Fuld transskription af Coaching That Sticks: High-Impact Strategies from Dr. Matthew Rhodes

00:02:29.277 --> 00:02:33.287 teachers and also within, you know, really young, 00:02:33.995 --> 00:02:38.999 you know, guys from like the TK all the way up to post-secondary. 00:02:39.434 --> 00:02:44.037 So it's really cool to see and develop teachers across all, you know, 00:02:44.037 --> 00:02:50.267 essentially all age levels and most content areas and also in some dual language 00:02:50.267 --> 00:02:53.947 contexts where they're doing both English and Spanish. 00:02:53.947 --> 00:02:57.165 So it's a really cool spectrum. 00:02:58.130 --> 00:03:02.337 Well, we appreciate your university work because that makes our job a lot easier 00:03:02.337 --> 00:03:05.646 when we go to hire these teachers that are really ready to jump in. 00:03:06.961 --> 00:03:11.848 Yeah, certainly. And it's hiring season right now. So a number of my teachers 00:03:11.848 --> 00:03:16.718 are just getting into applying for positions. And it's always fun to see the 00:03:16.718 --> 00:03:21.598 next few months where teachers land right when they're beginning their career. 00:03:21.998 --> 00:03:25.728 And just really telling them, you know, it's all about trying to find the right 00:03:25.728 --> 00:03:32.120 fit, culture, and, you know, getting the support around you to be successful. 00:03:32.264 --> 00:03:34.673 It's so critical those first five years. 00:03:35.732 --> 00:03:38.548 Nice. Well, Dr. Rhodes, I know we're talking about coaching today, 00:03:38.548 --> 00:03:46.398 but I did want to mention we had about 10 pairs of new co-teachers start at my school last year. 00:03:46.398 --> 00:03:51.188 Just this school year that's finishing, and we kind of created a year-long support 00:03:51.188 --> 00:03:55.398 system slash PD for them, and we drew on several books. 00:03:55.398 --> 00:04:02.728 But we used your co-teaching book, the Co-Teaching Evolved, as one of our sources. 00:04:02.728 --> 00:04:07.438 And we would meet like once a month, once every two months, and just get together, 00:04:07.438 --> 00:04:12.208 check in, and then try to draw from several different books. 00:04:12.208 --> 00:04:14.921 But yours was one of them. And so we finished the year. 00:04:15.304 --> 00:04:18.258 Pretty successful co-teaching. So anyway, appreciate that. 00:04:19.124 --> 00:04:23.108 Oh, of course. No, I'm really happy that you guys were able to use the book 00:04:23.108 --> 00:04:25.848 and use a blueprint for your program. 00:04:25.848 --> 00:04:29.438 And, you know, in the future, just let me know how it's going after the first 00:04:29.438 --> 00:04:32.858 year. You know, it's that the process, like with coaching, you're building a 00:04:32.858 --> 00:04:37.078 program, you're building systems to support teachers and so that teachers can 00:04:37.078 --> 00:04:40.223 be successful in the classroom. So that's really cool. 00:04:41.979 --> 00:04:45.727 Yeah, it was. I mean, the hope, of course, was always that the pairs would stay 00:04:45.727 --> 00:04:48.295 together for at least two years. 00:04:49.158 --> 00:04:53.747 And we, you know, just due to master scheduling, not everyone stayed together, 00:04:53.747 --> 00:04:56.687 but we'll see. We're going to build on on what we did this year. 00:04:57.638 --> 00:05:02.827 But so for a coaching question, in your experience, what's the most common mistake, 00:05:03.356 --> 00:05:09.737 instructional coaches or leaders make early on and how can they avoid it from the start? 00:05:10.317 --> 00:05:15.418 I'll start from a leadership perspective first and then talk about how coaches can navigate this. 00:05:15.841 --> 00:05:21.297 Sometimes I think when you go to districts, there's a lot of really not a true 00:05:21.737 --> 00:05:26.917 definition of what an instructional coach does and essentially like what are their goals? 00:05:26.917 --> 00:05:30.817 And when they go to different school sites, there's no goals in place related 00:05:30.817 --> 00:05:32.240 to what instructional coaches do. 00:05:32.676 --> 00:05:34.853 They do a lot of things that is not coaching. 