sol17 #24: bloomed from the mud

In the few minutes I've had today to myself so far, I've been consumed with the story of the Lotus flower. I noticed it on the cover of a book I'm reading (The Art of Coaching) and so when I was making my sketchnotes for my book club, I decided to look up this stunning creation of nature and find the story behind it so I could investigate the meaning of this cover art. What I found stopped me dead in my tracks.

"The lotus flower is one of the most remarkable creations of nature. Its beauty lies in its purity, because this magnificent flower emerges from the dirty and muddy bottom of a pond, yet still remains untouched and unstained by its soiled surroundings." source

Which got me to thinking, what a muddy week I've been having:

• Got blown off for a first date.
• Was stressed about my observation.
• Was short-tempered when I should've been more compassionate.
• Was overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done at school.
• Carried around some negativity I should have let go.

But also, there was so much beauty this week. Namely, this morning when I got to spend some time with some of my favorite peeps, the Literacy Coaches. We had just finished doing a few Quick Writes to share our ideas about coaching when one of them came over with donuts and said, "Oh, how could I have forgotten? We're going to toast you now."

"Toast me? Why? Because I shared that modification for quick writing with you guys?"

"No, for your Golden Apple. Donuts are sweeter, so we picked these up and we all want to tell you what we love about you, and how you are golden to all of us."

I started crying before they even began. And continued all through out. They told me things like,

• You made me a writer.
• Not only am I so happy to work with you, you have been a dear friend.
• You've told me you appreciate me and enjoy working with me; I can't remember another person who has said that to me recently.
• I try and remember how you did things. I've learned so much from you.
• You have taught me so much, I'm always learning when I am around you, there's always something to take away.
• You're awesome.
• You have such a warmth and a glow about you.

And so just when I was thinking about how muddy my week had been, how I was feeling overwhelmed and wishing I could have responded differently in a few situations, and how there were too many meetings, too much information to share and too many lessons to plan, beauty blossomed.

And I'm reminded of all the beauty in this life we live. It's everywhere. Sometimes you have to look for it a little harder but sometimes it sprouts and grows right in front of you as if you were the sun and rain giving it just the right amount of everything it needed.

Today in our meeting, we talked about why we want to be a coach, and more particularly, why coach in district 100. For me, it all begins with relationships. To the coaches: you have created a space for me to be myself, to be annoying in asking everyone to talk quieter, to be funny with jokes, to make mistakes and screw things up, to just be me, in my muddiness and in my moments of beauty, too. The relationships I have with you are a part of a wider community I feel here in Berwyn. There are so many teachers around the district who are some of my best friends, who have become almost family to me. These relationships and this community is why I coach and teach in District 100, striving to live at ease in the muddy water, knowing beauty is just beyond the surface.

to the coaches at my side

I haven't written much about coaching since I began this blog. I think the knowledge you get comes over time and comes with experience. I'm about halfway through my fourth year with the title of Literacy Coach and finally feel I have some perspective and ideas about this work to share with my PLN.

This year, I went back to the middle school and in addition to coaching, I'm also teaching an ELA class each day and a Challenge Based Learning class every other day. I have one block every day for coaching, and opposite of the the Challenge Based Learning class, I have another.

In our district, there are 8 literacy coaches, so you can see what a wonderful opportunity we all have for working together. We take turns meeting at different buildings, and then when we get together, we visit classrooms, do a little bit of professional development (lately it has been with a Webinar with the EdCollab, thanks for sharing that, Leah!), and then we talk about and maybe make suggest ideas about literacy related items around the district. For the first part of the year, I wasn't going to the coaching meetings and I was blaming it on not wanting to leave the two classes I was teaching. Then, in December, I decided I *had to get there, and I'm so glad I did, because a big lesson came from this.

Although it is my fourth year as a coach, I'm on year one of coaching at the middle school - it's their first year to have a part-time Literacy Coach on staff. For the better part of this year, I have been so anxious, thinking about the things that I'm not doing, or not doing well enough. And, I've been carrying all of that around by myself, because I wasn't making it a point to get to the coaches meetings.

Then in December, I got it. I have to see the other coaches in my district on a consistent basis. Even though my schedule is slightly different from the other coaches (since they are mostly at elementary schools) it is so helpful to meet with the people who do the same work as I do.

