This episode is a compilation of ‘Dear Coach Letters’ for you to enjoy and to help wrap up this year right for all our favorite coaches! 

Hear from our special guests:

Adam Geller

Website:https://www.edthena.com/

Twitter:@edthena

Suzy Evans

Twitter:@SuzannahEvans2

Betsy Ball

Twitter:@1BetsyBall 

Mary Phillips

Twitter:@growinglearners

Dr. Sean Corey

Twitter:@LegacyElem

David Baker

Twitter:@David63Baker

Miriam  Guerrero Cheuk

Website: www.EmpowermentCoachingMC.com

Instagram: EmpowermentCoachingMC

Linkdin: Miriam  Guerrero Cheuk

Twitter:@MiriamCheuk

Clubhouse: EmpowermentMC

Karen Smith is an Elementary Language Arts Coordinator in St. Vrain Valley School District and is Cognitive Coach trained.

Episode Notes:

-Model of coaching to onboard for literacy depends on the individual she is coaching and the context.

-Pull from Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle - Identify, Learn, and Improve

-Minimum Skills Competencies - What do our Students need to know, understand and be able to do.

-Elevation, refinement and improvement of instruction.

-Observation protocols

-Cognitive Coaching - conversations around goals and practice being the mediator of thinking

-Diane Sweeney’s Student Centered Coaching - Data driven coaching process around student work - needs to cultivate, look at data, talk about practice, and engage in teaching and learning cycle

-What is the most high leverage model to impact practice?

-All components of Scarbrough’s Reading rope are vital and teachers understand the synthesis of all of the components. Word recognition and language comprehension rungs are interconnected. We are cultivating the synthesis between all components and owning the science of reading.

-Support in the pandemic is acknowledging the work is hard right now. Opportunity to talk about high yield instructional practices

-Learning did happen last year, honor that.

-3 stages of Literacy proficiency: 1. MultiSensory instruction 2. Knowledge Stage 3. Automaticity Stage

-Are their literacy skills transferable?

-Being able to coach and mediate another person's thinking brings her to her core.

-Impact teams story 5th grade

-Coach, Collaborator, and Consult - intentional as to when and how we navigate these roles.

-The future relies in the science of reading and giving time for shifts in practice.

-Stay present in the moment, remain present in that moment!

-Pause, paraphrase, and pose a question

Connect with Karen:

Twitter: @smithkaren51

Episode Notes:

-Formative Assessment Expert started as a Band Director and Musical Performance specialty.

-Dr. Shelby Wolf - Children’s Literature

-Leading Impact Teams Building a Culture of Efficacy with Barb Pitchford

-Collective work of many coaches going in and seeing that on some teams one member may be doing most of the work, looking to create collective efficacy. It was always about what the teacher was doing, where the focus should be learner centered.

-At the center of everything needs to be the learner

-Formative assessment is a process, not a product and something that you partner with learners in.

-Take kids for who they are, see their potential, and we do anything to set ambitious goals with our kids and have clarity about what success looks like. 

-Impact Teams: Teams of educators that partner with students and families. They innovate to expand student ownership. They scale their collective expertise to make a difference for all. 

-Inviting parents into this process and into the protocols - Partnering in this process

-Impact teams work has grown across the world.

-Focus on the strengths- appreciative inquiry into the strengths they already have.

-Partnership principles - Jim Knight

-Coaches can help scale this important work

-Takes time to do this work well and have quality implementation. Use your feedback loops

-If you trust the kids they will always lead the way

-“If you trust the students, they will always lead the way!” - Paul & Mimi Erickson

-Look for the positive in others- strengths finder approach

Connect with Paul:

Twitter: @bloomberg_paul

YouTube: The Core Collaborative

TheCoreCollaborative.com

Kathy Perret is an instructional coaching consultant and co-author of The Coach Approach to School Leadership (ASCD 2017) and Compassionate Coaching (ASCD 2021). As the founder of Kathy Perret Consulting, she empowers school leaders, instructional coaches, and classroom teachers in their professional growth. With over 30 years of experience in the field, Kathy hosts onsite and virtual professional learning for educators across the world. Educators directly impact student growth and performance, and Kathy is dedicated to improving experiences and outcomes for both adults and kids. She believes everyone deserves a coach - and that includes teachers, instructional coaches,  and school leaders! Find out more at https://www.kathyperret.org/. Kathy is also the co-founder of the longest-running Twitter chat for Instructional Coaches. Join #educoach every Wednesday at 8 pm CST. You can find Kathy on Twitter @KathyPerret.

