Teaching as Inquiry: Through a coaching lens Seession 1

Why is this important?

Reflective 

Demonstrate you as a leaner

Agency as adult learners

Participator vs contribute

Need to build relationships

practise may be challenged and some may take it personally so how do we manage this as

How will we know that TAI is working well in your school?

Time 

Valuing authentic evidence

Happy on task students and teachers motivated

As a leader operate at many levels:

Team TAI

Personal TAI - need alignment and line up to strategic plan

Need to value it so where is the time necessary for this

Need systems and processes put in place for this to occur

How we value evidence? What is it and how do we value it? CHOICE 

To keep it fresh could do the following approach

Learning sprint approach  ( Simon Breakspear)

twice a term?  Or TAI a term

Questions are hyper focused. 

Team approach collaborative approach rather than writers This approach can be a fail fast and a fast forward approach.

Lightbulb moment aligned both TAI's with collaborative teaching and 

Team to make up a narrative whether it be a recording of th einquiry cycle

4 pronged approach to coaching: Coachin Mode

Awareness slide 13

Photo of what was shared of not what to do. Awareness is a step forward.

How do I coach? 

What questions are to be asked to help my teachers feel challenged?

AN example problem of practise. Practical exercise

Coach is listening can paraphrase or clarify.

Giving them the space people can come to the answer themselves if you can give them time to talk by above ideas.

Listen well if in the role of paraphrasing. When present with someone in an authentic way a personal way genuine and helps them come up with the solution themselves.

Who do I need to be as a coach in the particular conversation?

Slide 26:

Coaching 

What is the evidence & How can we collate it? When looking at TAI and team Observations.

Take a video of the teacher and give them time to look at the video footage so they make their own decisions.

• Evidence could be student voice: 
• Keep it real and give it deep questions so get what you need depending on hunch? 
• Swivel. Could use student leaders to gather evidence. 
• Student work
• Achievement data
• modelling books/planning
• video from their phone or ipad - tell me what you noticed to what your goal was? 

VIDEO of what is going on in the background - video of practise then video the coaching conversation then could have a video of yourself as a coach to see how you went.

Agreed purpose and 

Used in the past for a good SMART goal.

Resources shared through slide

Coaching template etc

Next steps: Discussed at the PLD

What do we need to lean into as our school TAI?

TIME: 

Alignment with TAIs is a must;

What are the nonnegotiable from Principal and leadership about how we record our evidence

Data analysis.

TAKE AWAY: Let's do this in a way that's authentic an not a tick box

Teacher Leadership Reading from SLT

Teacher Leadership That Strengthens professional Practice - Chapter 2, pg 12 - 27 “What Is Teacher Leadership?”

Questions: What does this mean for us as leaders? 

You go into teaching because you love working with students - then move into leadership - challenge.

Teacher leaders aren’t administrators 

Maintain relationships - work on it as you get

Journey without a specific destination

Managing change

Setting tone, culture, maintaining the vision

Wrap around system from other sectors

Staying current

How do we develop teacher leaders?

Letting them lead e.g. team meetings

Noticing passions and allowing someone to step up

Feeding them - PLD, quality injections

Knowing your teachers

What do you think?

Coaching

Finding their own answers rather than giving them answers

Growing capabilities

Mobilise others

Develop agency

Healthy culture

Forefront our vision and our mission

Interesting read particularly at this time of the year.

I need to keep reading this. I feel this year was the beginning for me. Getting my head back into senior school and subtly making changes that I know need to be changed. Whether it pedagogy, practice. This has been a trying journey at times. largely due to the physical environment and my location, time. All the issues out of my control.

The quote
“The litmus test of all leadership is whether it
mobilises people’s commitment to putting their energy into actions designed to improve
things. It is individual commitment, but above all it is collective mobilisation” (p. 9).

Most important factor attributed to  student learning is the quality of teaching

SO unleash the expertise of my teachers not look at what they aren't doing right! Use this to enhance motivation and the willingness to go that extra mile!

Leadership Matrix

Leadership Matrix to look at

5 Rules to Follow as You Find Your Spark by Simon Sinek

3 Key ideas and 1 I might change.

1. 2 ways to see the world: Some people see the thing that they want and some people see the thing that prevents them from. You can go after anything you want but you just cannot deny anyone else going after whatever they want. You can't get in the way of anyone else to get what they want.