00:05:35.387 --> 00:05:42.887 So they end up being a glorified sub on campus, or they are mostly navigating 00:05:42.887 --> 00:05:46.198 behavior, or they're essentially a mini assistant principal, 00:05:46.726 --> 00:05:48.992 but they're not paying assistant principal wages. 00:05:49.265 --> 00:05:53.277 So I think that there's a lot to be said about defining what the instructional 00:05:53.277 --> 00:05:59.487 coach does from a district and school site level so that you can actually have 00:05:59.487 --> 00:06:02.088 the coach go and coach teachers. 00:06:02.425 --> 00:06:07.117 And additionally what does that coaching look like what are the expectations 00:06:07.117 --> 00:06:11.717 for that coaching to look like is it mostly going to be more you know what we 00:06:11.717 --> 00:06:16.745 call pop observations where there's pre-observation observation post post-observation 00:06:17.157 --> 00:06:21.177 or there's going to be something where you're utilizing like night's impact 00:06:21.177 --> 00:06:25.947 cycle or for example the grow model or for example you're going to have a lot 00:06:25.947 --> 00:06:27.769 of on-the-spot coaching 00:06:28.192 --> 00:06:32.828 where the coach will go into the classroom and support teachers. 00:06:33.848 --> 00:06:37.894 When they have time, whether it's, you know, during their passing periods or 00:06:38.173 --> 00:06:44.416 lunch or right after school or right before school, or they'll jump in and push 00:06:44.416 --> 00:06:46.705 into lessons to help co-teach to a degree. 00:06:47.268 --> 00:06:51.136 I think setting up those parameters of like what the expectation is of what 00:06:51.136 --> 00:06:53.764 the coach is going to be doing with teachers, it's really key. 00:06:54.286 --> 00:06:58.516 And as a coach, I think it's really important to be navigating, 00:06:58.516 --> 00:07:03.326 like trying to figure out your own lane and your systems

as a coach within the 00:07:03.326 --> 00:07:06.035 parameters they give you because every 00:07:06.424 --> 00:07:10.749 site you go to every district you're gonna go to it's gonna be a little bit different and, 00:07:11.396 --> 00:07:16.686 you're gonna be navigating that lane that they have either paid for you or you're 00:07:16.686 --> 00:07:19.081 gonna have to pay it yourself and i think just 00:07:19.511 --> 00:07:24.317 really the goal is to focus on the coaching piece versus everything else i think 00:07:24.724 --> 00:07:27.423 if you really want to leverage that as a resource, 00:07:28.102 --> 00:07:31.531 that has to happen and i often see that you know, 00:07:32.191 --> 00:07:37.956 very commonplace where these you know these roles aren't defined or the goals 00:07:37.956 --> 00:07:42.406 of the coach aren't defined and then the coach is doing a lot of things that 00:07:42.406 --> 00:07:45.128 are not coaching and that's not what the coach is. 00:07:45.826 --> 00:07:50.956 Supposed to do i think so that's what i see from like a leadership level and 00:07:50.956 --> 00:07:55.172 then from a coaching level i see coaches tend to, 00:07:55.857 --> 00:07:59.786 not focus on coaching because they're worried about everything else that they 00:07:59.786 --> 00:08:01.716 need to do and they don't have a system. 00:08:01.716 --> 00:08:06.862 So for example, when they're observing teachers and they're collecting data. 00:08:07.849 --> 00:08:11.570 They essentially don't have that in place and have to build it themselves. 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:15.386 And I think that's something that the district or school needs to help support 00:08:15.386 --> 00:08:19.986 building them. Or for example, there's a formal observation rubric for teachers, 00:08:19.986 --> 00:08:22.147 but there isn't a coaching observation rubric. 00:08:23.139 --> 00:08:28.824 I think that that's important, too. So we want to make sure that the coach knows 00:08:28.824 --> 00:08:32.674 what they need to do and make sure that they don't have duties along the side, 00:08:32.674 --> 00:08:36.610 as well as they have that foundational piece so that they can go in, 00:08:37.090 --> 00:08:41.204 and have something that they can do to collect data and actually measure the 00:08:41.204 --> 00:08:46.117 coaching that they're doing so that they can, you know, start on the right foot and coach. 