Building Resiliency: May

Posted on May 11, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

In January of 2019 I began a deep dive in Elena Aguilar’s Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators and the accompanying workbook. I hope to share some of my reflections as I build daily habits to strength my own resilience and support that growth in others. Aguilar outlines a habit and a disposition for each month of the year. Follow along as I reflect on each month’s key ideas.

May’s habit is celebrate and appreciate and the disposition is trust.

As we near the end of the school year, it’s a natural time to celebrate. Appreciation, or expressing gratitude, is a way to make connections, enjoy our life, and focus on the positive. I appreciate Aguilar’s message to celebrate the small things, and find ways to be grateful in our daily lives.

“How you tell the story of your life matters.” Onward, p. 290

I go through phases where I am focused on expressing gratitude, whether through a journal practice or by telling others what I appreciate about them and their work. Until I was rereading this chapter, however, I didn’t realize how long it had been since I slowed down and reflected on gratitude. Pausing and thinking about what I am grateful for, in big and small ways, always puts a positive spin on my day and my outlook.

I have been working on making public and private appreciations as well. I recently just wrote a number of hand-written notes to be delivered to colleagues who work in other locations across our district, expressing that I appreciate them and their work. I know that I always love receiving messages like that, so I build in time to give them as well. I like all of Aguilar’s suggestions for appreciating yourself and others.

There are many examples of how to cultivate a habit of gratitude in the Onward workbook. This reminds me of making positive phone calls home early in the school year as a teacher. I’ve also taken this idea and written notes to the families of my employees. It’s so nice to be able to tell someone you appreciate their child (or their parent/spouse!). Aguilar mentions something that reminded me of an activity I recently saw one of our schools do at an assembly. I did this activity at a staff meeting early on as a principal. I called it, “Talk Positive Behind My Back.” Each staff member was given a piece of construction paper. They wrote their name at the top and then they hung the paper on their back (with a safety pin or a string necklace). The staff then got up and began walking around the room, writing positive notes about each other on the papers. When we finished the activity, everyone had a chance to read the nice notes their colleagues had written behind their back. You could literally feel the energy shift in the room, as people smiled, and some even cried. If you’ve never experience this, I encourage you to try it at a meeting soon!

Trust is such a critical part of leadership, of building relationships, and school culture.

“Resilient people trust themselves, and they trust a process.” ~ Onward, p. 309

I love Aguilar’s message that when you need support, trust in the process, trust in yourself. I’ve been thinking about why she chose to make this month’s disposition trust, and what the link might be between trust and celebration. I believe that we are more comfortable to celebrate our big and small moments when we are working or living in a trusting relationship. Trust allows us to feel more comfortable recognizing the work of others without competition or animosity.

I recently read The Power of Moments. The authors share specific ways we can create impactful moments in our lives, for ourselves and more importantly for others. This reminds me of this month’s habit, to celebrate and appreciate. I want to intentionally create more moments that matter.

And for those of you who read last month’s update, I DID get to see the Underwater Sculptures that Elena Aguilar writes about in Onward! Below are two of my favorite pictures from my snorkeling adventure. These sculptures end up being a place where coral can grow and develop, supporting the oceanlife. It was such a fun experience and I wouldn’t have known these existed if I hadn’t read this book. For that, I AM GRATEFUL!

Posts in the Building Resilience series:

Building Resilience

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April Reading Update [2019]

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

This month I didn’t read as much as I have been, at least not in the beginning of the month. As I think back on the month, I realize that I’ve been very busy every weekend, and I got into a few good podcasts recently, which took up some of my reading time. I also binge-watched a few new docu-series! However, the last weekend of the month was a beach vacation for me, during which I did a total social media detox, which gave me plenty of time for reading!

So this is what I did read this month:

  • Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – I put a hold on this e-book through my library app months ago, after a number of people I knew raved about it. I happened to read it over a long vacation weekend and I loved it! While there were some major sad points in the story of Kya’s interesting life on the marsh, there was so much independence, resilience, and nature to enjoy along the way. What a beautiful first novel by this author!
  • The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath – I loved this book! I loved reading about how we have the power to make small moments that can have great impact on ourselves and those around us. The authors break down the four elements to moments: elevation, insight, pride and connection.  Not all moments have all four elements, but all moments have at least one of these. When I came to an example about the Sharp Experience, I was reminded of reading an entire book about that during my doctoral studies. Then, and now, I was fascinated by the scope of the company’s work to transform their employee and patient experiences across all of their hospitals, which I now use! I love this advice at the end, “Stay alert to the promise that moments hold”.
  • Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus – I read the first book by this author last month. While this wasn’t a series, it followed the same format. A YA mystery where each chapter is narrated by different characters, as a mystery is unveiled. This story involved missing girls from three different times, unknown parents, suspicious people, and lots of intrigue and Ellery, one of the main characters and a spy-buff, tries to figure out who is guilty of what in this bizarre small town.
  • Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty – I love this author and knew I would enjoy this book, especially after a few friends recommended it. Nine people show up to a 10-day wellness retreat, looking for mind, body, and spirit transformations. They get more than they bargained for in this funny, twisty, weird, story. I loved the snippets at the end!
  • Run Away by Harlan Coben – Heading out for a beach vacation I stocked on e-books, paperbacks, and e-library books, including this one by one of my favorite authors. I loved that this was an independent story, not part of a series, but that some Coben secondary characters appeared (like the lawyer who helped the family!). This was a sad tale of addiction and lies as people hid parts of themselves from their families. Great story to follow, as it kept twisting and turning!
  • Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate – Once Shelley recommended this to me, I knew I would enjoy it! What a beautiful, sad, story of adoption (and kidnapping and deception and abuse) and family love. This was based on true events from the 1950’s, when some adoptions were full of corruption. I loved following the flashbacks and forwards as we learned about unknown family connections along with the characters, especially modern-day Avery.
  • It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell – This was an impulse buy in an airport bookstore. It was a mystery, which I usually love, but it was full of dispicable characters. I liked each person less than the next, from the selfish, entitled Kate, to her adoring love Griff, to her roommates Jenny and Aubrey, with their own issues. These women met in college and claimed to be lifelong friends, but they were actually awful to one another. This was such a poor representation of female friendship and I was disappointed throughout the book. I did keep reading to find out how it ended, and I appreciated how the author chose to end the story.
  • Quick and Dirty by Stuart Woods – I love my Stone Barrington novels, and this was one especially fun. Stone was roped into helping solve the mystery of a missing painting. I loved the information about how forgeries of famous works of art are often mistaken for the real things, and why people have fakes made.

*This month I abandoned The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll.  I’ve read at least one other book by this author, but I just couldn’t get into this one. The writing was not enjoyable and I figured it wasn’t worth my time to fight through it!

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A Vacation from Social Media

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

There are lots of books, articles, and blogs popping up about people taking a digital detox – stepping away from so much screen time. I just returned from a 4-day trip to Grenada, in the Caribbean, for a quick girls’ weekend. I decided this was the perfect time for a vacation from social media.

Before my trip, I was feeling overly stressed out. The stress was coming from a number of sources, and I was finding myself mindlessly scrolling through social media any time I had a free moment or just needed a break. Unfortunately, my social media feeds do not always help alleviate my stress.  I don’t tend to suffer from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) when looking at others’ pictures, but I do judge myself when I see things I want to do or know I should be doing. Those feelings often lead to additional stress, which fuels the never-ending cycle.

In order to avoid temptation, I moved all of my social media apps (for me, it’s mostly Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) on my phone and my iPad to a separate folder, on a secondary screen that I wouldn’t even see. I already had notifications turned off for these apps, so I was hoping that out-of-sight, out-of-mind would apply. Once I was on vacation, I was able to use my devices solely for taking pictures of the gorgeous island (see below!) and for reading various e-books. I didn’t look at my social media at all, and after the first few hours, I didn’t even want to check them. I was happy to live in the moment, soak in the sea air, enjoy every sunset, and time with my friend.

Thinking about my word of the year, SHINE, reminds me that sunlight shining on water always makes me smile – it’s my happy place! My vacation from social media was a good thing for me because I was reminded that I don’t need social media to entertain me 24:7 and I don’t need to be constantly connected. The face-to-face connections with friends and family (and nature!) are more important to me. This is not to say that I’m going to quit the socials permanently. But I am going to make a more conscious effort when and how I use social media. I prefer reading a good book or relaxing in front of a sunset over mindless scrolling through stranger’s posts anytime. Don’t you?

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Grand Anse Beach, Grenada

 

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Grenada sunset

 

 

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An International Virtual Interview, Part 2

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

This is the third in a series of posts co-written by myself and Kristian Still, an educator from the U.K. with whom I connected on Twitter.  You will learn more about each of us and why we connected as you read the posts. He will be posting our writing on his blog as well. 

After Kristian reached out to me, we exchanged a few DMs on Twitter, and then decided to expand our conversation in a Google doc. We each wrote down a few questions for the other person to answer. In this third post, you will be able to read the questions that he asked me, along with my answers. Stay tuned for future posts that include our reflections and more!  

Questions for Amy:

  • Can you describe your instructional coaching journey? Where did you begin and how did you end up where you are?

