Establishing Beliefs and Behaviors
The role of the instructional coach is extremely unique. She is somewhere between a teacher and an administrator; she is an equal partner with the teacher she is working with; she is an expert in instructional practices; she is a change agent helping teachers to adapt their instruction to school initiatives; she is an emotional support to teachers.
Instructional Coaches have an amazing opportunity as leaders to impact teachers personally and professionally from this unique spot. But to do this effectively, coaches have to know what they BELIEVE about teachers. Once they have a firm foundation of BELIEFS, they must establish the behaviors and habits that will reflect those beliefs accurately and authentically. Outlining these Beliefs and Behaviors intentionally helps you react better in the moment when it isn't always easy to stand on your beliefs. Jim Knight shares in his book Better Conversations that "Often people act without even pausing to consider what they believe about how they interact with others. Unfortunately, when people don't think carefully about their beliefs, they can find themselves engaging in far too many unsuccessful conversations." In Better Conversations, Jim includes six Better Conversations Beliefs that are the foundational beliefs he uses to engage in any coaching conversation with a teacher. His six Better Conversation Beliefs are: Better Conversation Beliefs
Inspired by these Better Conversation Beliefs, my team and I developed this Instructional Coaching Foundational Beliefs and Behaviors document. We anchored it to scripture since in a Christian school environment, we believe we are called to respond to people as Jesus, Paul, and Peter advise.
While doing this work, we realized that Beliefs alone were not enough. We also wanted to include the BEHAVIORS and HABITS that would define how we responded to teachers. These were vital in times of dealing with negativity, toxicity or other hard situations with teachers. Rather than responding with instincts (which could appear as anger, frustration, wishing we could quit), we anchored to these behaviors and worked hard to respond using them. Or if we weren't able to do it in the moment, we revisited the behaviors and implemented them with the next encounter with the teacher. Once we embraced Jim Knight's content in Better Conversations as well as his Partnership Principles we engaged in the hard work of writing our own guiding Beliefs and Behaviors. (To read more about the Partnership Principals, read Jim's book Instructional Coaching or better yet, watch these videos where he explains them - much faster option!) Writing our own foundational beliefs as a team was vital for us to have a vision for coaching at our school. It also helped us define how we would measure success in our encounters with teachers. I encourage you to engage in this work personally or with a team because it will transform your coaching and your mindset toward teachers on a daily basis! I'd love to help you and/or your team dive into this work. Reach out to me to discuss ways to connect and options for virtual support!
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Allison L. Petersen @alcp Connect with me on Twitter and Instagram Join our #NewtoCoaching Facebook Group to find encouragement, resources, and support for new coaches!
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