00:08:46.574 --> 00:08:50.854 Also, too, I think a lot of coaches come into coaching without having a lot 00:08:50.854 --> 00:08:54.324 of coaching experience. They may have worked with maybe a pre-service teacher 00:08:54.324 --> 00:08:59.985 before, but sometimes coaches come in really hot and sometimes they come in really cold. 00:09:00.514 --> 00:09:03.584 So I think if you've seen a number of instructional coaches in your career, 00:09:03.584 --> 00:09:06.324 you've seen people that are very enthusiastic. 00:09:06.724 --> 00:09:09.814 And then you see people that are really kind of timid at times,

00:09:09.814 --> 00:09:13.372 especially working with teachers that may not be as open to coaching. 00:09:14.196 --> 00:09:18.005 So I think that that's something for them to, you know, really take into consideration 00:09:18.005 --> 00:09:22.905 as well as I think when you're starting to coach, especially if you're a new 00:09:22.905 --> 00:09:26.865 coach to a site, you need to make sure that you're everywhere. 00:09:26.865 --> 00:09:31.830 So everyone knows who you are and be very clear along with administration. 00:09:32.263 --> 00:09:36.065 What are your goals and your intentions? Because sometimes when there's never 00:09:36.065 --> 00:09:39.914 been a coach there, it could be very invasive, the teachers. 00:09:40.430 --> 00:09:44.691 And it takes you know some time for the ground to thaw, 00:09:45.369 --> 00:09:49.449 and when it becomes more normalized hey this person's coming into your classroom 00:09:49.815 --> 00:09:54.701 you know a number of times a week or hey you'll see them you know every month, 00:09:55.235 --> 00:09:59.125 or they're going to be pushing in to your classroom to help you co-teach as 00:09:59.125 --> 00:10:02.703 you're trying to learn this new strategy or ed tech tool for example, 00:10:03.391 --> 00:10:08.315 so those are the types of you know, things that I always like to talk to school 00:10:08.315 --> 00:10:11.805 leaders and coaches about because when you're starting out. 00:10:12.932 --> 00:10:13.820 It's essential. 00:10:14.407 --> 00:10:17.935 Yeah, we hear that time and time again about setting the expectations, 00:10:17.935 --> 00:10:21.865 meeting with the leadership up front and finding out what the goal is as a coach, 00:10:21.865 --> 00:10:25.575 what the expectations are, and really defining that job description. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:31.355 So out of your book, there's 25 amazing tips. Which one tends to create the 00:10:31.355 --> 00:10:33.265 biggest impact when implemented well. 00:10:34.446 --> 00:10:38.228 Oh, man, that's a really tough question. I like to say that there's several. 00:10:38.228 --> 00:10:40.919 If you pin them together, it's going to be helpful. 00:10:41.235 --> 00:10:46.548 I think it just depends on where you're at as a coach. And, you know, 00:10:46.548 --> 00:10:49.958 if you're just starting out or you've done this before. Or so, 00:10:50.278 --> 00:10:55.272 I mean, I think first and foremost, as I kind of just mentioned before, just being visible. 00:10:55.725 --> 00:11:01.609 I think being visible is key, but also really as you're, I call it the mobile coach. 00:11:01.987 --> 00:11:06.308 While you're evaluating kind of, you know, the site itself and the teachers, 00:11:06.308 --> 00:11:12.932 it's really understanding really who are people that are most willing to be coached. 00:11:13.792 --> 00:11:17.558 And i talk a lot about in the book it's called the diffusion of innovation where 00:11:17.858 --> 00:11:22.068 if a coach knows like hey you have 20 of people that

