Put It to Practice: Collegial Coaching
I went from 2 years of teaching in the Peace Corps, into a graduate school program. In this program, I didn't have a student-teaching experience. This wasn't because I didn't see the value in it, but I was lucky enough to get hired in my second year of a Master's program as a full-time teacher while completing my coursework. My graduate school cohort would still meet weekly for a class, and I was never able to participate in the conversations dealing with the relationships we were building with our lead teachers. The biggest drawback I found from this was that I was never given critique on my teaching. When I left the high school I was teaching in Virginia, I had gone through 5 years of teaching with a total of 3 observations. Those observations were mandatory from my principal, and our debrief consisted of him slipping his observation form (a copy) into my mailbox. The main problem with this for me, was that I really wanted people in my classroom, but I didn't know how to get that feedback without simply being observed when it was required to be observed. My teaching in a vacuum no longer exists in the model we have at High Tech High North County. We are asked to critique ourselves, our projects, our students, our colleagues, and in return we get the benefit of the reverse happening for us.
Pre-Observation
In this most recent Collegial Coaching adventure, I was paired up with Shani Leader who is one of the art teachers at my school. This pairing got me excited because Shani is a person with whom I have done a lot of reflection. She spent the last two years as the Dean of Students at our school, and I still go to her usually first when I need advice. She has been a coach for so many teachers for the past two years, and I felt like I was paired with a real expert. One thing I learned about the art of coaching was that coming into the observation phase, there should be a genuine interest in hearing feedback for a dilemma you have. I wanted this observation to be useful to me, and I wanted to have a take-away. In previous observation experiences, my observation came on a day that worked for the principal. There was no meeting ahead of time, and as a result, I couldn't even ask for a second pair of eyes to help me with something I might have been struggling with. When I met with Shani, we were 2 weeks into school. I was mainly struggling with the set up of my classroom. I was having trouble feeling like the way the room was set up was working for all kids. Yet I didn't have a fresh set of eyes from myself to assess the room. When Shani invited me in for an observation of her room, she also had a genuine interest in having me observe something she wasn't sure was working for her. We both set up this expectation of need, so that the observer felt useful and welcome.
Observation
The observation for both of us was at least a week away from when we had scheduled our debrief of our observation. I was a little worried about this being too much time from the observation to have a real impact, but the opposite was true. Since we both shared our written observations and feedback ahead of time, I was able to implement a couple of her suggestions before our debrief. This allowed us to talk about how that was working. When I was observing Shani, I also was reminded of how useful it is to see simple things done by other teachers. I am always looking for new structures in my classroom, and watching how Shani opened class reminded me how valuable it is to spend the first part of class (5 minutes or so) reviewing what we covered the day before. She did a really nice job of efficiently reviewing their work from the previous day so that they could easily transition into their new day's work. I enjoyed also sitting in her classroom, because the general feeling of the classroom was that she had created with her students, a very safe and open space.
Post Observation
At first, I was nervous about watching the video of myself with Shani mostly because I wasn't sure what I was going to see. The process ended up being a lot more comforting than I thought it would be. I learned that it was important for me to have a general plan of how I wanted the conversation to flow during our coaching. I wanted the debrief to loosely model that of a tuning protocol. In essence, that is what we are doing, tuning a technique or an aspect of teaching. I never have any nervousness coming into a project tuning protocol because I am so excited to hear other ideas and suggestions for my project. If I view the coaching in this same way, it is going to be easy for me to feel just as excited and supported in this process. I think that when I am coaching someone else, the best format for me is to clarify the dilemma again or what I was going to be observing. When I do this pre-observation I am able to find a safe entry point into the classroom. In our discussion then, I started with some clarifying and probing questions together. We debriefed for 10 minutes, and I would say that about 7 minutes of that was me asking questions. The difference between this and a tuning protocol is that some of my questions were advice in disguise, although I tried for them not to be. At the point that we would have a group discussion, I asked if I could offer some of my observations at which point I spoke more declaratively about suggestions I had and what I had seen. If we had more time, this would have turned into a longer discussion, but I think that we still were able to cover a lot of information in this format. Often a coach is leading the coached to come to discoveries on their own. I felt like with the extensive opening of questions, Shani had already come to a lot of the answers on her own before I offered my observations. The same was true for the debrief of my lesson. One thing that Shani did differently though was she offered more feedback earlier in the process if she disagreed with a statement I was making about myself and what I seen. I thought that was helpful as I was being pretty harsh on something I had seen outside of my original dilemma. For me, I think it was really important to think about a structure of how we would run the debrief as well as set a time limit for the discussion.
Reflection on the Process
I could imagine how difficult this process though would be for a teacher that might feel that there was judgement attached to the observation. I think back to the brand new teacher we watched the video of in class, who was unwilling at first to be reflective. It seemed like a defensive move, which would seem normal especially when you are newer to the profession, and trying to figure everything out. I think if I were a school leader, I might encourage some sort of protocol with the newer teachers or at least offer it as an option. It seems like having a set structure would make the observation seem less of a judgement and more of a task. Additionally, I think it is really important to ask the teacher ahead of time what you should be looking for. This provides a way for the teacher being observed to invite you into their room and ask for your feedback. I know that in the video we watched with Rob Riordan they did a more open-ended debrief, and it went amazingly well. However, I feel like he was able to do this because of all of the experience and confidence he had as an educator. For the people newer to the field, the more structures in place, the more smoothly it would go for both parties involved.
