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Teaching is demanding, and questions arise throughout the day, every day. Improving teaching practice is best with a thinking partner—which might be you—but you can’t be in every teacher’s class all the time. So, how can you offer instructional coaching when your teachers need it (without overworking yourself)? One strategy is to set up an asynchronous coaching option.
Why? A meta-analysis found that instructional coaching had a greater impact on instruction than many interventions including teacher pre-service training, merit-based pay, general professional development, and extended learning time. They found instructional coaching has a greater impact on student achievement than “the degree to which teachers improve their ability to raise student achievement during the first five to ten years of their careers.” While resources can be a constraint to providing teachers with an instructional coach, the authors suggest virtual coaching as an option, given the “lack of any statistically significant differences in effect sizes between in-person and virtual coaching,” (Kraft, Blazar, & Hogan, 2018). How might I set this up? Step 1: Pick a platform. Slack is the one my co-coach Kara and I like and chose for our EduBoost coaching service, but teachers may be more familiar with a platform your school uses such as Microsoft Teams or Google Chat/Google Classroom. Consider accessibility and modality features such as the ability to type a message or leave a voice note. You may also consider whether the ability for teachers to access the platform via an app on their phone is important or relevant for your community. Step 2: Establish expectations. What can teachers expect from you with regard to response time? (e.g., You will get a response within 24 hours or by the end of the school day.) What types of questions are best for asynchronous coaching? Perhaps feedback on a worksheet they developed or a suggestion for a “text” to use in an upcoming lesson are great for this platform, but you would rather do a live class visit for a teacher working on improving their student-led discussions. Step 3: Build an FAQ space. You might create a simple Google Doc with common questions or categories of questions and your response(s) to those questions. If teachers look at the FAQ first, this will save you time answering the same questions and give the teacher an answer faster. If the teacher asks you a question that’s on the FAQ doc, you save time by copy and pasting your response. Step 4: Decide if you want to offer “leveled up” options. I love creating Loom videos for teachers to give in-depth feedback. Is this something you’d want to offer to teachers? Consider whether it would be fun for you and how much time it would take you (versus hopping on a Zoom call or visiting the teacher in person). Hopping on a quick Zoom call (e.g., 5-10 minutes) may also be an option you want to offer. Perhaps you only offer this during pre-determined “office hours.” Or you may want to stick to the messaging format. Step 5: Do a small pilot. Invite a handful of teachers who are really excited about this idea. Test what works and doesn’t, getting feedback from teacher participants. Also evaluate your capacity and adjust any boundaries or promises for response time that may not be feasible. Final Tip If you have a district-wide coach traveling to multiple schools, in addition to setting up an asynchronous coaching option, you may also consider recommending the coach meet with teachers virtually to reduce travel time and the associated stresses of travel as well as increase professional learning time for teachers. To help you implement effective coaching structures in your community, I’m sharing my Coaching Call Template with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 156 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
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3/18/2024 155. The #1 Structure for Sustainable Family Partnerships with Ari Gerzon-KesslerRead Now![]()
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In this episode, Ari shares tons of insights on building Family-Educator Together (FET) teams. These teams aim to deepen the connections between schools and families, creating a dynamic and inclusive space where voices from historically marginalized backgrounds can share insights and drive transformative change. Ari shares practical ideas, specific examples from actual FET teams, and gives us a link to several of the ready-to-use resources in his book.
Ari Gerzon-Kessler leads the Family Partnerships department for the Boulder Valley School District (Colorado) and is an educational consultant working with schools and districts committed to forging stronger school-family partnerships. He has been an educator since 2000, having served as a principal and bilingual teacher. Ari is the author of the new book, On The Same Team: Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families Together. The Big Dream To embrace an innovative spirit that honors the whole child, incorporates families more into the educational process, and reduces the overwhelm for educators. He envisions more connected school communities that are inclusive, equitable, and where trust is a key lever for change. Ari references Dr. Bettina Love’s words, "We have to actually trust the people we say we want to empower to make structural changes, not just tinker at the edges of injustice." Mindset Shift Required Move from a one-sided family involvement approach to one that truly values parent voices as experts on their children and partners in change. As Ari notes, "We shift the traditional paradigm of family engagement to a more collaborative and empowering model," where trust and psychological safety are paramount. Action Steps While many of the practices in Ari’s book are useful in many family partnership scenarios, he specifically shares ideas for creating and leveraging an FET team. Once you understand what FET teams are and the goals behind them (i.e., strengthen relationships, build trust, and co-create meaningful change) and you as the leader are ready to invest in one… Step 1: Build Your Team There are 5 educators (including the principal) and 5 family members. More are welcome, but the ratio should be even. Educators should not outnumber family members. Step 2: Prepare Ari suggests taking an hour to plan for each 90-minute FET meeting. Logistics to tackle include funding, organizing the meal, securing interpretation (typically meetings are held in the most common home language of families), determining dates/times/location of meetings, and securing child care. Step 3: Facilitate Your Meeting(s) Following a meal and team-building activity, invite families to share their experiences and ideas. There are many specific prompts in the book. It could be: What do you want us to know? After initial trust building, the team will decide on an action project and work towards that goal. Challenges? A significant challenge is the initial trust-building with families who have never experienced such a collaborative space in schools. Creating a comfortable atmosphere where families feel safe to share honest feedback is crucial. Additionally, educators must navigate how to bring family-driven changes back to the staff in a way that encourages co-creation and buy-in from all parties involved. One Step to Get Started For educators looking to make immediate improvements in family engagement, Ari suggests starting with simple yet impactful actions like making positive phone calls to parents to share good news about their children or asking families: How do you prefer we communicate with you? These examples are both energizing and practical, laying the groundwork for deeper connections and future collaborative efforts. Stay Connected You can connect or follow Ari easily on LinkedIn at or reach him at [email protected]. To help you implement FET teams in your school(s), Ari is sharing several reproducibles from his book with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 155 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. Quotes:
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Whether your teachers are developing their own curricula or adapting “off the shelf” curricula, all teachers need to figure out what it will look like to actually implement a curriculum. In addition to factoring in holidays and field trips and other school events, if you’re supporting teachers to create classroom cultures that prioritize student voices and personalized learning, you’ll want to help teachers consider how to embed flexibility and co-creation with students into their pacing calendars.