are going to be very enthusiastic 00:11:22.068 --> 00:11:25.615 to be coached that's the first group that you want to start coaching, 00:11:26.085 --> 00:11:31.398 and then as you move into six months to a year to two years you want to focus 00:11:31.398 --> 00:11:35.378 on what we call the mid-majority the mid-majority is where if you can get the 00:11:35.378 --> 00:11:37.051 mid-majority which is like say like. 00:11:38.283 --> 00:11:43.133 20% are the enthusiasm, they're enthusiastic. Then if you could get from like 00:11:43.133 --> 00:11:48.158 20% to 60%, that's where you're going to start getting whole systems change. 00:11:48.594 --> 00:11:53.613 So, and there are people that are going to be more willing as you move more 00:11:53.613 --> 00:11:57.173 from the enthusiast because they're going to say good things about your coaching. 00:11:57.615 --> 00:12:02.073 And when you get to that middle ground, you're going to get more people to buy in. 00:12:02.578 --> 00:12:07.613 And if you can get that 60% bought in, There might be that 20% that may not 00:12:07.613 --> 00:12:12.069 be fully bought in, but you're going to have close to 60 to 80% of the school, 00:12:12.693 --> 00:12:16.333 on board of what you're trying to do and trying to improve in that area, 00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:19.942 in that focus area, or maybe like two to three things. 00:12:20.515 --> 00:12:23.911 So that's really critical. And a lot of coaches don't see that at first. 00:12:24.416 --> 00:12:29.193 And I think leaders need to have conversations with coaches as well to kind of talk about, 00:12:29.727 --> 00:12:33.363 you know, this is the first set of people that we really want to work with, 00:12:33.363 --> 00:12:38.173 but we know that they're going to be more willing to try this to start or to 00:12:38.173 --> 00:12:39.697 refine these practices. 00:12:40.926 --> 00:12:45.539 I would say that the next thing that relates to this, but also is, 00:12:46.073 --> 00:12:49.572 I think, a little bit different by combining the first tip of the book, 00:12:49.572 --> 00:12:54.101 active listening, with tip number 11, think less is more. 00:12:54.595 --> 00:12:59.732 I think that ultimately as a coach, you should be listening more at first in 00:12:59.732 --> 00:13:04.852 your coaching conversations with teachers than actually delivering any coaching 00:13:04.852 --> 00:13:08.457 because you need to understand that there's a lot of context, 00:13:08.951 --> 00:13:11.807 that goes into a lesson and how they teach. 00:13:12.135 --> 00:13:17.212 So I think asking questions about, you know, how have you done your backwards 00:13:17.212 --> 00:13:21.342 design and really listening and hearing them out, like talking about the entire 00:13:21.342 --> 00:13:26.282 process and then going into your lesson, you know, why did you design it this way? 00:13:26.282 --> 00:13:30.566 Well, you know, the sequence of this hour or two hour lesson, 00:13:31.118 --> 00:13:35.582 you know, tell me about the process in your thinking as to putting this together. 00:13:35.968 --> 00:13:39.962 And then, you know, when they're teaching specifically, focus on one or two 00:13:39.962 --> 00:13:45.312 areas and really just hear them out and ask them, like, why do you do a foot 00:13:45.312 --> 00:13:48.055 right at the very beginning of the lesson? 00:13:48.695 --> 00:13:55.942 Or why are you, you know, why are you using a concept math to explain this concept? 00:13:55.942 --> 00:14:01.592 I mean, I think just the goal in any early coaching conversations is to actively 00:14:01.592 --> 00:14:05.902 listen and learn everything you can about that teacher and build that trust 00:14:05.902 --> 00:14:09.575 in that relationship. But understand, like, why are they doing things the way that they're doing it? 00:14:10.387 --> 00:14:13.882 Because then that's going to give you that context that you're going to need 00:14:13.882 --> 00:14:15.122 and that information needs. 00:14:15.122 --> 00:14:18.882 Think about everyone's going to be a little bit different, but you're going 00:14:18.882 --> 00:14:22.652 to have to press certain buttons and you're going to have to focus on certain 00:14:22.652 --> 00:14:25.960 areas that they talk to you about. 00:14:27.216 --> 00:14:31.830 I like more of the dialogical coaching in terms of my coaching style. 00:14:32.243 --> 00:14:37.356 I like to listen and then hear them speak and then have a dialogue about it 00:14:37.356 --> 00:14:40.721 versus more of authoritative coaching. 