In House Newsletter
February 2018
Education Specialist
Coaching With Powerful Interactions
The Education Specialist calls will be discussing positive coaching techniques over the next few months. Coaching with powerful interactions will enhance your coaching relationships.Positive relationships are a necessary ingredient for learning and can impact the environment, making everyone more open to change and growth.
The following coaching strategies are an excerpt from Coaching with Powerful Interactions by Judy Jablon, Amy Laura Dombro, and Shaun Johnsen.
Step One: Be Present
- Quiet the Static. Adjust to find the "just right fit."
Step Two: Connect
- Be Trustworthy. Be on time. Refer to past conversations and discoveries to recall your shared history of working and learning together.
- Listen to Learn. Ask questions to learn more. Remember everyone brings expertise to the table.
- Communicate to Form a Partnership. Keep the conversation two-way. Pause often for think time and let your partner know you are thinking.
- Focus on Goals. Restate the purpose as you open your meeting. Review the goal you set together.
- Notice Moments of Effectiveness. Use "I notice" statements. Be prepared with a few clear notes identifying the moments of effectiveness you want to highlight. Highlight why the teacher's actions and words are important to teaching and learning. Avoid judgmental or evaluative words ("I liked how you did..."). Instead, say: I noticed_______. I was watching children do ___________. I saw _____________ during the transition. I noticed you using ______________ as a strategy for ____________.
- Use prompts and Questions to Think Together.
I wonder about..." or "I'm interested to know more about..." invite a
conversation more than simply asking, "Why did you do that?"
*Highlight a strategy the teacher uses "unconsciously" and encourage her to
use it with more intention.
*Encourage him to try a new strategy.
*Suggest a resource that might be helpful.
*Offer to model a strategy.
- Document Plans and Progress Together. Invite the educator to summarize the conversation and establish a time frame for completing the next step. Stay in touch. Invite the teacher to email you with a success story. Send her a note of encouragement.
Rainbow Rep.
Health, Safety, and Licensing Coordination
Supervision
Providing adequate supervision is of paramount importance. Serious issues can arise when children are not properly supervised; the children can, get lost, cause mischief, or become seriously injured in a matter of seconds. Supervision techniques are important for many different reasons; it protects you, your children and the integrity of your center. Adequate supervision will help keep kids safe, identify potential risks, and help with parent retention. When a parent feels comfortable that we are supervising their child, they stay with us longer and help make the center more successful.
Providing adequate supervision is essentially an easy process when following Rainbow Guidelines.
- Children should always be within sight and sound of a teacher.
- Position yourself to see the entire area, including the bathroom.
- Listen for different sounds, distress, happiness, or sadness.
- Understand different children’s needs, some may be wanderers and it is important to identify the flight risk.
- Check the room before leaving any area, even in the cribs.
- Conduct a proper name-to-face check every hour and before/after transitions, this includes...
- Calling out a child’s name, hearing them reply AND visually seeing them. (This aligns with our sight and sound policy.)
- Lining them up at the door for ALL transitions while doing name-to-face.
- Ensuring via name-to-face that you have an accurate count on your children. Name-to-face sheets are numbered for convenience.
- If applicable, have one teacher stand at the front of the line and one stand at the back.
- Remain at the table during meal times with the children to ensure child safety.
- During nap time, light procedures must be followed in order to adequately maintain sight and sound of the child(ren).
- Make sure no child’s head is covered by a blanket.
- Blankets must not be placed in cribs and bibs must be removed prior to napping in all cases.
- Infants must be placed on their back to sleep and checked regularly, every 15 minutes.
- Never leave the room out of ratio.
If you follow these simple guidelines, you will never have a supervision problem thus protecting all your children and the integrity of our centers.