Why are realistic pacing guides important? Without considering pacing that creates intentional space for student voice and personalized learning (and all of the places those priorities can take a class), teachers are set up to feel pressured to just “cover” content in a rushed manner because our idealized pacing calendar is too unrealistic. When we strive for fidelity, what we often get is rigidity, which does not serve personalized learning and co-creation. Research on fidelity in “off the shelf curriculum implementation” suggests an optimal approach to curriculum implementation is a scaffolded one, in which teachers first focus on implementing a curriculum with fidelity before adapting it. To ensure adaptations are still effective, teachers should have deep knowledge of the theory(s) behind the curriculum. This is more likely “if the fidelity phase is framed as an opportunity for teachers to learn the program before adapting it, as opposed to being framed as the end goal,” (Quinn, 2016, p. 42). An additional consideration is that curricula may be more likely to be used over time when teachers are able to adapt them to their specific contexts (Dearing, 2008, cited in Quinn, 2016). I acknowledge this research and also recognize many off the shelf curricula could do a better job of embedding space for student voice and personalization within the curriculum and suggested pacing guides. For the purpose of this episode, I’m focusing on how to realistically pace a curriculum (whether your teachers wrote it or you’re implementing an existing curriculum). How to Create a Flexible Pacing Calendar:
Final Tip To account for the unexpected, I suggest building in even more “blank space” days. They can be named “Flex Days” or designated as Workshop Days if the idea is that it's okay to skip them when needed. This way, we’re decreasing the pressure to “cover” everything and concentrating on doing fewer things better while preserving a culture of student voice and co-creation. To help you effectively support your teachers’ curriculum planning, I’m sharing two resources with you for free. If your teachers are internalizing an “off the shelf” curriculum, try my New Curriculum Training Agenda. If your teachers are designing their own curriculum, try the Curriculum Planner I use in my Curriculum Boot Camp programs. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 154 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here.
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3/4/2024 153. Leading Equity Takes Belief, Vision, Systems, and Acknowledgement of Barriers with Dr. Don ParkerRead Now![]()
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In this episode, Dr. Don Parker talks about the necessity of relationship-building, developing a robust equity-based vision statement, and policy alignment to systematically embed equity in your school.
Dr. Don Parker is a transformational keynote speaker and professional development provider. He specializes in SEL, supporting teachers to build trusting relationships with students, restorative practices, trauma-informed practices, and improving the culture and climate of schools to enhance students’ and teachers’ feeling of belonging. Dr. Parker is a former principal, frequent conference presenter, and the author of Building Bridges: Engaging Students At-Risk Through the Power of Relationships and Be the Driving Force: Leading Your School on the Road to Equity. The Big Dream Equitable schools and classrooms provide high-quality, equitable educational experiences for every student. Dr. Parker elaborates saying, "we can provide each student with a quality education, support their social, emotional learning needs and really truly help them reach their highest potential." Mindset Shifts Required To enact change, school leaders and educators must genuinely believe in the value of equity and the possibility of transformation, as this belief will drive their actions and commitment. Action Steps There are more concrete ideas in the book, but we discussed the following: Step 1: Equity-Focused Vision Statement Develop and adopt an equity-based vision that is robust and reflects actionable outcomes for historically marginalized groups. From there, it’s easier to determine if all school policies and practices are in alignment with the vision. Step 2: Systematize Relationship-Building One example is Dr. Parker’s implementation of dedicated time for student-teacher connections on Monday mornings through the school. There’s a dedicated hour built into the schedule just for this. Step 3: Consistently gather input from students Use surveys and action items to measure and drive improvements in school effectiveness regarding equity. Challenges The biggest challenge, according to Dr. Parker, is overcoming the "acknowledgement gap," where schools fail to recognize systemic inequities. Overcoming this requires a collective commitment to identifying and addressing these issues head-on. One Step to Get Started Engage directly with students, particularly those from marginalized groups, to understand their experiences and needs. This direct interaction lays the groundwork for developing targeted strategies to support student success, so go ask a student how you can better support them! Stay Connected You can find Dr. Parker on his website or send him an e-mail at [email protected] To help you implement equitable change, Dr. Parker is sharing his survey on Leading Equitable Practices with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 153 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. Quotes:
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Time for Teachership is now a proud member of the...AuthorLindsay Lyons (she/her) is an educational justice coach who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice, and build capacity for shared leadership. Lindsay taught in NYC public schools, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. Archives
May 2024
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