00:14:41.315 --> 00:14:45.136 But that's just my particular style. And I talk about several different ways 00:14:45.136 --> 00:14:48.740 of how to have coaching conversations in the book, including those two. 00:14:49.342 --> 00:14:52.376 But then moving into the thought of once you have that information throughout 00:14:52.376 --> 00:14:54.091 listening, you want to think less is more. 00:14:54.708 --> 00:14:57.016 You don't want to focus on too many things in your coaching. 00:14:57.016 --> 00:15:03.502 Focus on one of three things max with a teacher, and then you try to measure those things over time. 00:15:04.441 --> 00:15:09.990 And oftentimes, as new coaches, you try to focus on too many things at once, 00:15:10.426 --> 00:15:12.045 and you're not going to make that growth. 00:15:12.045 --> 00:15:15.581 And I think in education, we focus on too many things at one time, 00:15:16.179 --> 00:15:20.495 versus we should focus on really, really high leverage areas that can really 00:15:20.495 --> 00:15:22.385 support student learning. 00:15:22.385 --> 00:15:26.845 But also, I think it's important to teach teachers practices that are also ways, 00:15:27.465 --> 00:15:32.662 that can help them be more sustainable in their practices and what ways to be more efficient. 00:15:33.149 --> 00:15:36.805 Like, for example, when I work with ELI teachers, especially at the high school 00:15:36.805 --> 00:15:42.347 level, I always ask them, I would not

recommend reading everyone's entire essay, 00:15:43.009 --> 00:15:44.263 for every single part of it. 00:15:44.652 --> 00:15:48.954 I would say, let's focus on one area that we're working on. you know say we're working on 00:15:49.357 --> 00:15:53.625 finding evidence related to a thesis statement so you're going to look at the 00:15:53.625 --> 00:15:56.935 thesis statement and then a number of areas of evidence you're not going to 00:15:56.935 --> 00:15:59.539 read almost the entirety of the paper you're going to read parts of it 00:15:59.864 --> 00:16:04.578 and you're going to be evaluating those pieces because if you're reading the entirety of the paper 00:16:04.955 --> 00:16:09.128 and assessing every single one it's going to take you hours and hours and hours to do this, 00:16:09.575 --> 00:16:11.305 versus if we're focused on this, 00:16:11.781 --> 00:16:15.345 we'll spend a lot less time and then when we provide the whole class feedback 00:16:15.345 --> 00:16:16.756 or individualized feedback, 00:16:17.340 --> 00:16:19.970 you're going to get a lot more bang for your buck because it's, you know, 00:16:20.588 --> 00:16:23.555 it's only a couple of things that you're assessing and then you can go back 00:16:23.555 --> 00:16:29.755 and reteach that versus focusing on the entirety of the paper and spending all that time. 00:16:30.423 --> 00:16:35.875 And I think just really focusing on practices that not only are effective in 00:16:35.875 --> 00:16:40.475 terms of evidence based, but I think in terms of sustainability are really, 00:16:40.475 --> 00:16:42.824 really important when you're supporting teachers. 00:16:43.816 --> 00:16:47.383 Yeah, I really love that idea of asking, just you talking about listening and 00:16:47.383 --> 00:16:51.362 asking people why, you know, why do you do the things that you do and what, 00:16:51.965 --> 00:16:56.343 just wonder how many have never even thought about why they do it that way or 00:16:56.343 --> 00:17:01.933 how helpful it is to then say, oh, I guess let me, let me do a think aloud about 00:17:01.933 --> 00:17:04.638 why I do that. And that's instructive in itself. 00:17:05.286 --> 00:17:09.473 It really is. That metacognition piece is really critical, I think, 00:17:09.473 --> 00:17:11.983 for a lot of things in life. 00:17:11.983 --> 00:17:17.113 I think a lot of things that we try to answer, we can answer ourselves by thinking 00:17:17.113 --> 00:17:21.343 about what we're thinking and having someone facilitate that in that dialogue. 00:17:21.991 --> 00:17:28.123 Yeah. Well, you talked about coaches that come in cold, coaches that come in 00:17:28.123 --> 00:17:30.213 hot, just those different approaches. 