Leah Hendrix - an Educator's Coaching Journey

What's on your agenda?

The theme for this month is Agendas. We all have them. They are lists of actions we intend to carry out, usually aimed at reaching a certain goal, which in turn is based on something we believe is worth achieving.

Agenda = List of Actions > Goal = worth achieving

In this edition of the Steps towards a Coaching Classroom, I will be telling the story of three people: the School Headmistress, a Coach and a French Teacher. For reasons of confidentiality I am using the name Leah Hendrix for the teacher, and it is she who tells the story.

Background

The School headmistress has been coached. It was her choice. She felt the need for a friendly pair of ears to listen to her and give her feedback. She enlisted a Coach as her sounding board. Pleased with the results, she has invited the coach to be available for other members of her staff, to coach them too. There would be no reports between the coach and the Head, except for an account of the coaching hours to be paid for.

Several teachers were quick to take up the offer of being coached, for various reasons. Each made their coaching plan and set their own goals.

But there was one teacher who the Head wished would take up the offer of coaching, Leah. Leah was a senior language teacher and rather set in her ways. How could Leah be persuaded to dive into the unknown without feeling she was being criticised? The Head knew somehow there was a better teacher hiding inside Leah. If only...

Leah's Story

At the outset, Leah felt no need for coaching. She felt she was gently coerced into it, by the Head's repeated encouragement for her to take the opportunity of working with a coach. She decided to give it a couple of hours of her time and discovered, thanks to the persistence of her coach, that within her there lived a better teacher than she had imagined was possible.?

Read Leah's full story here . You may add your comments there too.

Since the coaching, Leah has become less strict and more engaged with the students as human beings. She is taking more risks, trying different ways to teach, seeing the need for a different balance of structure and predictability vs spontaneity and laughter. Sees the next ten years filled with potential learning for her as well as her students.

Leah says she now has a coach mindset regarding giving herself feedback when reflecting on her lessons.

The Coach's interviews with Leah

What’s your current situation?

At the school where I work, the teaching hours have been reduced so that there is more flexibility in planning the timetables. I understand the reason for this change but instead of two 60-minute lessons, we now have two 50-minute lessons. Considering it still takes the students ten minutes to settle into the classroom, the lesson time has actually gone down from 50 to 40 minutes - and that is 20% less teaching time.

How do you feel about it??

I am angry, frustrated and I don’t see how to get the students to settle quicker. They come from lessons in different parts of the school, and even when I explain in my best teacher voice the need for them to arrive on time and settle down quickly, they still take ten minutes to come to order.

What would you rather see??

I am resigned to the lessons being shorter. There are too many voices against me. I would rather see the students ready to learn within five minutes, or two! How about that??

How would you feel about that?

It would feel like my job was possible. I can handle the frustration if the students make a proper effort to get themselves under control.

Action Steps

One thing to develop during the next two-four weeks?

Lesson start up time. I was reading about lesson planning using Kanban. The exercises and activities for the lessons would essentially be in boxes and we could start as soon as the first few students came into the room.?

This is important because

I need to optimise the teaching time I have. Putting an emphasis on them getting on with their work from the box as soon as they arrive makes more sense than making them wait until everyone arrives.

Strategy

They are to pick up studying from where they left off, regardless of whether all their classmates have arrived from other lessons or not. There will be a rolling start. And when everyone is in the room, I can pause their studies to teach them the next thing on the list, and put the materials, exercises and activities into the boxes, at the right levels.

Action Plan

I need to set up some boxes with the work we have done so far, but have not finished with. Then I need to plan short lessons to give in the middle of the lesson time.

Follow Up

Results

It was chaos. The first time we did this I forgot how long it had taken me to get my head around the Kanban method. I didn’t expect it to take me a whole lesson to explain what to do. We wasted a lesson, but I learned that I have to teach them to optimise their time, and to expect to get started straight away. They need a clear checklist of what to do for each study unit.

Supporters

The students who generally arrive late because they are in lessons on the other side of the school now come into a quiet working environment. I have taken to playing music to indicate that they will self-study. When I pause the music, they know it’s time for me to give a lesson.

Observations

I am impressed that they took to self study, quickly after the first explanation.

The late students often pair up with a classmate who is working on the same exercises, or join a group that has space for an activity partner. They seem to be taking over organising the teaching themselves.

Feedback

I have seen much better results on their written work, and heard them speaking French with each other. Even the shy students. Without me standing over them, they have more space to try saying new words and phrases.

Reflections

I think this self-study method suits the shy students better.?

We are getting 45 minutes work in the 50 minute lessons. I have timed it! I was delighted when I got the suggestion from a colleague. From today, we are noting how many working minutes we get in from start to finish. I am aiming for 48 working minutes.

Conclusions

Initially, I resented the shortening of the lesson time, but it has resulted in me changing my teaching so that we get almost as much work done; and the students are taking charge of their learning, with the need for self-study.?

I will keep my ten minute lessons in the middle of the lesson time because that’s when I feel like I am actually teaching, and they do need to hear real French from time to time.