2. Sometimes you're the problem! Take accountability for your actions especially what you do wrong.

3. Take care of each other. (Navy Seal) No one makes it if they are trying to prove who they are. Who makes it through are the ones who have nothing left to give they've given it all. They've done it all to help others.  Learn by helping each other and accept help when it's offered.  I don't know what I'm doing I'm scared etc. This will only happen if you take care of them first.

4. Nelson Mandela a great leader. How did he learn this? He remembers that the leaders always sat in a circle and his father was the last to speak. A skill to hold opinions to yourself before you speak. This gives people the thought of their thoughts are valid. Listen to the people ask questions.

5. as you gain fame people will treat you better. None of this is meant for you it's meant for the position you hold. Remember humility

Team Leadership

https://leadershipfreak.blog/2018/11/26/navigating-turbulence-when-forming-new-teams/

Great read as a reminder especially starting a new team!

Delegate jobs and get members to lead meeting etc

Four stages – plus one:

#1. Forming:

1. Mission – What are we here to do?
2. Introductions – Who are we?
3. Stories – Tell stories of past teams that thrived. What made them thrive?
4. Timeline – How long do we have to complete our mission? (Operations teams establish intermediate goals.)
5. Engagement – What contributions will each team member make?

Tip: Everyone at the table leaves with an assignment. This is especially true at the beginning. No drifting allowed.

You shouldn’t be at the meeting if you consistently leave without something to do.

#2. Storming:

1. Navigate respect and status.
   1. How will we respond to new ideas?
   2. How will we respond to failure?
   3. How will we treat each other when we disagree?
2. Celebrate diversity – how will we leverage each other’s strengths and compensate for each other’s weakness?

Tip: Team leadership requires you to notice tension and bring it up. The issues you avoid get worse. They don’t magically disappear.

#3. Norming:

1. Collaboration – you maximize each other’s strengths.
2. Standardization – you know how to respond to tension, conflict, and failure.
3. Monitor – team leaders monitor team interaction for reversion to the storming stage.

Tip: Team leadership is less hands-on. Team members take initiative and responsibility. Work yourself out of being central to your team’s success.

#4. Performing:

1. Mission focus – teams focus more on the mission and less on navigating relationships.
2. Interdependence – you learn when and how to count on each other.

#5. Adjourning:

1. Celebrate success.
2. Face new challenges.

*The fifth stage was added due to contribution of Mary Jensen.

Team leadership:

Team leaders have four concerns.

1. Monitor team interactions.
2. Maximize everyone’s strengths.
3. Bring up issues others might avoid.
4. Deliver great results through others.

Effective interactions are the foundation of great results.

What suggestions might help people lead through the five stages of group development?

When leading teams, what should team leaders focus on?

*Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited, by Bruce Tuckman and Mary Jensen.

Excellent video about our current NZ education system and what needs to change

Interesting last note:
Relationships are for people who have time. How can this happen with such high numbers in a classroom? and our basis is largely data-driven?

DATs Professional learning

DATs Professional Learning
See above link for teacher voice from the reading

TO be effective need to respond to instructional situations and be flexible problem solvers.
Use the same instructional strategies across the curriculum.

Students learn best when in the zone of proximal development

Scaffold

Importance of feedback to affirm, inform and guide any future learning.
If it’s effective it motivates students

Reflections on Making Mistakes acceptable. Karen Boyes

Reading Link

SO true the importance of teaching strategies to deal with failure especially in this day and age.
Modeling I the best way I believe

So what can an educator do?

Here are some tips from the reading:

It again comes back to a growth mindset and how important this is to instill in the students.
An example I use every day. I do try and always talk with children if they have made a
mistake I always articulate for them to hear great. You must be learning as you know you ’ve 

made a mistake! Better still is you know why and how to fix it. Here’s the learning!
I BELIEVE THE MORE STUDENTS HEAR THIS SURELY THIS IS HELPING THEM.
IN the reading this is called NORMALISING MISTAKES

I also like the wordle idea for seniors great way to increase vocab. Visual Thesaurus

INtroduce the learning pit: again another idea but now because I am reminded of it!

E.g

Like the idea of displaying work in all stages not only the best BUT dependent on wall space!
Maybe some laminated work on rings?

Display made for the wall to help clarity of the learning

Feedback from Ande re coaching video

Hi Megan,

Great to catch up with you on Friday. Sorry for the delay in getting this feedback to you. I was REALLY impressed with your coaching skills and use of the igrows process. Well done. Feedback as follows.

Feedback Megan:

What would you like out coaching focus to be about today? Great opener.

Do you mind if I take some notes? Began taking notes. Polite and respectful to do this.