Next Steps
With our new Director, Isaac, this year we are putting a lot of emphasis on collegial coaching as a staff. We have been paired up with different colleagues, and although we haven't started yet with formal observations, we have had some meetings already about getting structures in place. I am thinking that I will be able to bring in the method that we used in this most recent course as a useful and efficient method to maximize both comfort and feedback for my new collegial coach and me.
Pre-Observation
In this most recent Collegial Coaching adventure, I was paired up with Shani Leader who is one of the art teachers at my school. This pairing got me excited because Shani is a person with whom I have done a lot of reflection. She spent the last two years as the Dean of Students at our school, and I still go to her usually first when I need advice. She has been a coach for so many teachers for the past two years, and I felt like I was paired with a real expert. One thing I learned about the art of coaching was that coming into the observation phase, there should be a genuine interest in hearing feedback for a dilemma you have. I wanted this observation to be useful to me, and I wanted to have a take-away. In previous observation experiences, my observation came on a day that worked for the principal. There was no meeting ahead of time, and as a result, I couldn't even ask for a second pair of eyes to help me with something I might have been struggling with. When I met with Shani, we were 2 weeks into school. I was mainly struggling with the set up of my classroom. I was having trouble feeling like the way the room was set up was working for all kids. Yet I didn't have a fresh set of eyes from myself to assess the room. When Shani invited me in for an observation of her room, she also had a genuine interest in having me observe something she wasn't sure was working for her. We both set up this expectation of need, so that the observer felt useful and welcome.
Observation
The observation for both of us was at least a week away from when we had scheduled our debrief of our observation. I was a little worried about this being too much time from the observation to have a real impact, but the opposite was true. Since we both shared our written observations and feedback ahead of time, I was able to implement a couple of her suggestions before our debrief. This allowed us to talk about how that was working. When I was observing Shani, I also was reminded of how useful it is to see simple things done by other teachers. I am always looking for new structures in my classroom, and watching how Shani opened class reminded me how valuable it is to spend the first part of class (5 minutes or so) reviewing what we covered the day before. She did a really nice job of efficiently reviewing their work from the previous day so that they could easily transition into their new day's work. I enjoyed also sitting in her classroom, because the general feeling of the classroom was that she had created with her students, a very safe and open space.
Post Observation
At first, I was nervous about watching the video of myself with Shani mostly because I wasn't sure what I was going to see. The process ended up being a lot more comforting than I thought it would be. I learned that it was important for me to have a general plan of how I wanted the conversation to flow during our coaching. I wanted the debrief to loosely model that of a tuning protocol. In essence, that is what we are doing, tuning a technique or an aspect of teaching. I never have any nervousness coming into a project tuning protocol because I am so excited to hear other ideas and suggestions for my project. If I view the coaching in this same way, it is going to be easy for me to feel just as excited and supported in this process. I think that when I am coaching someone else, the best format for me is to clarify the dilemma again or what I was going to be observing. When I do this pre-observation I am able to find a safe entry point into the classroom. In our discussion then, I started with some clarifying and probing questions together. We debriefed for 10 minutes, and I would say that about 7 minutes of that was me asking questions. The difference between this and a tuning protocol is that some of my questions were advice in disguise, although I tried for them not to be. At the point that we would have a group discussion, I asked if I could offer some of my observations at which point I spoke more declaratively about suggestions I had and what I had seen. If we had more time, this would have turned into a longer discussion, but I think that we still were able to cover a lot of information in this format. Often a coach is leading the coached to come to discoveries on their own. I felt like with the extensive opening of questions, Shani had already come to a lot of the answers on her own before I offered my observations. The same was true for the debrief of my lesson. One thing that Shani did differently though was she offered more feedback earlier in the process if she disagreed with a statement I was making about myself and what I seen. I thought that was helpful as I was being pretty harsh on something I had seen outside of my original dilemma. For me, I think it was really important to think about a structure of how we would run the debrief as well as set a time limit for the discussion.
Reflection on the Process
I could imagine how difficult this process though would be for a teacher that might feel that there was judgement attached to the observation. I think back to the brand new teacher we watched the video of in class, who was unwilling at first to be reflective. It seemed like a defensive move, which would seem normal especially when you are newer to the profession, and trying to figure everything out. I think if I were a school leader, I might encourage some sort of protocol with the newer teachers or at least offer it as an option. It seems like having a set structure would make the observation seem less of a judgement and more of a task. Additionally, I think it is really important to ask the teacher ahead of time what you should be looking for. This provides a way for the teacher being observed to invite you into their room and ask for your feedback. I know that in the video we watched with Rob Riordan they did a more open-ended debrief, and it went amazingly well. However, I feel like he was able to do this because of all of the experience and confidence he had as an educator. For the people newer to the field, the more structures in place, the more smoothly it would go for both parties involved.
Next Steps
With our new Director, Isaac, this year we are putting a lot of emphasis on collegial coaching as a staff. We have been paired up with different colleagues, and although we haven't started yet with formal observations, we have had some meetings already about getting structures in place. I am thinking that I will be able to bring in the method that we used in this most recent course as a useful and efficient method to maximize both comfort and feedback for my new collegial coach and me.