When I first began blogging, I wrote about my entire educational journey, which you can read about here. I got into instructional coaching as a teacher. I was fortunate that my principal was a mentor who supported by growth and development, and who recognized that I was a strong teacher able to support my peers. From them on, with each job change, I have continued to carry with me a coaching lens. I find that the best way to make an impact on teaching and learning is through personal relationships with individuals; coaching comes in when you have built those trusting relationships and can have honest conversations about successes and challenges in the classroom/school. Throughout my career, I moved from coaching my peers, to coaching teachers as their administrator, to coaching school-based coaches from a district-level position, to now coaching the administrators (assistant principals and principals) of a large district.

One coaching highlight that stands out in my career, was when, as a new principal, I was assigned a coach. This experience taught me that everyone can benefit from a coach, when it’s the right relationship. The first coach assigned to me was not a good fit for my needs at that time, and I was luckily able to request a change (because my entire district was receiving coaching at the time). My second coach was exactly what I needed, even when I didn’t know what I needed! She and I are still friends, over ten years later. It was through her coaching that I learned to be more reflective and purposeful in my leadership and in my own coaching.

  • What do you see as the main professional growth opportunities for:

Teachers – In my current system, we are facing significant budget cuts, so we are limited in what we can and cannot offer in terms of professional growth opportunities. I’ve worked to encourage opportunities such as monthly district Twitter chats, annual Edcamps, and quarterly teacher leadership book studies. Most teachers are also part of a Professional Learning Community (PLC) with peers from their school and department, so they have that time built in to their week or month.

School leaders – We prioritize the professional growth of our leaders. I facilitate monthly workshops for all 71 of our assistant principals (APs). In addition, the APs who are in their first three years on the job attend an additional monthly workshop with their smaller cohort; we’ve hired 30 new APs in the last four years!  I also spend two hours a month coaching each of our first year APs individually, as part of their work they have to do to clear their credential. Our principals participate in monthly leadership development workshops and quarterly Learning and Equity Walks. In addition, each principal is part of a smaller network (up to 6 principals and a district level facilitator) which means monthly for smaller site visits, learning walks, and collaborations.

Site Leadership Teams (SLT) – Each of our school sites has an SLT, made up of a group of about 15 staff members representing the various departments and roles across the school (including a counselor and a Classified staff member). We bring the site-based SLTs together at a district meeting three times a year to further our team learning work.

  • Now that you are coaching the ‘change gatekeepers’ in schools, the Principals, what do you perceive as the core aims of coaching?

I believe my work can help bring coherence across our district. It’s also important that we are shifting the role of principal and assistant principal into more of an instructional leader, responsible for observing, supporting, and guiding the teaching and learning of their school site. I want to empower our school leaders to build the capacity of others, so that the work can grow exponentially. For instance, if the principal empowers the assistant principal, the AP will then be able empower the teacher who is the leader of the department he or she oversees, and that teacher leader can actually coach his or her peers.

 

  • Can you put your finger on the impact that ‘open to coaching Principals’ exert over those that step back from coaching?

This is an interesting question! I find that when a coach has success with one person (often one who starts as being open to coaching), he or she will share the success with others. When a more resistant educator (whether a teacher or a principal) hears a trusted peer say they found value in a coaching experience, some of that resistance crumbles, and the coach is often able to make inroads. The word of mouth stories can have a great impact on a coach gaining access to more people.

  • What does professional-personal coaching (for teachers, aspiring leaders and Principals even) has to offer that superseded our UK Performance Related Pay, Performance Review model?

Until we started chatting on Twitter, I didn’t know anything about your model. Across the US, there has been much debate about performance related pay. Some states have versions of this, but I live in California and we do not have anything like it in education. We do have required evaluation systems, and all teachers in my district are evaluated on the California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTPs).While these standards are a great framework for high quality teaching, I have found that evaluations, which are done based on one classroom observation every other year, are very limited in terms of their impact to improving teaching and learning. This is why I’m so passionate about coaching.

A teacher can set his or her own professional goals for the year, ideally based on wanting to grow in 1-2 areas of the CSTPs, and a coach can work alongside that teacher to help with growth opportunities. This can be driven by the teachers current strengths and the areas he or she identifies as wanting to grow in, which builds in buy-in and personal investment.

  • Have you ever encountered the work of Dr Jill Berry? I think she would be #yourkindofleader?

No, I haven’t. But now I want to know more! I just found her on Twitter so I can start to follow her and learn more. On that same note, do you know the work of Elena Aguilar? She is one of my coaching heroes and a virtual mentor, through her amazing books!