Excellent paraphrasing - So you are saying …

So what would you like to have happened during our conversation? This was great to get the goal tighter and more specific. You then summarized what she said to make it clearer.

Ok… so… if I could try and make this a more measurable goals setting phase what part of the igrows model would you want or is it each phase?  Coachee then clarified it was the whole model. Through your questioning you got your coachee to be very clear the goal was to get better at following the igrows model. When did she want to achieve this goal by? Why did she want to get better? By… I am… so that… this is what makes it a SMART goal.

So what’s happening at the moment with the igrows?

Do you have anything in place or what do you already have in place? (double question) What this establishing the reality of current practice?

So what are some other options? So practicing using the structure. Can you think of anything else you could do?

Sounds like using that structure of using the structure and paper will really work for you. So over the next few days what will…

So the next couple of days you are going to …

Is there any support and structures that could help or how I could help you…

And knowing yourself as you do, what advise would you give yourself … (excellent)

In summary:

Great body language, noddies, oks etc.

Great setting out of the coaching scenario – table to the side, no barriers, asking to take notes etc

Excellent questions and paraphrasing and following of the igrows model.

Well done Megan.

I’ll be contacting Anna to see about school time for 1-1 coaching otherwise I’ll be in touch to make a time that suits us both.

Cheers

Ande

P. 022 3581310 E. andreafordnz@gmail.com W. www.clarityeducation.co.nz

Becoming a Coach. Andrea Ford Workshop 3 Open to learning Conversations/ Difficult conversations

Summarising from the last session:

• 80/20
• wait time
• paraphrase
• setting up, body language etc
• questioning and listening
• neutral responses

Relationship is key

IN IGROWS the I for 'issue' doesn't have to be negative.

The G for a goal ....... can change

Need to be clear and give them support about how to deal with something. Constantly bringing them back to what will YOU do what do you want them to do. 

Below gets an emotional buy-in:
WHY is a good question. WHY do you want this
What will .......... mean

When do you want this happening?
then the goal is
BY the ..............
I am ........... or I have ...............
so that...........

Next part is sharing on what I want to develop

Group Coaching

Conflict resolution - parent in about a child

Team meeting

How do we gat across a common goal together?

How do you get collaboration rather than cooperation?

What do you do with the person who dominates/ passive etc?

SO then how do I et everyone contributing all buy in and taking responsibility?

Dominating - how do you see that? Talk to me how you will see this happening

Person whose not contributing?  What are your thoughts etc.  

Important for a team to collaboratively - everybody is sharing ideas and creating a new idea, people aren't afraid to challenge and disagree. So it's important to discuss what does trust look like and confidentiality... 

What does contributing look like? Everybody contributes want all to come up with ideas ( this is not happening, with one)!

What does accountability look like?  If a reading is set should do it etc. 

• this brings in ownership
• need to be clear

Need a solid foundation of trust so everyone has input.

How are we going to do this? -    Builds buy-in

Role play I did as a leader missed the goal. Make sure everyone has clarity on what our goal actually was. Scenario: Your team isn't getting enough time in a term for learning-focused conversations as you only meet every fortnight and there is a lot of admin to cover. 

So need to unpack what does a learning-focused conversation mean. ( which I didn't do)

Also unpack what is the admin? Can we put them into different categories so we can plan for it

E.g. read-only will this work? Let's come up with a plan so it doesn't clash.

Do we need to look at having more meetings? NO ok lets come up with. Do we need to have ....? all these sorts of questions so the team can come with ideas and then look at the pros and cons of each idea.

Unpack what's happening first so we don't get into solutions 

Relational trust

Have to model trust by being vulnerable??? one idea..

be honest - about confidentiality.  

Being clear about what we're doing and why we're doing it.

What if there is no trust between you and a person? Put

Open to Learning Conversations 

Observable data: no judgments made write exactly what happened. 

Separate the person from the problem.

Does the person know how you feel? Don't leave it too long.

How do we minimize or de-escalate these difficult situations:

Address everything to begin with the same in a team. So there is a consistency e.g Simon, Sally scenario! 

steps for difficult Conversations

1. Explain YOUR POV Clearly

2. 

3.Talk to me about why it wasn't there/ they'll go on. There might be a couple of things that I wasn't aware of and we wouldn't know if we didn't ask them.  

" I hear you've had a lot of things on, however, you've got until ... until we get this done. 

What are we going to do to make this happen?

4. 

5. plan forward - what support do you need to ensure this doesn't happen again./ to move forward on this-this is where something like iGrows model comes in.