For the first four months of the school year this year, by not going to these meetings, I was basically on a little island by myself, feeling the stress this position creates and holding it all by myself. To which I finally found a key: you have to see your people on a regular basis.

Every time I see them, I am reminded that we share similar struggles, we are always there to support one another, and that yes, I can keep on. I don't know what I would do without this network of colleagues who I now call friends. So to the coaches at my side - the ones in my district I am lucky to see on a regular basis and others who I know via Twitter and this blog, thank you for sharing with me - ideas about coaching, ideas about teaching and learning, and even just an ear to listen. I am so thankful for you.

Which got me to thinking. I know there are really small districts out there where maybe there is only one coach. That could be a real challenge, not having a support system. Which is why I think twitter and our PLNs are so important. We have to connect with others who do similar work, for so many reasons, but in my opinion, mostly importantly to stay connected with peace of mind so we can be our best for the students we may be teaching every day and also for the colleagues we collaborate with in our buildings.

Coaches out there - what has your experience been? Any similar feelings on this topic? Please leave a comment to share, but also so that we can get connected!

how to spot a great teacher

This morning I went to my favorite Yoga class - Hot Power Fusion (HPF) at CorePower Yoga. Our teacher was amazeballs, and it got me to thinking about how you can really spot a great teacher. Here's my take.

1. Care for Students
First and foremost, great teachers show authentic care and concern for their students. They want them to achieve, and are there to help them though difficulties. When we began our session this morning, Terri told us that if we got stuck or didn't feel well, that we should stay in the studio so she could help us. Fast forward about 30 minutes when someone left: she told the rest of us to take a quick break and grab some water so she could check on the other student. I thought that action right there spoke volumes about the kind of teacher Terri is. At the heart of her work with us is a care for students.

Similarly, I've always believed in my work with students they will work harder for you and take more risks for you when they know you are on their side. Do some kids screw up? Absolutely. And they will definitely receive consequences for it. But it's *because we love them - rather than in spite of it - that they earn consequences for bad choices. I told a student once, "The day I stop asking and nagging and having the "talks" with you - that's the day you should worry." This was met with a middle school eye roll, but I just smiled to myself as I saw a bigger picture that this particular student couldn't quite envision just yet.

2. Thoughtful Planning
Great teachers also take time to plan thoughtfully for their sessions. One of the reasons I love HPF is that in the best classes, the teachers offer up an intention for our practice. They bring some kind of knowledge or wisdom to share with us that we can use to drive our practice for the day. Today, Terri brought the book You are a Badass: How to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life. And then, as our eyes were closed and we were standing at the tops of our mats with our hands in prayer at our heart, she read to us about "sweeping out the self-doubt." Clearly that has stuck with me (and I have a new book to read).

And it wasn't just the reading, it was also the thoughtful planning of her music. There was noting haphazard about it. In the moments in the class when we were working hard, the music was faster and more up beat. When the class slowed down, so did the music, including a new version of Bulletproof that was amazing.

Thoughtful planning takes time and effort. The best teachers rehearse for their lessons, us writing teachers read the Calkins curriculum and make slides that we can use along with it to show students what we mean. We write memoirs along side our students so we see where they might get stuck.

Thoughtful planning takes time, but it really shows up on the execution of the lesson!

3. Specific Feedback
Another one - specific feedback. Teachers have to give great feedback so students can adjust their practice. In yoga, this takes on two forms, verbal cues and hands-on assists. When the teacher cues verbally, he or she will narrate what he or she sees and then give verbal cues to the whole group so everyone can adjust. Even more specific are hands-on adjusts, where the teacher will come over to someone and adjust their postures and positioning so that everyone can focus theirs more, and see exactly what the teacher means by watching!

As a classroom teacher, specific feedback is equally important. A long time ago, in my early years, I learned about how to 'SIP' kids - provide them with feedback that is specific, informative, and positive. Like Terri, in my class I might say something like, "Alright I see that Zach is ready to go - he has his notebook and pencil and is looking at me for more directions. Thanks, Zach!" That cue will let the other students know exactly what I'm looking for. Additionally, feedback takes on a written form as we read student writing, highlighting the things they did in such an awesome way, and also press them to think further by asking questions.

Feedback makes a difference as we learn!