  • As we both seem to invest in reflection, how is this helped your coaching develop?

I write to reflect, which led to the creation of my blog and my to-be-published book on instructional coaching. I think this written reflection has helped me learn to slow down, to listen more, to practice my reflective questioning skills, and to be more mindful of presuming positive intent. My coaching has also helped developed my written content, as I write about experiences. Coaching new leaders led to my blog series on time management, which is something many coaches and leaders struggle with on a daily basis.

 

Posts in this series:

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Building Resiliency: April

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

In January I began a deep dive in Elena Aguilar’s Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators and the accompanying workbook. I hope to share some of my reflections as I build daily habits to strength my own resilience and support that growth in others. Aguilar outlines a habit and a disposition for each month of the year. Follow along as I reflect on each month’s key ideas.

April’s habit is to ride the waves of change and the disposition is perseverance.

“The range of experiences we have with change can be seen as a continuum that extends from defensiveness on one end to leadership on the other. When we are defensive about change, we are focused on mitigating its disturbance in our lives; when we are leading change, we are inviting the turbulence.” (Onward, p. 268)

I love this quote as an introduction to change. In my 22 years in education, I can remember changes that I was defensive about (budget cuts, friends moving on to other job opportunities, retiring mentors) and changes that brought a welcome element of turbulence into my life (choosing to change jobs, accepting new responsibilities, finding new mentors). I love change when I am leading it. I respect and support change led by others when I understand the purpose, and am clear on the message.

While I am a creature of habit and I love my routines, the older I get, the more I can roll with the changes that come my way, whether planned or unexpected. As I watch some of my colleagues struggle and fight their way through change, I am reminded of Aguilar’s message, and really the entire point of her book and my deeper study of it – we need to be more resilient. Change is not going away. The more resilient we are, the less change affects us negatively. Spring often brings changes to educational settings and this particular spring is full of change in my current context.

Aguilar’s reminder to identify the spheres of influence in your life is valuable. I also love this essential question:

Where do I want to put my energy?

I find that when others begin to stress out about change around me, I have two choices. I can jump on their complaining, defensive bandwagon, making myself miserable in the process, or I can accept that change is inevitable and work to communicate the purpose of the change and the power we have within it. I can also follow Aguilar’s advice and encourage others to do the same:

  1. Slow down
  2. Evaluate and analyze the situation
  3. Use your energy where it counts
  4. Be open to outcomes

This advice is so important. Beginning with a slow down allows us to breathe, rest, and wait for our initial feelings of hurt, anger, and stress to dissipate. Getting clear on what you know and what you still need to know is important. So often, we jump to conclusions without all of the correct information. Using energy where it counts is how we can retain our resiliency. In my younger years, I wasted too much energy spinning around with stress over things beyond my sphere of influence, and not making enough of an impact in the areas where did have influence. Being open to outcomes also gives us permission to choose where, when, and how we accept change, fight change, or make a different choice.

I have recently taken up a fight against a change with which I disagree.  In the President’s recent budget proposal, he has eliminate funding for a variety of educational programs, including Title II. I have overseen the Title II budget in my current district for the last two years, and in my previous district, for four years. Title II supports teacher recruitment and hiring, new teacher induction, teacher leadership development, and transformational school leadership by supporting administrators. I am very passionate about the value that Title II brings to our work. I have made a choice to fight this budget cut by advocating for Title II at the federal level. Instead of running around stressed out about the possible cuts within my district, I am reaching out to my elected representatives to share with them how we use Title II, how it impacts our staff and students, and why I encourage them to vote to continue to fund Title II. I have written emails, made calls, and participate in a Twitter storm (see #TitleIIA). I see this as a resilient way to fight a change that I disagree with, in a concerted effort where I feel that my energy is being well-used.

As I continue to reflect on this chapter, I appreciate that Aguilar discusses that change often brings about fear and learning. One of the realizations she coaches a new principal to in the chapter is that change, especially one that involves long-held personal beliefs, takes time… as in years! This is a hard pill to swallow, especially for an educator like me who has such a sense of urgency to support all of the students who are not being successful in our current system. Aguilar addresses this as she writes about patience as an emotion and a skill, one that we can practice and develop. This is something that I continue to work on!

The disposition of perseverance fits so well with the habit of riding the wave of change. It’s easy to persevere through something you choose to do, such as as welcome new job change. It’s much more challenging to persevere through a change you didn’t choose or welcome, and one that brings fear and uncertainty. This is why building up resiliency is so important.

