What To Do About Blank Stares

Have you ever been in a post-observation conference and you’re sitting there going over your feedback with a teacher and you see a blank look cross that teacher’s face and you know that she is no longer hearing you?

Or maybe you’re sharing feedback with a teacher and he is nodding and acting like he’s listening but you know that he is not really hearing anything you say?

It’s so frustrating isn’t it when you are sharing really important information with someone, information that is critical to their success, and they don’t react at all. They just sit there and take it and you know they aren’t listening to you, they’re just going through the motions. 

But while we may think those blank stares are really about people who were trying to tune us out or we interpret blank stares as a subtle form of resistance there is usually something much deeper going on.

The way that we have been taught to give feedback may actually be unintentionally creating blank stare moments as it leaves our feedback open to interpretation and easier to ignore.

The better you understand which one of the 3 big reasons caused blank stares, the better you can adjust your feedback so that you avoid confusion in the first place.

When we adjust our feedback to focus on the root cause, not only do we give people real clarity about what their best next step should be, we give them the confidence that they can actually act on our feedback and see meaningful improvements in their classrooms. 

Listen to this podcast episode “What To Do About Blank Stares” [https://tinyurl.com/y586fssv] and discover what’s behind those blank stares and how we can get through to people even when it seems as if they are shutting us out.