AD Connect
1-30-18
Hardcore Coaching or Coaching Lite
There were so many rich discussions from the area meeting yesterday, and I thought the terminology "hardcore coaching" and "coaching lite" was great. I appreciate your receptiveness, the depth of your discussions and your openness to developing your skills as an instructional leader. It’s really been a pleasure to hone this practice with you. I can’t wait to see what everyone selects as personal next steps. Be sure to share your Google “Next Steps” notetaking document with me.
Here are some of the ideas we captured when we made the distinction between corrective feedback and coaching discussions. I thought you would find them helpful as you move forward in the process.
- All discussions should begin with “seeking first to understand,” asking questions, prompting reflection. We grow teachers by helping them to identify the issues and solving problems on their own. Just because it’s corrective feedback doesn’t mean we skip that part. We become more directive when the reflection and next steps don’t occur.
- Method and timing of feedback is based on urgency of issue. Some things just can’t wait for a scheduled coaching meeting.
- Teacher receptiveness (willing versus unwilling) determines style of communication.
- When we have expectations for teacher performance, we must give them the tools to be successful. Do they need training, modeling, or do they need to see it in action?
- Monitoring is the key...when you and the teacher determine next steps, you need to ensure it happens. And in those urgent cases, immediate monitoring and follow-up are called for.
- Tracking teacher growth from feedback in a measurable way ensures we are targeted, intentional, and strategic in our actions.
- Partnering with our AP’s in monitoring and tracking our feedback and teacher growth builds administrative capacity and impact on learning, and it holds us all responsible for work that needs to remain a top priority.
Feed Forward
Author Joe Hirsch explains that there’s a different way to give feedback that is more effective, focusing on the future rather than the past. It’s a concept called “feedforward.”
He recommends a direct approach to feedback: describe what’s happening, explain why it’s a problem, then prompt the person for a solution. “When delivered this way,” Hirsch explains, “It puts people at ease, it takes them off the defensive. It is clear, it is concise, it’s locating the problem, it’s looking for solutions together.” Then follow up by implementing the next step: what attainable, small, bite size actions will lead to achieving a goal?
More information about the concept of feedforward can be found here.
Small Wins
In The Details
One of the most important things for any successful person, regardless of their profession or position, is that they pay attention to the details. In fact, they obsess about the details. Planning productive learning meetings is like planning productive instruction. When you do this well, you are modeling the lesson cycle and key instructional strategies for your teachers.
How detailed would you like your teachers to be when they create lesson plans? Consider your response when planning your meetings. It might look something like this when planning for an upcoming learning meeting:
- What do I want teachers to take away from this learning meeting today? In other words, what is the learning objective for the meeting?
- What will they need to bring to the meeting in order to maximize our time together?What supplies and materials are needed for the lesson?
- How will I communicate that information to them? What pre-teaching is needed?
- How will I connect the learning to prior learning experiences, and how will I help them apply what they learned? What activities will help them to connect prior learning and move from knowledge to application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation levels of Bloom’s?
- What closing agreements will we make about how they will apply the learning in their classrooms? How will I assess if they mastered the info and are ready to apply it?
- How will know if what was learned transferred into the classroom? How will I assess if they applied the info?
- How will I celebrate with teachers when they apply the new skill? How will I provide reinforcement and recognition for individuals?
- When will we follow up as a campus to celebrate our progress? How will I provide reinforcement and recognition for the group?
Mock STAAR Plans
By the end of the day Monday, please email me your Mock STAAR administration plans. Remember to adhere to the district test administration dates. Your plan should include the following for each day:
*Names of test administrators and room assignments
*Designate which groups are small groups and have students with accommodations (student names are not necessary)
*Names of test monitors and where they are assigned
Family Engagement Survey
Campuses were given access to the 2017-2018 Family Engagement Survey on October 20th in the attached WAIP; the deadline for the survey is March 29, 2018.
Last year, the district completion rate was 6%. Our goal is to increase that number and give all of our GISD families an opportunity to participate in their campus family engagement survey. Jonathan Armstrong will send campuses an update on their completion rate by January 31, 2018, and RAAD will provide the final survey results to campuses by April 13, 2018.
Links to the 2017-18 online survey and PDFs are available on the Federal Programs Intranet page under the Compliance and Documentation tab.
Parent Teacher Conferences
Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for Monday, February 5 through Friday, March 2. As you know, a focused meeting between a parent and teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s academic progress and provides us with a great opportunity to include parents in the process. At this time of year, it’s especially critical to connect with parents to ensure they have a full understanding of their child’s strengths and needs, as well as the tools necessary to help them grow. Here are a few resources to consider as you begin scheduling conferences with your teachers:
Nester Area Hiring Meeting
Campus Elevator Speech
If not, what are they articulating?
Discipline
How many of those are behavior RtI and/or behavior plan?
Analyze This
Orange=November
Yellow=January
What does this data tell you?
What questions does it raise?
How would you move forward with this class/teacher?
Teacher Mock STAAR Data Analysis Questions
How did I teach this...what verb...what product...what stimulus?
What does the STAAR question look like?
What did your formative assessment look like?
Was there reteach and if so what did it look like?
Which kids...are they RTI or sped...what was their STAAR like last year?
Did all on your grade level teach the same? Was one class higher in data?
Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning.
Tuesday: TASA
Wednesday: TASA
Thursday: Couch
Friday: Campus Visits; Club Hill Quarterly Review
What's going on?
January 29-Mock STAAR (3rd-5th Grade Math)
January 30-Mock STAAR (3rd/5th Grade Reading & 4th Grade Writing)
January 31-Deadline to spend Title I funds
February 5-Spring Parent-Teacher Conference window begins
February 6-Mock STAAR (5th Grade Reading & 5th Grade Science)
February 8-TEAM GISD & GEF Grant deadline (WAIP 1/4)
February 13-Area staffing meetings
February 15-Area staffing meetings
February 19-Staff development day