00:17:30.213 --> 00:17:35.113 Is what's a mistake or maybe just a misstep that even an experienced coach might 00:17:35.113 --> 00:17:39.676 make when trying to move a teacher forward and what would be your fix for it? 00:17:40.501 --> 00:17:44.033 I think with teachers that may be a little bit more difficult than you're a 00:17:44.033 --> 00:17:49.237 veteran, I think that you need to really understand, you know, 00:17:50.038 --> 00:17:52.360 this idea of who to coach and when to coach. 00:17:52.901 --> 00:17:58.075 It's kind of like having certain conversations with people when, say, for example, 00:17:58.742 --> 00:18:03.283 this one teacher's going to you want to coach them you know at the beginning 00:18:03.283 --> 00:18:05.883 of the year middle year or versus the end of the year, 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:09.903 you want to see like when that teacher is going to be I would say especially 00:18:09.903 --> 00:18:13.917 if they're more resistant when's a good time of year when they're least busy 00:18:14.259 --> 00:18:19.031 when are they going to not be as busy as they were in the past and I think, 00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:25.773 some coaches really need to understand when teachers are really busy especially 00:18:25.773 --> 00:18:29.523 certain teachers in different contact areas grade levels like for example we 00:18:29.523 --> 00:18:32.209 just finished in california state testing. 00:18:33.191 --> 00:18:36.524 It's probably not a good time to do a lot of coaching at that time, 00:18:36.998 --> 00:18:40.844 but also, you know, different times of the year for certain teachers, 00:18:40.844 --> 00:18:42.548 it's important to understand, 00:18:43.180 --> 00:18:48.264 you know, what's going on in their classrooms and what are the big challenges that they're having. 00:18:48.264 --> 00:18:53.794 And are they trying to find time when the teacher's under the least amount of 00:18:53.794 --> 00:18:59.674 stress, especially if they are a little bit more, you know, defensive or don't want the coaching? 00:18:59.674 --> 00:19:05.492 I think you've got to find those openings, and sometimes that's not necessarily an easy thing to do. 00:19:05.741 --> 00:19:09.056 Sometimes that takes a lot of experience, understanding. 00:19:09.974 --> 00:19:14.194 It's like the emotional intelligence skill of reading people and understanding, 00:19:15.336 --> 00:19:18.614 what's going on in their schedule and workflow. 00:19:18.614 --> 00:19:26.794 So it's something that is not necessarily an easy thing that someone can do, 00:19:26.794 --> 00:19:29.727 regardless of whether they're new or seasoned in doing that. 00:19:30.679 --> 00:19:35.034 I'm hearing a lot of intentionality about stepping back and reading the room, 00:19:35.374 --> 00:19:38.641 so to speak, but really getting to know the culture of the building and maybe 00:19:38.995 --> 00:19:42.604 the flow of the building when things might slow down a little and what might 00:19:42.604 --> 00:19:44.369 be the prime opportunity 00:19:44.793 --> 00:19:46.325 to work with certain people. 00:19:47.429 --> 00:19:53.704 Yeah 100% and I think that you know as a instructional coach you should be able 00:19:53.704 --> 00:19:56.026 to see the master schedule, 00:19:56.663 --> 00:20:01.644 and really evaluate

the master schedule as to why it's set up that way but also 00:20:01.644 --> 00:20:04.145 then you need to be strategic in terms of, 00:20:05.172 --> 00:20:07.480 groups of teachers that you're working with or teachers that you're working 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:11.770 with that can be best optimized within the constraints of that master schedule. 00:20:11.770 --> 00:20:16.756 Because obviously there's contract, there's union things that you need to take into account. 00:20:17.784 --> 00:20:22.490 But I think that understanding, I mean, it's one of the key facets of when I 00:20:22.490 --> 00:20:26.830 go and talk to school leaders and coaches is that your master schedule is one 00:20:26.830 --> 00:20:30.284 of the biggest, you know, significant pieces of your school culture. 00:20:31.290 --> 00:20:35.930 It tells you what's important versus what's not important when you look at that. 00:20:36.255 --> 00:20:40.990 And trying to find ways to help improve your staff within those constraints, 00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:45.148 it's really key for you to try to navigate. 