Recently the Benton Community Instructional Coach team was invited to listen to author, Alisa Simeral, speak at Vinton-Shellsburg on instructional coaching. Along with Benton Community and Vinton-Shellsburg, Center Point-Urbana and Monticello instructional coaches were in attendance. Many thanks to Vinton-Shellsburg for inviting us to join! It was a great morning of processing new learning, refining current practices, and networking with other districts. As we left to return to our buildings, there were so many reflections that each of us had. I was lucky enough this summer to get to read Simeral’s book that she wrote with Pete Hall, Teach, Reflect, Learn as part of our summer learning options. Having both experiences with Simeral’s work I was really excited to write this blog post as combined reflection.
For those of you not familiar with Simeral’s work, she is a consultant (amongst other roles) for schools to help teachers, coaches, administrators, etc. build strong reflective habits. These habits will build capacity for systems to thrive as they reach the student level through teacher actions and mindsets. The major take-aways that I had from Simeral’s presentation was that, as coaches, we can change behaviors; but if we don’t change mindsets, we aren’t building maximum capacity for change in our system. When I am working with a teacher or a team of teachers, I try to get them talking so I can start to understand how they process, plan, reflect, and assess. Simeral said it best when she explains that we really need to “listen to the teacher’s questions because that is what drives their thinking”. This was a powerful thought for me because it is 100% right. When I am engaged in a coaching cycle, I try to have open discourse to get the teacher to process verbally. Through that conversation I can gain clarity on their belief system. This clarity is important to really dive deep into our coaching relationship. I am not coaching to give activities or classroom management suggestions. I am coaching for metacognition! With those thoughts, how can the BCTLT meet your needs as a teacher? Let’s start that work today! -Kim
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Blog Posts Written By:Larry Carlson Archives
August 2022
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