I used to be a literacy coach... and here's why I need one.

I am not a new teacher.  In fact, this is my twenty-third year in my school district.  Eighteen of those were spent teaching seventh grade language arts (and sometimes US history) and four of them were spent as a literacy coach.

As a coach, I worked with the teachers to improve literacy instruction across the curriculum.  Surprising as it may seem, I spent most of my time working in math, science, and social studies classes rather than in the language arts classes.  I loved going into these classes and thinking with the teachers about the challenges of incorporating reading, writing, and choice into their curricula and then working with them to implement the ideas we came up with together.  I was always amazed at how we could take my knowledge of research in literacy education and pair it with their content expertise to find new ways to engage students in the hard work of learning.

Now, I'm back in the classroom, and I'm finally able to put all of the things I've learned over the past four years into practice.  I know so much more about teaching and learning than I did when I first stepped away.  I've had the opportunity to watch teachers and kids and think about engagement and learning.  You'd think I'd be the best teacher I've ever been, right?

I am.

I am much more aware of limiting how much I talk so that my students can talk and think more.  I provide my students with opportunities to make choices about their learning over the course of the school day.  The feedback I give my students is clearer and more targeted than ever before.  You'd think I wouldn't need to work with the literacy coach in my building.

You'd be wrong.

I've spent the past two months working closely with my coach because I want to continue to grow. Having Luanne come into my room to work alongside me provided the opportunity for me to discuss my teaching and my students' learning with a highly knowledgeable peer in a setting unrelated to my professional evaluation.  She could make recommendations for next steps with particular students and small groups because she was in my class, getting to know the students as readers and writers, and we had many conversations about what to do to move students forward.  This time with her in my class was important to my growth.  In some ways, it validated me; it helped me to see that I DID remember how to teach after being in a support role.  In other ways it challenged me by reminding me that my way was not the only, and perhaps not the best, way to approach a topic.  I'll miss having Luanne in my room several times a week.  She's now moving on to work with other teachers in our building.

I know not all teachers are lucky enough to have instructional coaches to support them in their work.  But we can seek out coaches and mentors on our own.  I know that I rely on one of my teammates to help me plan my math instruction - trust me... I need that help as I've never taught math before!  I seek out Twitter chats such as #g2great and #3rdchat which focus on instructional practice in order to "meet" other teachers who are smart and innovative and help me push myself.  This desire to continue to grow as a teacher is as strong as ever.  It is important for all teachers to have this growth mindset. We need to be models of curiosity and life-long learning for our students.  We need to keep up with the research and new thinking in our field.

So I think the thing I've been trying to write through today is the idea that as a teacher, I can never stop learning.  I can never know all there is to know about my craft and there is always room to grow. Need a friend to read and discuss a professional book?  Email me.  I'm always a willing participant. Have a problem you need someone to think through with you? I'm your girl, as long as you'll do the same for me.  Read a great book about teaching and learning lately?  Tell me the title so I can buy it.

Because I honestly believe you can never learn too much.

Learning Together

I work for a small (three elementary buildings and one junior high) school district in the Chicago suburbs.  There are lots of things that make my district unique, but the one I've been thinking about quite a bit today is the district's commitment to job-embedded professional development.

Each building in my district has a literacy coach, and our primary job is coaching teachers and providing PD opportunities throughout the school year, after school and during the summer.  One of the ways we encourage teachers to learn together is through our Model Classroom Lab program.  Our model classroom teachers complete a rigorous application and interview process, and were chosen NOT because they are the very best teachers in the district (though I would argue they are among them), but because they consider themselves learners. Our model classroom teachers are constantly looking to improve their practice, and open their classrooms to their colleagues to learn alongside them.

Today I had the pleasure of facilitating our first lab session of the school year.  The group gathered to explore conferring across the content areas in the classrooms of two seventh grade teachers - one in language arts and one in science.  Our participants were varied as well:  a math teacher, a language arts teacher, a fourth grade teacher, and a second grade teacher.  Throughout the day, we spent time talking about where each of us is in our conferring practice and ways in which we want to grow.  We watching two very different conferring styles in two very different content areas, yet found similarities and common ground.  We'll repeat the process in February, and between now and then all of the participants as well as the teacher hosts will continue to experiment and refine their conferring practice.  I'll support the teachers in my building, and the two elementary teachers will receive support from their building coach.

I've been lucky enough to host labs, facilitate labs, and attend labs as a participant.  No matter what role I've played during these experiences, I leave the day feeling smarter about my practice than I did that morning.  Because the learning occurred in my building with my colleagues and was supported by my teammates or my coach, I was able to take the things I'd learned in the lab and put them into practice right away.  Sometimes those new ideas were great and worked right away, and sometimes they bombed.  But even the flop has something to teach.

Job-embedded PD, whether it's coaching, a lab experience, a study group, or an in-district workshop feels different than off-site workshops or conferences.  While I enjoy going out to learn from and with other people in my field, it's the immediate, in-my-face experiences that have made the biggest, longest lasting impact on my professional practice.  I've seen this mirrored in my colleagues as well.

So even though I felt like a needed my roller skates today to get to all of the places I needed to be, it was all worth it.  I know the kids we were watching and the teachers who participated and hosted all learned something today.  They were smarter at the end of the day than they were at the beginning.

And isn't that what it's all about?

The More You Know

This year is my second year as the literacy coach in my 6-8 building.  Last year I survived.  This year, my goal is to do more than survive; it's to thrive.  I'm being strategic in my schedule.  I've come up with an organization system for my coaching plans and notes.  I am reaching out to teachers in many different content areas.  I'm reading.  I'm watching.  I'm listening.

Today, Ellin Oliver Keene, author of many books including Talk About Understanding and co-author of Mosaic of Thought came to work with a group of teachers in the building.  A colleague and I realized we had been working with Ellin since our daughters, now in 7th and 8th grades were in K and 1st.  We relish the opportunity to learn alongside Ellin and to have her push us in our thinking.  Mrs. M., the teacher who hosted our observation agreed to have Ellin coach her in the moment while she taught.  Mrs. M. is also a coach (of the sports variety), and she understands that sometimes coaches have to give instruction to players during the game or even in the middle of a play.  The other teachers who were part of our group would have the opportunity to experience this type of intense coaching vicariously and the students in the class would get to view their teacher as a learner.

While I love watching Mrs. M. teach, I was in that room with a different purpose.  I wanted to watch a master coach coach.  I wanted to learn from Ellin how to be a better coach than I was last year.

Now, tonight, after having some time to process, I feel like I have so much more to learn.  There were things that Ellin saw that I missed, words she used that I wouldn't have thought of.  During the reflection time following the observation, I realized I still observed with a teacher's eyes, thinking about how I could take various strategies and language and adapt them to my own classroom.  Well... now I'm a coach.  My eyes and thinking should be tuned to the teacher, her needs, and the needs of her students... not necessarily my own.

This type of reflection and learning is important.  Thinking about my practice helps me to understand what I need to do to improve in my now not-so-new role.  I have some ideas about reading, talking, and thinking I want to do with MY coaches, and luckily I know where to seek those resources out.

The more you know, the more you realize how much more there is to learn.  Isn't that great?

This post was written as part of the Tuesday Slice of Life series sponsored by Two Writing Teachers.  Want to read what others are writing?  Go check it out!