00:20:45.317 --> 00:20:50.269 So that's really important there. But also I think that when you look at schools, 00:20:51.132 --> 00:20:55.140 you need to figure out as a coach too to develop ways where you're providing 00:20:55.140 --> 00:20:58.410 coaching, even though you might not be physically in those classrooms. 00:20:58.410 --> 00:21:03.390 So I always recommend sending out a bulletin where you're at that week. 00:21:03.730 --> 00:21:06.700 Say, for example, if you're multi-site, you could say, hey, I'm at this site 00:21:06.700 --> 00:21:10.830 for a.m. and p.m. in the afternoon on Tuesday. 00:21:11.150 --> 00:21:15.363 And then I'm here at this site on Wednesday and a.m. But I always like to throw 00:21:15.768 --> 00:21:20.280 a coaching tip or a video in that little newsletter that I send out so they 00:21:20.280 --> 00:21:22.981 could watch, you know, about 30 seconds to a minute. 00:21:23.120 --> 00:21:28.770 Or it can be, I like to do infographics of, you know, a particular teaching 00:21:28.770 --> 00:21:30.463 strategy. I think that's really helpful. 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:34.396 But then you also have a little website, maybe it's with the district of, 00:21:34.953 --> 00:21:38.599 you know, what's happening with coaching this year? What are we working on? 00:21:39.208 --> 00:21:42.300 And then what are some examples of, you know, whether they're infographics, 00:21:42.300 --> 00:21:45.770 concept maps, as well as videos, so that you can always just pull from that 00:21:45.770 --> 00:21:50.010 each week so that you can have that available whenever and you can send that 00:21:50.010 --> 00:21:52.200 out whenever and refer to it whenever. 00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:56.330 So you have constraints, but when you have information that can be available 00:21:56.330 --> 00:21:59.977 24-7, I think that's really critical. 00:22:01.100 --> 00:22:04.193 Yeah, and then that's a good way to read how people are ready when they want 00:22:04.193 --> 00:22:07.253 to engage in a conversation, maybe about something that was in the newsletter. 00:22:07.695 --> 00:22:11.313 Then that's your door kind of cracking open to maybe say that, 00:22:11.313 --> 00:22:14.563 you know what, this is the right time to go in and coach that person or get 00:22:14.563 --> 00:22:16.632 a cycle set up. Definitely. 00:22:17.417 --> 00:22:21.063 So coaching, we know, can feel isolating at times. It's one of those one-off 00:22:21.063 --> 00:22:24.370 positions when you're often the only coach in a building. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:28.893 What do you recommend for coaches to maintain their own energy and avoid burnout 00:22:28.893 --> 00:22:30.388 while pouring into others? 00:22:31.128 --> 00:22:34.463 Yeah. So, I mean, if you're in a district where there's other instructional 00:22:34.463 --> 00:22:39.923 coaches, I hope that you're meeting maybe like once a month or you have a group chat going. 00:22:39.923 --> 00:22:45.532 Or if you're a singleton in your school or district, then I recommend, 00:22:45.765 --> 00:22:51.663 you know, connecting with other coaches on LinkedIn or app slash Twitter. 00:22:52.003 --> 00:22:57.723 There's different coaching through Google has coaching groups as well as does 00:22:57.723 --> 00:22:58.873 other organizations like Digital 00:22:58.873 --> 00:23:02.950 Promise. They had coaching resources and groups that you could join. 00:23:03.322 --> 00:23:06.653 So I think finding people like similar to anything else in life, 00:23:06.653 --> 00:23:10.769 you need to find people that are doing something maybe somewhat similar to you, 00:23:11.269 --> 00:23:16.667 and start meeting, whether that's like monthly or having a group chat going or whatever. 00:23:17.636 --> 00:23:24.034 You know, just a list of people that you can always contact and share your experiences with. 00:23:24.034 --> 00:23:28.344 Because if you can't share your experiences with anyone, then you're not going 00:23:28.344 --> 00:23:33.634 to have maybe that shared understanding or maybe sometimes don't feel like you're 00:23:33.634 --> 00:23:38.184 being listened to because they don't understand fully the work that you're doing. 