just an example of the roles that, you know, you could use. Okay. The fourth kind of instructional support that you can provide to your teachers is planning support. It is somewhat effective, but it because it doesn’t always transfer to teaching. So this is where those other kinds of supports come in. So in planning support, you are focused. You start with your your state standards or your district standards. You use common materials or create a bank of materials that teachers have access to, and you wanna focus on a few high impact strategies to start. If you try to do too much at once, it’s very overwhelming to teachers. So you just wanna focus on a few things. You wanna build a common language together, which is really the biggest challenge. That was one of the hardest things for me whenever I was a new coach was communicating with teachers effectively using language that they were familiar with because I thought everybody was familiar with the same best practices. But I would walk into a planning session and I’d say something about word study and teachers were like, is that spelling? Is that reading words? I don’t know what you’re talking about. And it was very stressful. So make sure that you’re you’re developing this common language by defining things in context as you go along. It can be a real challenge because people come from different philosophies and different instructional backgrounds, so putting all that

Chrissy Beltran [00:17:08]:

together can be really tricky. So whenever you’re creating a plan together, you wanna make sure you write down everything Because later, people will say, what did we say about this? And what did we say about that? And you’re gonna be expected to remember everything like a magical genie, but you’re not a magical genie. You’re a person, and you are already expected to remember 85,000,000 things. So try not to have to remember everything by writing down most of what you talk about during your planning session or have a note taker assigned. The goal is that teachers walk away with plans, guys. I have seen too many PLCs that were dedicated to planning where everybody spent all the time talking about possible ideas, and then nobody had any plans. So they left and went back to their classrooms, and teachers were not happy because they were like, I still don’t know what to do. I spent ninety minutes in a room talking about stuff, and I still don’t have plans for the next two weeks. So now I still have to go plan. Teachers don’t like it when we waste our time. I mean, I know. Shocking. Right? So make sure that they walk away with plans, and make sure that everybody has some input. This can be tricky, but, you know, give a sentence starter, go around the table, make sure that everybody communicates, their thinking about these plans so that you can create the best plan possible. Okay? The fifth way that you can support teachers is by digging into data. It’s somewhat effective. Again, just like planning support, it doesn’t always transfer to the classroom. And that’s the problem with anything that happens around a table is we can talk the talk, but do we walk the walk? Right? Walking the walk is the coaching cycle, modeling and co teaching. Talking the talk is planning support and digging into data. So whenever we’re talking about digging into data, we need to make sure that we are coming up with an actionable plan, just just like in planning support, that teachers are going to use to address that data. So here are some points to remember for digging into data. This sounds like a no brainer, but I’m gonna tell you, everybody needs a copy. Everybody has to see the data, and teachers don’t like

Chrissy Beltran [00:19:11]:

little copies because they always say, oh, I don’t have my glasses. I can’t see. Oh, this is too tiny. I’m getting too old. And they held it out as far as they can because they say their arms aren’t long enough because they’re getting too old and they can’t see that tiny print. I’ve heard that a lot. Make them a nice, readable copy, color if you can, or give them the opportunity to color code it with highlighters. So everybody needs visual access. You wanna focus on a few points. Too much information means they walk away with nothing. And if they walk away with nothing, you wasted their time. Right? Number one rule of coaching, don’t waste teachers’ time. You wanna choose a protocol to stick with. If teachers are familiar with the process, they can get good at it. If you’re throwing something new at them every time you look at data, it’s overwhelming, and they’re just gonna start going through the motions. So choose a protocol and do it really well. So choose carefully. You’re probably going to want to, encourage everybody for input by either giving sit and starters or going around the table if needed. Talking chips work really well for data. I wouldn’t use them for planning because that’s such a creative process. But data is more of an analytical process, and you want everybody to have the opportunity to respond, and you want to give them some time to think. So talking chips work well. The way you use talking chips is everybody gets a certain amount of counters or those little Target erasers that you still buy even though you’re an instructional coach and you don’t have a classroom and you don’t know what to do with them. I mean, I’m just speaking from experience, guys. Maybe you don’t do that, but I did. So everybody gets a few little talking chips. And then each time they say something, they put one of the little chips into the middle of the table. And that way you’re getting input from every person. You can ask them to respond with one comment about each piece of data that you look at. You can ask them to respond to what another person has said. You can have them give a differing viewpoint when they when they have one. The idea is that everybody

Chrissy Beltran [00:21:06]:

is contributing their thinking because you have those teachers who will sit and wait for it to be over. And if they’re not contributing their thinking, then they’re not getting anything out of it and you’ve wasted their time. Number one rule, don’t waste their time. Make sure that you get to those next steps or the action plan or else it is a waste of time. If I walk away from a data meeting with nothing but, you know, ideology, then I still don’t know what I’m gonna do with my kids to address the needs that I saw in that data. So come up with a plan during that meeting or you have not completed the meeting. So there are other ways that you can support teachers, of course, by providing resources, by arranging for teachers to observe each other and model lessons, etcetera, but these are the main ways that you can make an impact with teachers. By really focusing on some of these methods, you will see the change in your teachers’ classrooms. And, just keep in mind, just so like we differentiate for students, we need to differentiate for teachers. Different ways work for different teachers because different teachers have different needs. So you wanna choose a support that works for your purpose and for your teachers. So those are my top five ways that you can support your teachers. Just to sum up, it’s a coaching cycle, which is a three part cycle, modeling, co teaching, planning support, and digging into data. Really focus your coaching time on those areas to see an impact in your classrooms. And tune in for the next episode where we dig into the coaching cycle. We’re gonna talk about six easy steps for the coaching cycle. If you are looking for more support in instructional coaching, definitely head to my TPT store. I have a resource out there for you called Coaching in Classrooms, and it breaks down how to do the coaching cycle, co teaching, and modeling, which are those three very high impact strategies for coaching support. So check it out, coaching in classrooms. I’ll put the link down in the show notes. And I will also put a link to a post about, a post series about coaching in classrooms that I wrote so that you can actually, use these tips for working with your

Chrissy Beltran [00:23:11]:

teachers. So check out those show notes so you can kinda see, how you can approach these methods of working with your teachers, and tune in next week. Happy coaching. Thank you for listening to Buzzing with Miss b, the coaching podcast. Want more coaching ideas? Check me out at buzzingwithmissb.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.