 

Posts in the Building Resilience series:

Building Resilience

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An International Virtual Interview, Part 1

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

This is the second in a series of posts co-written by myself and Kristian Still, an educator from the U.K. with whom I connected on Twitter.  You will learn more about each of us and why we connected as you read the posts. He will be posting our writing on his blog as well. You can read our first post together, Making Global Connections, here. 

After Kristian reached out to me, we exchanged a few DMs on Twitter, and then decided to expand our conversation in a Google doc. We each wrote down a few questions for the other person to answer. In this second post, you will be able to read the questions that I asked Kristian and his responses. Stay tuned for future posts that include his questions for me and our reflections! 

Questions for Kristian:

  • Can you describe your instructional coaching journey? Where did you begin and how did you end up where you are?

In the summer of 2018 I received four sessions of coaching in exchange for my professional advocacy of the Education Support Partnership. It changed and opened up my views on the potential of coaching for my own leadership practice and effectiveness quite dramatically. It led me to question why I had deliberately overlooked coaching when it was presented and to see if I could understand why I had not responded or act differently. I recorded my reflection in a series of  unpublished blog posts right up until the point of seeking accreditation.

In answer to your simple question, here is a rather extended and full response. ‘I was wrong about coaching’ which ended up as a seven part series, charting that journey from missed opportunities to seeking coaching accreditation.  http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/2019/01/24/i-was-wrong-about-coaching-part-1-7/

Formal accreditation here in the UK is not straightforward. Coaching is an unregulated industry and there are numerous routes / organisations to getting formally accredited. Whichever route you take, it is relatively expensive and requires a sincere application. There were numerous pathways, accreditations, and training companies. Eventually I met with Jane Suter, from Red Tiger Consultancy, who deliver a range of Coaching and Mentoring courses accredited by Institute of Leader and Management (ILM).

We met and we discussed my options (time and finance). I told her about my determination to add coaching to me leadership outlook and we decided on a course.

Coincidentally, at this time the ILM, were releasing a revised specification. Together with Jane Suter we conceived the idea of designing a tailored Coaching and Mentoring course for educators and school leaders. By that, we meant that Jane would prepare to deliver the course with an education focus. What Jane went onto to design was a fully immersive coaching for schools experience. A complete organisation, with ‘real’ staff, Values, cultural norms, systems, dilemmas and opportunities.

My year long engagement since benefitting from coaching can be found here  http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/category/leadership/coaching-and-mentoring/

 

  • What do you enjoy most about instructional coaching?

At the moment here in the UK instructional coaching is only just beginning to gain traction. We are very much stuck in a – “having to prove” teaching competency model and performance management system. As opposed to a ‘supporting to improve,’ model.  As we speak, our profession is facing very real challenges, notable around funding and workforce retention and recruitment. Any UK education news site will share these two messages.

More recently, the government has been looking to take workload issues and recently released an Early Careers Framework – in response to the significant loss of recently qualified teachers from the profession. I wonder how UK retention figures compared to San Diego for example?

Until recently, graded observations and student outcomes, were the two main tools used to evaluate teacher effectiveness. Both are questionable proxies for teacher effectiveness but I won’t go into that now. And through this process, I too would have fallen foul to feeding back to teachers in more of an evaluative mentoring model, then a coaching model. I may have been fully aware of the bias I brought to the observation and feedback, and I may have been conscious that I was assessing student performance and rarely student learning, I fear I did more damage than good. From my work with the Education Support Partnership, I know that for some teachers this excess performativity models has been devastating.

As far back as 2015, (http://www.kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/2015/02/22/learning-observation-change-the-lens/)  I was looking for a better way to engage with teachers, to work alongside them and with them, rather than in an evaluative, even  judgemental, manner. In our learning observation, I thoroughly enjoyed getting alongside teachers for the full ride; from planning the learning sequence, to merely recording whether or not the plan was executed and the expected outcomes redeemed. Before supporting the reflective process as a springboard to move forward. I did this without the skills and abilities I’ve been developing on the coaching and mentoring course. Will the new knowledge make me a more effective leader? One hopes so.

 

  • What do you find to be the biggest challenges as a coach?

For me personally, I was moving from an assumed mentoring approach, to a conscientiously offering a coaching approach (and all that it entails). Up until the coaching and mentoring accreditation, I probably didn’t fully appreciate the power imbalance in play, the influence my role exerted on the learning conversations we were having and I was investing in. I am more likely to identify the power imbalance and “name it” if I feel it is impeding our progress.

On a practical level, teacher / leaders need to see value in coaching and be able to prioritise time for both the coaching and the reflection. Teachers in the UK are also some of the hardiest working teachers in world. For teacher / leaders, and I include myself in that, coaching feels like a luxury. I do not think teachers are comfortable with putting themselves first. Coaching has to offer teacher-leaders more than if they simply carrying on doing, what they are already doing.  Coaching for professional leadership effectiveness – amplifies this dilemma.