00:23:38.184 --> 00:23:42.834 So I think finding people that are doing something similar to you is critical. 00:23:42.834 --> 00:23:45.134 And there's a lot of different outlets that you can find that. 00:23:45.134 --> 00:23:51.854 And then for sustainability, I think just in order to not burn out, it's all about systems. 00:23:51.854 --> 00:23:56.464 If you don't have systems, then you're not going to navigate this well. 00:23:56.464 --> 00:24:00.014 So like, for example, one of the systems that I always like is I'm going to 00:24:00.014 --> 00:24:06.584 go do a lot of my on the spot coaching or observations during these times of 00:24:06.584 --> 00:24:09.774 the day, like from nine to 11. 00:24:09.774 --> 00:24:13.247 That's what's

happening at that time. That's my non-negotiable. 00:24:13.537 --> 00:24:15.946 I'm not going to get hold of anything else during that time. 00:24:16.573 --> 00:24:20.534 At 3 p.m. or like 2 to 3 p.m., I'm going to sit down and do all my email and 00:24:20.534 --> 00:24:23.220 paperwork. That's my non-negotiable. 00:24:23.684 --> 00:24:25.854 Or, for example, I'm going to 00:24:25.854 --> 00:24:30.008 do coaching cycles where I'm going to do my pre-observations on Mondays. 00:24:30.397 --> 00:24:34.629 I'm going to do my observations on Wednesday that week. And then on Friday, 00:24:34.925 --> 00:24:38.031 I'm going to do my post-observations. I'm going to try and schedule as many as I can. 00:24:39.284 --> 00:24:42.872 Also, for example, like the website, the newsletter, I think is critical that 00:24:42.872 --> 00:24:47.669 you can constantly just be utilizing as well as having a data collection system. 00:24:47.971 --> 00:24:53.962 And I always recommend not try to reinvent the wheel. So if your district has 00:24:53.962 --> 00:24:57.102 a data collection system or if you need to use one yourself, 00:24:57.102 --> 00:24:58.482 I always recommend Connect Hub. 00:24:58.926 --> 00:25:02.972 But I think just it's all based on systems. And if you don't have systems or 00:25:02.972 --> 00:25:06.083 you're not organized, then that's how you're going to create burnout. 00:25:06.407 --> 00:25:11.942 And that goes back again to the very beginning of defining what the coach does, 00:25:11.942 --> 00:25:16.722 because if the coach has more roles than just coaching, they're more likely to burn out. 00:25:16.722 --> 00:25:22.292 So I think it's really, really critical to really define what the coach is doing 00:25:22.292 --> 00:25:26.836 at first and building systems of what that actually looks like. 00:25:27.755 --> 00:25:31.532 Great advice. We're going to jump into the rapid fire portion. 00:25:31.532 --> 00:25:37.901 So in about 10 seconds or less, what's one strategy every coach should have in their back pocket? 00:25:38.949 --> 00:25:45.892 All right. One is, I think, just being able to model the strategy really well 00:25:45.892 --> 00:25:49.942 before you actually go and coach a teacher on that particular strategy. 00:25:49.942 --> 00:25:54.622 Make sure you know you're doing it right before you try to coach it. Yes. 00:25:56.130 --> 00:25:59.532 If you had 60 seconds with a new coach, what's something you would tell them? 00:26:00.449 --> 00:26:06.042 I would say to be visible, actively listen, use AI to help you do a lot of your 00:26:06.042 --> 00:26:13.163 paperwork, and develop systems so that you can create a sustainable practice. 00:26:14.353 --> 00:26:17.072 Thank you so much, Matt. We really enjoyed our conversation today, 00:26:17.072 --> 00:26:19.484 and you had some great advice for all of our coaches. 00:26:20.378 --> 00:26:24.122 Thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me. Matt gave us so many practical tips for 00:26:24.122 --> 00:26:25.661 coaches to start at the school year. 00:26:25.986 --> 00:26:29.318 We're wishing everyone a wonderful 26-27 year. 00:26:29.695 --> 00:26:33.056 Be sure to follow us on social media. Thanks for listening to C3.