Creating System-Wide Support forLearning Coacheswith Joellen Killion

Developed by ARPDC as a result of a grant from Alberta Education to support implementation

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Building and Maintaining a Productive Teacher-Coach

Relationships

March 13, 2012

Joellen Killion

Senior AdvisorLearning Forward

10931 W 71st Place

Arvada, CO 80004-1337

Joellen.Killion@learningforward.org

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Outcomes

• Examine the characteristics of a productive teacher-coach relationship

• Acquire strategies coaches use to build and maintain a productive teacher-coach relationship

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• What terms would you use to describe productive relationships between teachers and coaches?

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• What benefits emerge when teacher-coach relationships are productive?

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• What are the side effects when the teacher-coach relationships are unproductive?

Productive Relationships

Based on principles of partnership

Built on partnership agreements

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Partnership Principles

The theory behind this approach

Knight, J., Instructional Coaching

Principles shape our thoughts, words, and actions.

Principles are underlying assumptions required in a system of thought and are often spoken of as laws for moral or ethical decision making.

Hirsh & Killion

www.learningforward.org

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Principles

The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you live by, you will change your world.

Blaine Lee, The Power Principle

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Partnership Principles• Equality• Praxis• Dialogue• Choice• Voice• Reflection• Reciprocity

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EqualityPartnership carries the intention to balance power between ourselves and those around us. --Peter Block

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Equality

What messages do coaches send teachers when they practice the principle of equality?

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Apart from inquiry, apart from praxis, people cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges ... through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry people pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. --Paulo Friere

Praxis

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Praxis

• Creative inquiry• Continuous learning

and exploration• Action research

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Dialogue

A dialogue or conversation among individuals ... based on mutual respect, equality, a willingness to listen and to risk one’s prejudices and opinions. --Richard J. Bernstein

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Dialogue

• Engaging in respectful, energizing conversation• Exchanging points of view versus being right• Suspending judgments • Listening authentically

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ChoiceOffering people . . . more choice and control over what they do gives them the means to find purpose at work. Roland Barth

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ChoiceWhat kinds of choices do coaches offer teachers?

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There is a deep, innate, almost inexpressible yearning within each of us to find our voice in life.Stephen Covey (2004) The 8th Habit

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• Create conversation that values divergent points of view

• Foster the generation of knowledge more than the acceptance of knowledge

• Make space for what really matters in teachers’ lives

• Listen authentically

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Reflection

Instead, she or he must think about what is taking place, what the options are and so on, in a critical, analytical way. In other words the teacher must engage in reflection ...

—John W. Brubacher, Charles W. Case, and Timothy G. Reagan

The teacher cannot rely on either instinct alone or on prepackaged sets of techniques.

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Reflection

• On action

• In action

• For action

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Reciprocity

Tsze-Kung asked, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?"

The Master said, "Is not Reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”Confucius

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Reciprocity

A teacher learns from a coach as much as the coach learns from a teacher.

. . . when each is open to learn.

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Partnership Principles Discussion10 minutes

• Move into assigned Collaboration Rooms.• Discuss with your colleagues how the

partnership principles contribute to building and maintaining productive teacher-coach relationships.

• Describe an example of one of the principles in action from your own work.

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Partnership Agreements

① What are partnership agreements?

② Why are they important to coaches?

③ With whom do coaches form partnership agreements?

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Partnership Agreements

④ What do coaches form partnership agreements about?

⑤ How do coaches form partnership agreements?

⑥ What follow-up is necessary after forming partnership agreements?

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What are partnership agreements?

Mutual agreement between the coach and his/her client(s) that defines their working relationship

Include parameters, scope, expectations, responsibilities, roles, etc.

Can be renegotiated at any time when requested

May be written and signed

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Why are they important to coaches?

Clarify roles and expectations Avoid confusion or surprises Establish parameters for safety and

trust

Builds respect Others:

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Coaches’ Clients

• Principals• Individual teachers

• In-classroom work• Out-of-classroom work

• Teams of teachers• Resource staff• Others?

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What do coaches form partnership agreements about?

• Roles and responsibilities• Clients--which

teachers/grades/departments/teams

• Boundaries of work• Support and resources

needed for success• Timelines

• Ways to assess effectiveness

• Guidelines• Expectations• Confidentiality• Communication• Procedures

PRINCIPALS

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What do coaches form partnership agreements about?

• Time• Place• Location• Services requested• Resources

• Responsibilities• Expectations• Data• Confidentiality• Follow-up

TEACHERS

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How do coaches form partnership agreements?

• In conversations guided by questions to ask clients

• By presenting a list of topics to clarify and discussing each

• By offering suggested agreements and checking clients’ understanding of and agreement with each

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What follow-up is necessary after forming partnership agreement?

• Revisit periodically to check if they are working

• Ask for feedback on the agreements• Ask is any are unduly difficult or not

working and require renegotiation• Revisit those that require reminders

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Partnership Agreements Discussion10 minutes

• Move into assigned Collaboration Rooms.• Identify a situation in which you wish you had

formed a partnership agreement and did not?• What were the effects?• What agreement would you request now as a

result?

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• Which tool represents a strategy you will use that we discussed today?

• Explain the link.

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Thank you!

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