4. Positivity
Another thing about great teachers is that they are positive. They're not just positive when giving feedback (although that is really important) but they are just positive people in general. I don't know about the Yoga Teaching World, but the education world can be really intense, and it's really easy to fall into those holes of negativity. It's really easy to get caught up in gossip and never smile. The best teachers? They remove themselves for negativity that drains their spirit and they keep on simling, remembering that teacher balance is so important, and that by doing something for themselves, they are in turn, making themselves better when they step in front of kids.

This morning, Terri was so positive, from the smile I got when I checked in at the front desk, to the eye contact in class, and the jokes about a certain posture potentially leading to a whole night's worth of sleep, and that maybe it might be a bunch of baloney, but we'll try it out anyways.

Positive teachers make their students want to return to their classrooms.

5. Ability to laugh at their mistakes
The last thing is that great teachers don't take themselves too seriously. They understand that there's *no way* for them to know everything or to do everything perfectly, and so when they screw up, they laugh it off and move on. They get that life it too short to worry about what someone else might be thinking about their actions - that kind of conversation in our minds only depletes our energy. One thing that master teachers excel at is constantly learning and growing and improving, and they don't let the little mistakes derail them from their greater purpose.

So - that's just what I was thinking in class today. I love Core Power Yoga and especially HPF, and I will definitely be returning to Terri's class... highly recommend!

What do you think? What else makes a great teacher?

currently february

Friends, it's February! I'm so happy to say sianara to January. The weather was sucky, I got in a car accident, and some other things that were not my fave. But February is here and it's time to start fresh and look forward!

Thanks to Farley for bringing us all together again! Hop over there and check out her new blog design, so so cute! Here's what's up on my end:

Listening to....the news - It's Iowa Caucus day!
This isn't too much, is it?

Seriously I'm totally #FeelinTheBern over here. I think he really needs to get Iowa tonight if he's got any chance at taking the whole thing, so hopefully all those people are out doing the Caucus. Also: idk exactly what caucusing is....anyone? Buellar?

Loving...my job, Literacy Coaching!
Few things: 1. Annie, another coach in our district, tagged a few of us in an article on Twitter and it was really good. It talks about how coaching happens one conversation at a time. Then, 2. today, I had a conversation like that and it was awesome. It makes me so happy to feel like I can help make a difference!

Thinking about...The Chicago Marathon...?
I recently started going to Old St. Pat's Church downtown Chicago and I just love it. In addition to feeling so uplifted at Mass, and learning so much through RCIA, they have all these awesome programs, including one to train runners for the marathon. I think yes! Any marathon runners out there? Thoughts?

Wanting... New shoes!
So I got a gift card for Tieks for Christmas (thanks sister!) and still haven't bought them because of some unforeseen expenses, but soon, very soon. I will be getting myself some ballet pink Tieks and I also want some new running shoes. I'm going to give Asics a try this time, after a lifetime of running Nike Free. Anyone run in Ascis? Do you love them?

Needing...umm...nothing?
Life is good. The days are getting longer, it hasn't been terribly cold, and I'm not digging my car out of snow! And speaking of my car...

Swooning...New Car!
So my car accident - made a crappy car a hopeless mess, so I took a payout on the damages (accident not my fault!), sold my car to CarMax and then my amazing parents chipped in a little bit of money to their poor teacher daughter (ok, I'm not poor, but I'm not sitting on a huge savings, either!) Anyways, now mine is a beautiful, smells-like-new-car, all electronic and high-tech, shiny, sleek, 2016 Civic:

I've driven all of the 53 miles this car has gone (except 6) and I just love it. Feeling very grateful for family that continues to support their grown daughter. I only hope one day I can do the same half as good as they have! Love you, family!

So that's where I'm at right now. What's new with you? Be sure to check out Farley's blog and link your Currently up, too!

looking back

This month, the #compelledtribe is talking about year-end reflections. It's crazy how fast each year goes by, but here we are again, ending another. So, professionally and personally speaking, here are some reflections of my year...

Illinois Writing Project
One thing I am most thankful for is my work last summer with the Illinois Writing Project. I took part in their Summer Leadership Institute and participating reaffirmed everything I believe about writing and writing instruction. One would think giving up 12 days of summer break would be a drag, but it was by far the best PD I've had outside of my graduate program. Through it, an important friendship grew closer and I made some new friends too. And now I'm helping out with the Social Media for IWP. This was a wonderful investment of time and energy, and I highly recommend the Writing Projects - in Illinois and all the states!