 

  • As you learn more about coaching in other countries, what you find unique about your particular setting and context?

Until I started this conversation with you Amy, I knew very little about coaching another countries and contexts. A little from Australia and the work of Growth Coaching. Other than that, I can only reference when I’ve learnt from visiting and interviewing two independent schools here in the UK, reading about Coaching and Mentoring through CollectivED Working Paper Series.

 

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Making a Global Connection

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

This is the first in a series of posts co-written by myself and Kristian Still (@KristianStill), an educator from the U.K. with whom I connected on Twitter.  You will learn more about each of us and how and why we connected as you read the posts. He will be posting our writing on his blog as well. 

“Find your tribe! [Hashtag] #justsaying,” the early adopter bellows down from the rooftop to the educator standing at the gate.

“My tribe? Hashtag #justsaying? [Deliberating pause]

Do you speak ‘teacher,’ for goodness sake?”

There are several reasons why educators like me (Kristian) and Amy are turning to social networks for professional development. First – they are readily available. Second, they encourage educators (anyone group) to connect with other educators and around similar interests, from a much broader and dislocated pool of expertise than available in a school, a local area meeting or National conference even. Lastly, I get to direct my own professional learning. I have agency.

This week the “#educoach” hashtag appeared in my Twitter timeline. Unlike Amy, I had not joined the chat live, I came by it a day later.

#educoach is a themed conversation hosted by two educator coaches @IAteacherNan and @KathyPerret from Kansas on Wednesday evening at 8pm CST. A stumbled upon the conversation the following day, read and summarised the thread. By thread I mean that by clicking on the #educoach hashtag – you are able to see all the messages shared around that topic, using that hashtag.

There were some interesting reflections and coaching strategies shared relating to self-efficacy and agency, managing setbacks and locus of control, before moving to focusing on instructional coaching (for confidence), then discussing coaching culture and finally personal professional development as a coach.

For me, Amy’s insights resonated. So I simply “followed” her told her that “I’d love to hear more about your work, context and reflections.” Amy responded.

“Hi! It’s great to connect with you. I’ve worked in a number of jobs that involve instructional coaching. First, as a teacher, I was a literacy coach to my peers. Then as a principal and a district level director, I have coached teachers and supported the district-level coaches. Now I work in a leadership coaching role, supporting our administrators.”

And here we are, learning from one another.

Of course, any two teachers-leaders-coaches-reflectors, would normally have more than enough to talk about, and then add our contextual and organizational differences (do I use a z or not?) we found ourselves exchanging questions throughout the day. Rather than keep those cross cultural insight to ourselves, we thought we may as well share them.

 

As the one across the world who responded to that DM, I’d like to share what an interesting experience this has been for me (Amy) as well. I used to participate in the #educoach chat weekly many years ago, but with a busy schedule it had fallen off my usual Twitter chats. I make a conscious decision last week to participate in more chats, to connect and reconnect with other educators and to be part of a larger tribe again.

When I got Kristian’s DM, I was intrigued because I wasn’t following him [yet] and I didn’t remember seeing him participate in the chat the previous day. But as I said to him, “I could talk about coaching all day long!” so I was happy to engage in a deeper virtual conversation. I love to learn about the context in which other educators work and coach and lead.

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March Reading Update [2019]

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

This month I read an odd assortment of books. I revisited one of my favorite authors, I branched out into some new YA lit, and I enjoyed some professional books as well.

