Coaching and Feedback Stories from the Field

From a Teacher Leader's Perspective: Learning to Be Coached

(Sara Torres, 2nd Grade Teacher Leader, Philip Shore Elementary Magnet School of the Arts, Hillsborough County Public Schools).

It was the start of a new school year with a completely new administration and many unfamiliar teacher faces filled our school building. As one of the few returning teachers, my mind was constantly questioning and wondering who was this new Principal and this new Assistant Principal? What were they truly thinking about us… what were they going to change… what were their expectations… what were they plotting?!

To be honest, my thoughts went in all directions-who can I trust? Who can I talk to? Why are they out to get us? This “Disney Land” mentality is just a scheme to see who will jump on board and conform to what they want and how they want it!

I consider myself to be a very serious person; I tend to sit back and observer every action, analyze every word, and overthink every situation. This drastic change within our school had my thoughts in overload mode. Then, the unthinkable-COACHING CYCLES!

The whispers around the school, the deer in a headlight stares, the cheering from first year teachers that wouldn’t have to be subjected to the scrutiny of the “We Gotcha” (cough) I mean, “coaching cycles” were lurking in every corner of our school. We were told that coaching cycles were an opportunity to grow as educators. Not to think of it as a negative experience and that in no way would it count toward an observation (sounded like the wah-wa-wah-wa-wah from an episode of Charlie Brown). All we heard was that the new administration would be paired up with teachers and coming into our rooms WEEKLY to observe us teaching and then conference with us after to help us. These cycles would go on all year!We were expected to teach in front of them weekly and then listen to them tell us how we suck as teachers?! These people didn’t even know our names.

Eventually, we had to get over the fact that this wasn’t “fair” and prepare ourselves for the “we gotcha!” At first it may have seemed like the world was ending and that we were being targeted because they wanted to weed out the bad apples, however, once the nervousness subsided and the world didn’t end, the experience was quite beneficial.

I was one of the lucky teachers to have our new PRINCIPAL as my coach-Oh joy! Fear, anxiety, worry, distrust, it was all too consuming for the first few cycles. A coaching cycle or three down the road, I realized that I could actually trust my coach. I didn’t have to be perfect, I didn’t have to know everything and have every trick up my sleeve. I could actually admit to my coach that I didn’t know. I could tell her that I was struggling or that I completely messed up and it wasn’t used against me as a teacher. In fact, being able to trust and open up to my coach allowed the communication between us to stretch farther than I would have ever felt comfortable with had I not been given the opportunity to have a coach. This open line of communication, idea sharing, and perspective completely transformed my thinking. I was able to try and implement different teaching techniques and enhance my instruction. I ended up looking forward to my coaching cycles. It was no longer a day of the week that I dreaded. I actually was excited about having my coach come into my classroom. I couldn’t wait to show my coach what my kids were able to do because of how I tweaked things in my instruction from the ideas given to me by my coach. My teaching methods improved, my bag of teaching tricks grew and best of all, my students were thriving. I was even earning higher ratings on my formal and informal evaluations! In fact, I was rated as a teacher that is HIGHLY EFFECTIVE-the first time in my teaching career! Looking back, I am extremely thankful that I was forced into taking part of the coaching cycles. I am a better teacher because of it. Next stop… teacher of the year!

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