Language is nonjudgmental; it is how I see it. My truth as it could be different to the other person truth

Feedback conversations HOW TO

What do we need to put in place?
How am I going to support you

The secret of Great Coaching - Coaching Process/ Coaching Model

Summarising the last Course

Folder

Think about the purpose of coaching?
The outcome we want is for the person to come up with the solution themselves?

What if the person you are coaching just doesn' get it? And won't? Is that where the mentoring comes in?

What are the fundamental skills we need to coach?

• active listening - body language 
• wait time.
• Asking powerful questions to clarify or provoke new thoughts.
• Gaining clarity (paraphrasing/questioning)

Our questioning is about them being clear about how they are going to critically think about themselves, their impact on things, it's about them. Our questions are to get them to reflect on this.

Questioning will come, try and move away from the perfect question.

Best thing to do is wait time.

Be aware of facial expressions as well

Be prepared to be vulnerable.

Coaching Process

Should I be coaching them?

Refer to coaching Quadrant

Purpose

What it looks like?

Courageous conversations? Open to learning conversation? This is difficult feedback. Often we can skip these sorts of conversations. The problem can be glossed over therefore 

Then need to follow up make a time to meet that suits both.

Coaching Models

Most models have lots in common. 

IGROWS

Good questions in folder 

We can get bogged down in the story - as a coach don't buy in. What are you going to do about it? So what?

Need them to look at what they need to be doing to get out of it. Help them put things in place that help them. As some things can't be solved and need to be navigated around and them making the best of things.

Some issues are too big to be coached around as outside my circle of influence so maybe not the coachable thing.

A Good coach gets them to look at themselves.

Good start to a coaching session

What do you want to achieve from this session as we have X amount of time?

Use the person's language as well

Good Goal Langauge

Need to be able to visualize their goal

By the end ......... I have..........so that...

the ...so that.... is an emotional attachment, to establish accountability 

Important for coachee  to write their goal and as the coach also write down the goal

Options Stage

The more I can get my team to come up with their own ideas the more buy-in from them

Homework 8.6.2018

Reflect on the IGROWS model
What am I doing well?
What do I need to focus on more? Which is an area I need to develop?

Have a coaching session on how am I actually going to grow this? Be the coach and coachee.

Coach practicing what you want to work on and be coached about how you can do this.

This needs to  be videoed. Probably a short session

John Hattie: Teachers as Change Agents

Teachers as change agents

My reflections from this video

Teachers that really make the difference are the ones who have expectations of their students that go beyond what the students have of themselves. Show them what success looks like so these teachers need to know their curriculum.

Teachers who help their students exceed their students potential, these are the teachers who know that their students can do better.

The teacher that sees potential in their students that they do not see in themselves.

How do I build and support the teachers to build their own capacity as above? Share Carol Dweck.

When giving feedback is be positive and encourage them to self-reflect.

2018 Leadership reflections

What is Coaching?
The secret to great coaching -

Whilst reading highlight:

key points or learning

aha moments (something you know but have just remembered / things that click etc

questions you may have

At the end of the reading:

Reflect on your highlights and then select:

3 key points (any)

2 aha moments

1 question or pondering you may have.

Successful coaches realize that routinely taking on the role of the expert with the answers is the
wrong path toward collaboration and capacity building.

• “If you want teachers to take ownership for learning, the coach can’t be the expert”

1. build relationships with collaborating teachers by building trust and respect.  
2. Most important in building capacity of teachers is being supportive - if you’re not supportive it leaves them reluctant to take risks and innovate.

If questions are asked and you can answer them try not to instead ask more questions that help them come up with strategies

The primary responsibility for learning rests on the shoulders of those learning and relying on inquiry is a powerful method to reach that goal.

PONDER… what if they don’t realise how bad they are or not really wanting to do any more for themselves??

Ha  just go the answer!

Key importance is to ensure the learner is taking responsibility for their learning and the key to this is for the coach to facilitate learning.

How?

by using inquiry to encourage their learning partner to question current practices and to consider new practices and strategies. The coach may play an active role in helping the peer identify answers to the challenges they face, but ultimately the peer who is collaborating with the coach is making decisions and choosing a course of action. As I work with peer coaches,

Teachers won’t grow if you tell them what to do. The coaches job is to build capacity, not dependence.

Inquiry builds capacity - it helps them

Key is to define roles between the coach and teacher

Probing questions are a good tool to use to encourage teachers to solve issues that face them.