  • Bi-Normal by M.G. Higgins – This was a short YA novel I found in my library app. I loved the story, which was about a high school football star who is dating the prettiest girl in school and who finds himself also thinking about a boy. The football player had never heard the word bisexual before and as he learns more about that and himself, his life changes. My only problem with the book was the ending, which was completely abrupt and unfinished. I don’t think the author did justice to her characters or her story by just ending the book where she did. I was very disappointed.
  • The Way He Lived by Emily Wing Smith – I wish I hadn’t read this book right after the last one, because this was another YA book that ended too abruptly, which annoyed me! A young boy, Joel, dies on a camping trip, and this story is how his friends and family deal with life without him. Each chapter was narrated by a different character and gave you a very small glimpse into Joel’s life. I would have liked to see each character narrate at least two chapters, instead of just one, to extend the story of Joel and his survivors. I was disappointed that we didn’t learn more about him; I think I was expecting a hidden mystery that just wasn’t there. He died the way they said and he was a good person, like everyone said. The characters in this story were Mormon, and I appreciated learning a little more about their culture throughout each small story.
  • Shoot First by Stuart Woods- After my last two YA books, I needed a tried-and-true mystery I knew I would admire. I think I might have skipped a Stone Barrington story or two, but with most of the main characters remaining the same, I can always jump into one of these novels. Stone bought yet another home, in Key West this time, as he romanced yet another woman and escaped his and her death through various maneuvers with his BFF Dino. Always a good read!
  • Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott – This book was such a fascinating read to me. We used it in our teacher leadership book study last month, and the group who read it really enjoyed it! The author goes through a lot about listening, preparing for and being invested in fierce conversations, and not avoiding those elephants in the room. I loved her “Mineral Rights”, which is a dialogue designed to help someone get to some deeper clarity about an important problem, much like a coaching conversation. I shared that and the “Decision Tree” with a friend in another profession, and we discussed how these were applicable in both of our fields, as we we work with a range of people individually and in groups of differing expertise and responsibility. I wish more people were prepared to have fierce conversations.
  • Fast & Loose by Stuart Woods – After I read the last Barrington novel, I realized that I had skipped a few. Since I liked to read my series in order, I went back to catch up. This was yet another fun mystery where Stone is being saving his life and the life of a new love interest, as a mad man stalks them around NYC. Amazingly, Stone did not buy a house in this book. However, he did form a new company that bought a yacht, a jet, and a home!
  • Indecent Exposure by Stuart Woods – I’m glad I went back and read these books, though I’m annoyed I read them out of order. These last two books changed a few things in Stone Barrington’s life, from the homes he owned, the companies he invests with, and his dating life. I love when Stone is with Holly, who is now the Secretary of State and possibly the future president!
  • Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner – This is the second time I have read this professional book. I read it last year on my own. This year we have been using this as part of our monthly book study with our principals. So each month I have reread a section of the book in order to design a book discussion protocol for the group. I think this is a great read for all leaders, but especially for aspiring and new leaders, as the authors give concrete suggestions for learning leadership habits that will last a career.
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – Wow! I’m so grateful to the friend who recommended this book to me. I trust her recommendations, so I decided to read it without knowing anything about it, and even after seeing that it was almost 500 pages long! This is a tale of four generations of a Korean family living in Japan after colonialism forced them out of their homeland. It was beautiful, sad, heartwarming and heart wrenching, as these characters lived in abject poverty and fought to put food on their table for their children. There were moments of love, joy, and success, followed by moments of sadness and disillusionment. I loved following the lives of each family member through their adventures.
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The Comment Section Can Be Scary

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

I recently read an educational article online. The article addressed race in education and the topic could be considered controversial. Regardless of the topic, the comment section is what concerned me the most. This blog is me reflecting via my writing and I’m doing it publicly today!

Each comment seemed to express opinions as facts that should be true for everyone.  The writers, some educators and some non-educators, were writing their opinions and angrily attacking the opinions of others as being wrong, racist, and/or disrespectful, while also being disrespectful. One non-educator wrote, in his vehement disagreement with the author’s claims, “Shut up and teach, dammit!”. Other used name-calling, blatantly telling me they were stupid or wrong.

I read this article a few hours ago, but I can’t stop thinking about the comments. I rarely dive into the comment section anywhere, whether it’s on a public article or a friend’s Facebook or a celebrity’s Instagram post, because Internet trolls are real. The anonymity of the Internet seems to have taken the humanity out of some people. With the veil of an unknown screen name, people often write things I have never heard one person say to another face-to-face. As much as I love social media as a way to tell a story, to make global connections, and to share resources, this side of social media saddens me.

As I thought more about this, I read a few other articles on the topic. This one has a funny, yet sadly true, list of 10 types of Internet trolls. I saw a few of these types come out in the comment section of just one article I read this morning. Then I read this article, from Psychology Today, about why people troll online. I agree with many of the reasons listed, especially the ideas of anonymity and being in an echo chamber where you assume your opinion will be supported by the majority.

These articles offer up some advice on how to address this behavior. The most common recommendations are to ignore/ not respond and to block or report abusive comments.  While I think these actions can be appropriate in many situations, this doesn’t address the underlying culture, where this is becoming the norm. As an educator, I want to dig deeper.