Kenny McKee is the co-author, along with Kathy Perret, of the 2021 ASCD title, Compassionate Coaching: How to Help Educators Navigate Barriers to Professional Growth. He currently works as a Content Designer for NWEA. Kenny has also served as a social media and professional learning consultant with Student Achievement Partners. Kenny’s coaching experience comes from working as a high literacy and instructional coach for eleven years in Asheville, NC. Kenny is a National Board Certified Teacher who has taught middle school and high school English language arts. He has also taught reading courses for college students in teacher preparation programs. 

He has authored educational blog posts for Student Achievement Partners, SmartBrief, Virtual Job Shadow, Sibme, TeachThought, and NEA. In 2014, Kenny was selected as an ASCD Emerging Leader, and he is still an active member in ASCD’s Emerging Leaders affiliate.

Tyler Tarver, Ed.S is the Dean of NLC College. Tyler speaks at conferences across the country on various topics related to teaching, administration, efficiency, technology, social media, and culture. He has amassed over 14 million views on YouTube and 60k subscribers. Tyler is a Dean of an HBCU College located in Arkansas. He also created and maintains TarverAcademy.com, where he helps students/teachers with math, tech, and an assortment of educational needs. He's written 3 books, produces podcasts, made award-winning short films, is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Innovator, Google Certified Trainer, Google Level 1 & 2 Educator, Apple Foundations Certified Trainer, Google Forms Expert Team Member, has been featured on PBS, and also been featured on Tosh.0 four times. He's been a teacher, facilitator, principal, and Director of Curriculum, Instruction, Communications, Personnel, and Technology. Tyler loves teaching students, helping teachers, and building community and conversation around improving and innovating education to help students.

Episode Notes:

• We spoke to the charismatic Tyler Tarver about his experience in education, speaking, and also engaging other educators to support them in any way he can!

• Being a maker, but how do you become a person who spreads resources. The resources find the people who need it.

• Baller Teacher Playbook

• Engagement: What makes kids check out? Why do they stop watching a video? Two reasons they check out: A. They are confused about what is happening or they don’t see how it applies to them?

• Flipped classroom to meet students needs, starting with an iPod then moving to YouTube

Connect with Tyler: 

Twitter: @tylertarver

https://www.tarveracademy.com/

Tik Tok: @SirTylerTarver

We talk to Dr. Diane Lauer, Dr. Sean Corey, Kelly Addington, Mandy Warren, and Nicholas Meyer to reflect back on the last year of coaching and teaching to hold onto our new learnings. We analyze a year of pandemic learning and pull out the positives that we want to pull forward to next year's teaching.

Episode Notes:

Teacher’s Perspective:

• Explore various learning models from this year: in-person, hybrid, online, and online all year and our own growth as educators.

• Students’ growth in self-reflection, creativity, and self-advocacy.

• “We can’t choose what happens to us in this world, but we can choose what kind of people we are going to be. We are going to be strong and brave.”

• Shared vulnerability and increased compassion 

• Intentionality with technology

• Renaissance of teaching

• Coaching parents and teammates - active listening

• Coaching behind the scenes: support, validation, checking in, and growing towards thriving.

Learning Coach’s Perspective:

• Draw from relationships- build upon

• Shared vulnerability- model as a coach

• Vary the type of coaching as needed

• Not a clear coaching map

• States of Mind - growth in flexibility

• Intentional reflection

Administrator Perspective:

• The reality of the last year

• Change models essential for systemic change

• Focused goals - time-bound - accelerate and deploy support

• Intentional use of times and supports

• Listening to the individual, whole group

• Keep the focus the focus

• Time is a gift. Educators are heroes and we need to not take anything for granted.

• Trust, rapport, and then get to the focus

• Video coaching - Webex, Edthena, phone - reflection space

• Innovation across the system - not bound by time or space, they meet more and are more cohesive

• Innovation = clarity of purpose/shared sense of purpose

• One pandemic per lifetime

• Take nothing for granted moving forward 

• Bring our new instructional practices  and innovation forward into the coming years

Connect with Dr. Diane Lauer

Twitter:@MrsLauer

Connect with Dr. Sean Corey

Twitter:@LegacyElem

Connect with Kelly Addington

Twitter:@MrsKellyAdd

Connect with Mandy Warren

Twitter:@4thwmrswarren

Connect with Nicholas Meyer

Twitter:@meyer4th

Sherry St. Clair is the author of Coaching Redefined and founder of Reflective Learning LLC, an educational consulting agency based in Kentucky. Her organization works with schools across the country, creating specialized training and coaching services for school administrators and educators. 