Literacy Coaching
What a difference a few years can make... I'm really enjoying the work I get to do as a coach. Seeing the wonderful teachers in my building on a consistent basis and collaborating with them to best meet the needs of our students is so rewarding. I've come up with some better organizational systems and learned more about guided reading at various levels. I can see the growth of our students as they continue to receive instruction from a Reading and Writing Workshop approach and it's because of the hard work of our teachers each day that our students are flourishing as readers and writers. As a fourth or fifth grader, I never knew anything about Author's Craft, but our students sure do. Thank you Emerson teachers for your trust and collaboration...I love to work with you! (Check out what's going on in our building by searching #tigerslearn on Twitter!)

Blogging Club
I'm in my second year running a blogging club with fourth and fifth graders and I just love it. In March, we completed the Slice of Life challenge with Two Writing Teachers and I had four students write every day for the entire month. Have you ever done a month-long challenge? It's not easy, especially during the school year (and it was testing season, too!) Now that we've started this year, I love how the fifth graders who are on year two are coaching the new kiddos - I totally understand why Nancie Atwell's ELA class was a 7-8th grade combo class that looped. This year, kiddos have already refined their practices with commenting, and we're using a goal setting chart to focus our work!

Personally Speaking
Lots of great things happened this year! I got to visit friends and family in Florida, California, and Arizona. My niece came for a week in the summer and we had so much fun together doing things all around the city. My sister came in November and brought my new nephew Jack so I could meet him. I went to two weddings of great friends and celebrated first steps in their new marriages. We watched some ASU games together, I had an awesome 35th birthday party and a really fun Friendsgiving, and Bernie Sanders is picking up some traction during this primary season.

It's kind of upsetting that unless I'm actively going through all these memorable occasions all I can really seem to keep in mind is the breakup, but luckily that is getting further and further away from me each day, and so it gets easier every day. And I guess that even though there was an ending in 2015, I'm always going to abide by this:

There's my year in review. Hope you had a great one, too. Coming next are goals for the new year; stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!

speak my langauge

I am a words person. Well, I am a building relationships person, and that happens most efficiently for me via words. Have you ever read Gary Chapman's book, Five Love Languages? Well, this book was where it started with me understanding myself better. In his book, Chapman talks about how in relationships (and he refers to romantic relationships, but it works for all of them) that there are five different languages that people use to communicate:

The reason it's important to know someone else's love language is that you can express yourself to them in a way that is most comprehensible to them.

I tell you all this, because I got the best affirmation the other day at work from a colleague. Since I am a Words of Affirmation person, that goes a long way with me. Appreciation, in and of itself, is so important in the workplace, but paying attention to your colleagues, and trying to figure out the best way to appreciate them, well that is like magic.

So, to my person who made time to listen on Thursday night, and also share a little bit about themselves, know that your words have reinvigorated me, and I think I've got enough energy in me to keep on keepin' on for weeks on end!

On a side note, just check Chapman's book out on amazon, and noticed that there's a kids' version... and one for teenagers! This comes highly recommended!

    

How have the Love Languages influenced your work and/or relationships?

our work matters

This month, I'm participating in an #educoach blog challenge, where instructional coaches share posts about the work they are doing. Thank you to Kathy Perret for getting this challenge up and running!

School is busy. Life is complicated. Put the two together and, even someone who loves to write just isn't up for posting on her blog, even though there's at least 10 ideas swimming around in my head at any given moment. After all, it is #DEVOLSON so may as well cut myself some slack. But I knew I would feel better if I made time to come to my writing as soon as I could, so here I am.

Thursday I attended an Illinois Writing Project event downtown. I think it was to celebrate the National Day on Writing, and so it was called Everybody Writes.  Nancy Steineke was our featured speaker with a great presentation on Integrating Writing Across Content, K-12. She read us a book I had never heard of: Piggybook, (I love when someone reads me a book!) and then we did a mini-text set with some data on gender equality (the theme from the book). Finally, we ended with a written conversation about our text set and gained new understandings from our peers.