We talk about, and sometimes teach our students, digital citizenship. This is often a lesson isolated from the true realities of social media. But our students know this goes on, as they often deal with cyberbullying and vicious online comments. These are the questions I’m wondering about right now:

  • How are we helping our students, and their families, to use social media as a positive way to impact society?
  • How are we teaching students that words matter, and that anonymity does not take away humanity?
  • How are we teaching each other to be critical consumers of information without attacking different opinions?
  • How are we considering multiple perspectives?
  • How are we using a rhetorical approach in our reading and writing?
  • When do we have the courage to point out comments that are inappropriate?
  • When is it appropriate to address these types of comments?
im-extremely-brave-about-posting-my-radical-opinions-anonymously-on-15942268

I’m extremely brave about posting my radical opinions anonymously on the Internet Source: https://me.me/i/im-extremely-brave-about-posting-my-radical-opinions-anonymously-on-11044494 

These are just some of my thoughts today. I’d love to hear yours (as long as they are nice!). In case you are interested in the particulars, the article I read that spurred on these thoughts is linked here.

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Building Resiliency: March

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Amy's Reflections

In January I began a deep dive in Elena Aguilar’s Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators and the accompanying workbook. I hope to share some of my reflections as I build daily habits to strength my own resilience and support that growth in others. Aguilar outlines a habit and a disposition for each month of the year. Follow along as I reflect on each month’s key ideas.

March’s habit is to play and create and the disposition is courage.

Aguilar begins the chapter discussing art and its purpose. She connected play and create to March knowing that many educators have spring break over this time (myself included!), recommending that we add some play and creativity into our lives at this time. She also makes a point to encourage us to add creativity to staff meetings or other work events to build resiliency.

In my last job, my team and I would meet once a week. We decided to add a creativity-building section to our weekly agenda. Each week one of us was responsible for designing a short activity that would hopefully inspire some on-the-spot creativity. One week we worked with Play-Doh (inspired by my young nephews at the time!) and another week we made objects out of colorful masking tape. Our time was less about the outcome and more about the process.  We experimented with putting this creativity at the beginning, middle and end of our meeting, to see if it sparked our thinking more one way or the other. I don’t think we ever came to a definite decision about the timing.  What we were inspired to do, however, was include these types of moments into other meetings and professional development workshops we planned and facilitated.  We knew that creativity was something we wanted to cultivate in our teachers with the hope that they would then cultivate it in our students.

Play-Doh

This is an image of a Play-Doh container

As I was rereading the next section of this chapter, about art, I came back to Aguilar’s reference to the underwater sculpture park by James deCaires, which I googled last time I read this part.  This time it is even more fascinating to me because one of his underwater parks is located off the island of Grenada, which I happen to be visiting in April. Now I’m hoping to be able to snorkel to the area to see some of the sculptures! If you haven’t seen images of this amazing art, check out the artist’s website!

Speaking of art, my friend Lauren and I have recently started a fun museum challenge, that is part play, part art appreciation, and part creativity and competition. We visit a museum together, but split up to visit different wings. We spend time looking at the art, and then making funny Snapchat pictures of the art with our own humorous (at least to us!) commentary. We found this idea from other people sharing their museum challenges online, and it inspired us to visit museums and have some fun. We have done this twice, and not only has it helped remind me how much I appreciate work created by talented artists, but it also reminded me how much fun it is to be creative. Coming up with funny captions for artwork takes time and attention to detail. If this sounds fun to you, I encourage you to try it!  Fell free to Google it for examples, but be warned that many of the examples are not-safe-for-work kind of humor.

I love what Aguilar has to say about creativity and schools:

“Creative processes enable us to see the root of a problem or see a situation in a different light; we can make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena and gain new perspectives. Creativity and its cousins- imagination and innovation – are the missing ingredients in many school reform efforts. School transformation almost always relies on deeply creative thinking.” (Onward, p. 259)

When I think of courage, I think of crucial or fierce conversations. I think of challenging racism, sexism, or other -isms that create division among people. This is big COURAGE. But courage can also come in a smaller package. Courage can help an introvert step into a crowded room of strangers and start up a conversation. Courage can also encourage (see what I did there?!) new behaviors for a better life.

How to be courageous – I love this idea Aguilar shares in the Onward workbook – make a list of ways you can be courageous. Write as much as you can, then pick some that speak to you. Keep that list handy and act on it! My list has some big and small ways I can be courageous.

Idea to try: Another fun idea in the workbook suggests that you go out around your school/ community and take pictures using non-conventional angles or views. Then you put your pictures together in a slide show to share with colleagues to see if they can recognize the objects or locations you photographed. I think this would be a fun way to connect across a large school or district and to incorporate the community at large.

As I reflect on this chapter, I appreciate how play and creativity and courage appear in my life when I need them. But I am also saddened by how infrequently these ideas appear in many schools. I know that as a teacher and a new administrator, I could have done more to incorporate and encourage play and creativity in my work. After rereading this, I am inspired to encourage others to help our learners play and be creative in meaningful ways.

Posts in the Building Resilience series:

Building Resilience

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