I got a great question from Sarah in response to another blog post of mine…and I thought our convo might help you a bit, too!
Question:
Good morning Jill,
I like how you talked about creating the remind with teachers so the focus of the cycle doesn’t get lost. I’ve been doing this with (generally) weekly emails or some kind of communication of how the goal is progressing (are they tracking things on their own- can they produce data, shall I come in and observe/tally, etc) and what I can do to help them. I don’t want to be a burden to the teachers, but I want to hold us both accountable to the goal and cycle we have established. Do you have any other suggestions as to how I should do this?
Thanks for a great thought-provoking post this morning!
My response:
Hi Sarah!
Happy Tuesday and you ask a great question! It sounds like you’re doing really well already in reminding your teachers, but here is a suggestion that has worked really well for me and it’s super simple.
Give each teacher a cheapie composition book ($1 ones from Target work well!). Designate a few pages of the book to creating a checklist…and every time you give them something to work on/they commit to incorporating it, they add it to the checklist, essentially creating their own lesson planning checklist that is designed just for them based upon your coaching!
I find, too, that this serves as a really great restraint for me as I coach because I can’t have them add 92 things each week/coaching cycle to their checklist.
It keeps me honest to the ONE THING that is most important for them to change/alter/remember. Then, every time we coach, we can go back to the checklist that we’re created together and ask how things are going.
I find this works really well and is super tangible for the teacher.
Hope this helps!
J
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If you are thought this super practical coaching/leadership support was refreshing, then you might be refreshed by this, too!