Additionally, Sherry serves as a Senior Consultant for the International Center for Leadership in Education and a Senior Consultant for Houghton Mifflin. 

Episode Notes:

• We talk to Sherry St Clair around her experiences as an instructional coach ,administrator, and her strategies for coaching in various capacities. 

• 3 Big Pieces to Coaching: strong relationships, leadership aspect/building leaders, content

• The more alignment we have as a system the more success we will have in meeting our goals.

• Coaches need to see themselves as leaders.

• Positivity in coaching and being mindful of coaching humans. Focus the conversation on the positive so that they can progress forward.

• Why do people change? Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose -Daniel Pink

• Teachers do not need fixing,we need positive feedback.

• Coaching Groups: Have protocols in place, equal voices, grow the group together,  and growing leaders in the group.

• “In classrooms we want to see students doing the thinking and the work, in coaching we want  teachers doing the thinking and the work. It doesn't have to be all on our shoulders.”

• Measuring impact: Look at how well that organization is growing together, listening, building leaders, depth of questions, and achievement scores.

• “Strive to see the strength in others!”

• From Finding Nemo: Just keep swimming!

Connect with Sherry St Clair

Website: https://www.reflecttolearn.com/

Twitter:@Sherrystclair

Miriam  Guerrero Cheuk is a certified Life and Leadership Professional Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation and is currently working towards her Master Certified Coaching (MCC) Accreditation and is the founder of EmpowermentCoachingMC.com. 

Episode Notes:

• We talk to Miriam about the power of coaching in education.

• She shares her values around deep relationship building, trust, self care, and enhancing instruction.

• Miriam provides a wealth of ideas on how to build a coaching culture, tips for building your coaching PLN, as well as how to leverage digital tools to meet educators where they are at this time. 

• “Coaching is a process not an event. It is being a think partner and catalyst for change and growth in others.”

• “Coaching is a live giving conversation. When we empower others we build their confidence, efficacy, and autonomy.”

• “The quality of the relationship is congruent with the quality of the results of the outcomes.”

• “The most effective coaching is really the one that goes under the iceberg. We don’t just coach behaviors, we coach the values, we coach the beliefs, the needs, the ways of being because that is truly what drives behaviors.”

• Increasing capacity and reducing dependency while meeting the coachee where they are.

• “Surround yourself with people who bring you light and inspire you”- PLN

• 3 Ps- paraphrasing, pausing, and posing evocative questions

• Use metaphors to make things come alive and can make complex things simple.

Connect with Miriam  Guerrero Cheuk

Website: www.EmpowermentCoachingMC.com

Instagram: EmpowermentCoachingMC

Linkdin: Miriam  Guerrero Cheuk

Twitter:@MiriamCheuk

Clubhouse: EmpowermentMC

Adam Geller is the author of "Evidence of Practice: Playbook for Video-Powered Professional Learning" and the founder of Edthena. He started his career in education as a science teacher in St. Louis, Missouri, and since 2011 Adam has overseen the evolution of Edthena from a paper-based prototype into a research-informed and patented platform used by schools, districts, teacher training programs, and professional development providers. Adam has written on education technology topics for various publications including Education Week, Forbes, and edSurge, and he has been an invited speaker about education technology and teacher training for conferences at home and abroad.Episode Notes:

• We talk to Adam Geller around how to video coaching and how best to build this practice with your educators.

Connect with Adam Geller

Website:https://www.edthena.com/

pltogether.org

Twitter:@edthena

Evidence of Practice Book

Delia E. Racines, Ph.D., has over sixteen years of experience teaching, coaching, consulting, and serving as an assistant principal and principal with K-12 and university level educators in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. Racines helps educators apply research-based instructional strategies to make meaning of data and narrow achievement gaps. Delia has supported the  transition of department chairs to Instructional Coaches through tailored modules and was awarded the prestigious Shirley Hord Award with Learning Forward. She also has her own consulting firm where she coaches coaches around the country.

Episode Notes:

• We talk to Delia E. Racines, Ph.D. about her coaching journey.

• Every coach needs a coach.

• Listen for the request in the complaint.

Connect with Delia E. Racines,Ph.D.

Website: https://www.frominsighttoequity.com/

Twitter: @Dr_D_R