Make Adult Learning Awesome

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Growing up I heard several people say, “Working with people is so hard!”  Being a teacher I used to wonder what they meant.  Working with students can be challenging, but I wouldn’t call it hard.  Working with students was fun, invigorating, and rewarding.  How could working with adults be that different? 

I found my answer first hand after leaving the classroom four years ago to work in my school’s teacher leadership program.  Since then I have been working primarily in adult to adult learning situations providing training, professional development, and 1:1 coaching.  There are difficult moments and my thinking has been challenged, but my learning has been prodigious.  

I wouldn’t call it hard, I would call it character building. The strategies I had in my tool box were for working with students.  It is not the same.  My toolbox needed to be updated and adjusted.  My tool box now includes a wide array of adult learning tools, activators, discussion/dialogue strategies, and opportunities for teachers and other adult learners to have voice and choice in the learning process. Working with adults can be just as exciting and rewarding as working with children, but the process it takes to get there is different, and requires high trust, communication, and great patience.

My greatest “a-ha” working with adult learners has been that they need a clear cut answer or Why they are doing what they are doing.  Once the explanation has been provided with facts, reason, and data adults tend to embrace change better.  They need to see that their learning is relevant and connected to their day-to-day practice.  I needed to be aware of the different learning styles adults hold, and I have to be extremely flexible in my professional development planning. No one wants learning to be boring.  It is possible to breathe life into adult learning.

In order to develop teams, build consensus, and grow the relationships in our program we focused on activators at the beginning of each training or meeting.  It took time to move from “me-ness” to “we-ness”.  We intentionally plan how each meeting will begin and end.  We want our teachers and adult learners to walk out of each training feeling awesome about their learning experience.  Here is a list of our teacher leaders' favorite adult learning strategies.

• 3-2-1
• Most Important Point
• Mix-Freeze-Pair
• First Turn, Last Turn
• Paired Verbal Fluency
• Line-Ups
• Jigsaw
• Finger Minutes
• Stir the Classroom

Other resources to put in your toolbox:

http://www.miravia.com/what/

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/

https://www.teachingchannel.org/

http://sarahbrownwessling.com/ask-sarah/

http://alisasimeral.com/

http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Creating-a-Culture-of-Reflective-Practice.aspx

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Reflection with Purpose

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Reflection is a topic that we discuss almost weekly as coaches.  For four years we have pushed the envelope to build capacity in our program and within our schools.  Some days our cups are full, reflection is plentiful, and are hearts happy.  Other days, we are exhausted, the cups are bone dry, and we face a multitude of obstacles as we try and build reflection within our school walls, and halls.  Now in year four, we know that there is always work to be done and we must continue to move into the Action and Refinement Stages of Reflection to have the greatest impact in our schools.

Weekly, our coaches gather to grow as coaches.  They dedicate two hours every Tuesday to focus on being better coaches and improve their craft.  This week we were inspired by the recent #LMPLC17 experience.  In pursuit of continue growth we started this week’s training by considering our WHY?  Why do we coach?  Why did we initially want to be coaches?  And if we know our WHY, how can we use that to give our WHAT greater impact with the teachers we work with.  The WHAT is our daily grind… so WHY are we doing those things?  Are they the RIGHT things?  DO they match our WHY?

All of these questions were a nice segue to our book study:  Creating a Community of Reflective Practice by Pete Hall and Alisa Simeral.  Using Graffiti Boards, coaches used illustrations, text, notes, ideas, anything that stuck out for them in the book.  In groups they discussed their key concepts and ideas and then created illustrations to share out with our whole group. 

Linn-Mar Teacher Leaders create Graffiti Boards to share out text to self connections from the text: 
Creating a Community of Reflective Practice by Hall/Simeral

It's no surprise what our reflections revealed.  Teaching is tough work.  It is important work, but still tough.  There are no rain check days.  The “A game” is a must and the “X factor is real.”  Teachers face overwhelming time constraints, mandates, expectations, laws, rules, criteria, etc.  Yet, they hold the power to make an amazing difference in their student’s educational experience, just by believing that their students can learn.(See Hattie’s work on Collective Teacher Efficacy 1.57 effect size)  Great teachers know they do have the power to create the best learning conditions for students, and they work tirelessly to accomplish it.  Great teachers know that reflection must be intentional,  planning must be deliberate, and that they don't have to do it alone, anymore.