•  Probing questions get the teacher to think more deeply about and develop answers to the issues important to him or her. They can offer teachers a different perspective that helps them draw alternative conclusions on how to approach a problem. Probing questions are at the core of the inquiry method of learning and build the collaborating teacher’s capacity to create and offer students powerful learning activities.
• What makes a good probing question?  First, it must be a question

Effective probing questions usually start with a paraphrase, and they are often open-ended. Stems or sentence starters might include the following:

• You said …; have you ever thought about …?

• Why …?

• What might the next step be?

• Are there other strategies that you could use to …?

Remember, the purpose of the probing question is to get teachers to think more deeply about their practice.

One of the most powerful probing questions I have heard is also one of the simplest.

“So you tried … with your students. What did you learn from that?”

Or the question might be asked a slightly different way.

“So you tried … with your students. What did they learn from that, and what is your evidence?”

Remember, the purpose of the probing question is to get teachers to think more deeply about their practice. Simple probing questions can be incredibly powerful reflective tools.

• Probing questions are the key to inquiry-based learning and are essential for coaches who want to avoid advocating for a solution based on their ideas and experiences.

• Getting to an effective probing question, Ley says, is like peeling back the layers of an onion one at a time

Important sum up

TO keep questions focused on student learning and not the teacher it’s important to use probing questions that emphasize what the students are doing and learning is critical.

Want to be a coach they can learn with and from.

Effective coaching requires that coaches develop collaboration and communication strategies designed to play the role of a friendly peer working to help his or her learning partners solve the issues challenging them.

Effective coaches need to remember that taking on the role of the expert can help create learned helplessness. Inquiry helps teachers build the capacity to improve teaching and learning.

Andrea Ford - Coaching course

Andrea Ford Coaching Course Session One

Group discussion about what we know about coaching was discussed

Relationships

Relationships build as you go. Needs to be nonjudgemental be aware of your body language.

Questioning is huge -

Data - yes evidence and data esp when. giving difficult feedback. We’ve noticed this has been happening and the impact of this is.

Strengthens and builds Capacity

Group definition from the discussion:

Coaching is being supportive and having non-judgemental relationships based on trust and respect in order to build and facilitate the capacity and growth of others.

A.B.H.R 2018

Unlocking people's potential to maximize their performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teach them. (Whitmore),

Empowering people by facilitating self-directed learning, personal growth, and improved performance.

(Bresser and Wilson)

• Not there to come up with the answers, helping them to come up with answers. 
• Challenging and empowering. 
• empowering them by facilitating self-directed learning. Developing a collective growth.

Need to increase their self-awareness and a sense of personal responsibility - they will come up with it if they

Coaching-v Mentoring...Courageous conversations, learning conversations.

Mentor more power they have the answers more.

Need to do both, give suggestions.

The Coaching Quadrant.

The teacher that is onto it always keen - give them the responsibilities as mentors

Low pedagogy doesn't want to do anything coaching is a struggle with these teachers need to provide strong guidance and more of a mentoring role. This week it is going to look like this....use the skills of coaching learning courageous conversation. "This is what I noticed this is the impact over to you"

Why are they not motivated, tap into this to try and bring back the willingness to change?

Advise - Make sure these people don't take on too much so give suggestions

Coaching Skills

• Develop a trusting relationships
• Listening(be present/SOLER)
• Questioning (for understanding /challenge)
• Going clarity (paraphrasing/questioning)
• Believe in them

1. Listening

Key points

Understanding is NOT the coaches primary purpose. The primary purpose is to enhance the coaches ability to think well and deeply about the topic that they have brought to the coaching. As a coach, we need to unpack what the real issue and the impact of what this is and help them come up with strategies to fix it. Getting them to unpack what are you going to do about it.


When having conversations notes on paper is better than on a computer.


2. Questioning
When questioning use quotes "So you said...." Can I take you back to what you said at the star ." Then paraphrase summarise to get them back on track.
Why do we question
To get them to reflect
To help them add clarity to their issue
To be careful about what you ask

Careful not to put words into their mouths. instead, say what do you think is contributing to that?

PAGE 17 FOR GREAT QUESTIONS

Paraphrasing pg 20

Don't overuse
Turn the' I's' into 'You's'
Ask if you can take notes
3 types
acknowledge and clarify
summarize and organize
shift discourse higher or lower.

Homework to do:
HAve a coaching session with someone you trust
practice the skills you've been working on
Video it and share the reflectioins with Andrea Ford especially the video and reflections. This needs to be done before June 8th

Can choose someone at work, a friend, someone you trust

This is what we need to do. How are we going to do it??