Now more than ever, we need coaches and teachers collaborating.  We need coaches asking mediative questions that help our teachers specify their thinking and reflect on the specific teaching actions that produce the best results.  Thinking about thinking is no easy task, but in a community of reflective practice, you have a village supporting you and thinking with you.  Teaching IS a team sport.  If you are new to the trenches, or buried up to your neck with experience, fear not.  There is no time like the present to become part of a reflective community of practice.

How are you Coaching?

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This week our coaches explored the question: What drives you as a Coach?  What do you believe is your role as coaches?  What affects a teacher-coach relationship the most?  Trust? Credibility? Acceptance?

Using the article, “Are you Coaching HEAVY or LIGHT?” by Joellen Killion, our coaches had the opportunity to take a stand for what they believe their roles truly are.  After reading and discussing the article, some of us had our beliefs challenged.  What resulted was a thoughtful discussion around our identity as a coach. 

Photo by Debra Barry

Using the dots strategy, coaches took turns commenting on the article and their beliefs on heavy or light coaching.  Each coach was given a handful of dots and as they speak they put a dot on an index card.  The coach then needs to listen to other responses and cannot speak again until others have put a dot on the card.  This strategy allows each person a voice and helps all participants focus on listening set-asides.  Instead of formulating your next response, you are focusing on the speaker and what he or she is connecting with in this article.

 Sometimes what we think we value, and believe is true to the core, and other times the swords we pick to fall on are the wrong swords.  I’ve often felt this way as a parent.  Does my child need to eat all the food on his plate, or is it a victory, if I get him to try one bite of everything.  I think it depends on the child, the parent, and your values, beliefs, and the situation.  Coaching is the same.  How we coach is tied to who we are and what we believe.  Sometimes those beliefs can interfere with what we hope to accomplish. As a parent I have learned to pick my battles, and swords carefully.  In coaching, I’m working on it.  

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We have to master the art of coaching and find the delicate balance of coaching heavy, versus coaching light.  By utilizing our cognitive coaching skills and asking deep, mediative questions, teachers will reflect on their current teaching practice and explore new learning.  A coaches’ primary responsibility is student learning.  How they impact that learning is through coaching and adult learning.  The challenge is to not lose sight of the students in this equation. 

"Coaching heavy holds all adults responsible for student success and engages them as members of collaborative learning teams to learn, plan, reflect, analyze, and revise their daily teaching practices based on student learning results."

                                                                                 ~Joellen Killion

Not Your Grandmother's Professional Development

While I thrive on prepping for my first day of school and attending professional development, I am aware that not everyone shares that perspective.  For years, I have heard several of my teaching peers grumble about sitting through professional development when there is so much to do to be ready for our most important commodity:  students.

As Erin Watts and myself prepared for our back to school professional development for our teacher leaders, we wanted to make the day action packed and content relevant.  Our goal was to shatter the stereotypes of traditional professional development. It doesn't have to be boring and it doesn't have to feel like a waste of time. Our biggest question was, "How do we demonstrate we value their learning time?"  We know that everyone is busy preparing for the start of school.  We didn't want to send a message that they had better things to do. We wanted this learning to impact each step they made as soon as they entered their schools.

We spent several hours meeting, planning, and prepping for the day.  Our challenge was to cover all the information with strategies and tasks that would motivate, inspire, and energize our teacher leaders.

We knew the key would be to start the day off with team building and collaboration.  We chose ESCAPE THE CLASSROOM! Teachers had to solve a code to find out which group they were assigned.  As the clock ticked away groups worked furiously to solve the puzzle and unlock the boxes with more clues and puzzles.  

Instructional Coaches, Technology Integrations Coaches, Special Education Coaches, and Mentors working desperately to solve the ESCAPE THE CLASSROOM puzzles.

The first group to get to the KEY CHEST and escape the classroom won.  This fun and challenging activity was a great way to take the blah out of traditional sit and get professional training.  Although only one group won a prize, each group saw the entire task through and made it to the KEY CHEST! It was evident we had some growth mindsets in the room.

The first group to ESCAPE THE CLASSROOM!

All the other groups persevered until they escaped.  

Next we powered through housekeeping and management items in a timely fashion to get to the meat of our work centered on work with teachers to impact learning for students.  Our coaches were ready to focus on the goals of our fourth year of teacher leadership.  The focus of our year will be coaching with fidelity and a continued commitment to completing coaching cycles, reflection, and model teacher visits.  Resources we used to plan the day were Pete Hall, Alisa Simeral, Bruce Wellman and Cognitive Coaching.

Teacher leaders participated in a variety of activators and strategies to connect their learning with the content covered.