After Nancy's presentation, we had dinner, talked with colleagues, and then our guest speaker, Adrienne Gibbs, left us with her inspiring story. She is a Chicago Public Schools alumni who was encouraged by her teachers to keep on writing. She went on to become a professional writer and editor. She ended her talk with these words:

One of my colleagues wrote an excellent post about passion, and it was a great reminder of why I do what I do: coach towards the Reading and Writing Workshop. I believe in it wholeheartedly! It's amazing to think that as teachers, we are able to inspire not only students, but also one another with the work that we do.

So while life gets messy and work is so busy, and you can feel like there just isn't enough time in the day, we need to remember that our work matters. We can potentially inspire the next big writer, create a passion for reading that cannot be extinguished, say words that could send out students off to be scientists and artists. In what other profession are they rewarded as such?

Anyone who inspired you? Leave a comment below!

a guiding light

Tuesdays this month, I'm participating in an #educoach blog challenge, where instructional coaches share posts about the work they are doing. Thank you to Kathy Perret for getting this challenge up and running!

I'm just getting back from the Illinois Reading Council Conference and slowly coming back to Earth, leaving my inspirational high over there in Peoria, Illinois. I always leave the IRC feeling so inspired, and as I thought about inspiration, I realized that sharing inspiration with others is a great quality for an instructional coach to have!

So...who has recently inspired me?

Dave Burgess
Dave is the author of Teach Like a Pirate and is very active on Twitter, just search up his #tlap hashtag! He's an magician and a teacher, so of course that definitely puts him in the difinitive entertainer category. (Aren't all teachers entertainers?) :-)

One of his quotes, in particular, is especially inspiring for me:

So true, right? When teachers create experiences for students, when students are living in your lessons because you have taken them beyond the lecture and homework, they respond differently. They like coming to school, coming to class. They put in more effort, because they have that internal drive to participate in the experience their teacher is creating.

In order to create these experiences for kids, we have to be creative and ask the right questions. Not, "Can I do this lesson outside of my classroom?" but, "How can I do this lesson outside of my classroom?" It's so easy to answer your questions with a no, so we must ask the right questions!

Penny Kittle
Penny Kittle was another teacher-author at the IRC. I heard of her a few years ago, but it was my first time going to a session with her. She teaches high school kids and is refining how teachers think about teaching high school English. The stories she shared with us about how she makes kids readers - amazing. Take a look at this kid - on the table beside him are stacks of books he read in each of his 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade years. Obviously, Penny was his teacher when he was a senior:

"Our daily practices show students what we believe." It's so true. The time we devote to the practices in our classroom reveals our values. If we value guided reading, and study it to make those most of those 20 minute sessions with students, it's very clear to students and observers that providing specific, differentiated instruction to each learner is of value. If we provide ample time for students to read and escape into their Just Right books, children and classroom observers see that time to do the work of reading is important.

How can instructional coaches inspire others?
I'm just scratching the surface with these two, but being inspired is an important part of the work we do as coaches. How do you inspire those you work with?

I believe part of this is evident in the content we coach. I am beyond passionate about Reading and Writing Workshop. To it's heart and core, I believe in the work around these practices, so it naturally exudes from me via conversations I have with colleagues.

Another way I (hope to) inspire others is through a weekly email I send - The Literacy Scoop. I send this message out on Friday afternoons right before I leave and it includes important announcements for the coming week, but it also includes appreciations to staff for the amazing work they do with students. As a coach, I have the luxury of getting into classrooms across the building on a regular basis, but because classroom teachers can't do so as often, I want to provide a window to classrooms via this email. In addition to sharing the great work our teachers are doing each day, it always feels good to get an appreciation, so that's what it's all about!

Finally, many of our teachers Tweet what is happening in their classrooms under our school's hashtag: #tigerslearn. Be sure to check that out by searching on Twitter! It's a great way to share what you're doing each day with the teachers on your campus!

How do you inspire your colleagues?

through another's eyes

Happy Wednesday! Today I had such a great day! One of my friends from Illinois Writing Project, Liz, visited me at Emerson. She is a first year Literacy Coach at a private school in Illinois and, much like I had wished my first year, wanted to come and see how Literacy Coaching looked from another coach's perspective. What better way to find out than to visit a friend in action?

She arrived before nine and we were able to talk a little bit about my schedule and organizational systems. Next, we visited classrooms for an hour and then attended a common plan that was on my agenda for today. After, we talked a little bit more before she had to go.

As we visited classrooms, some Reading Workshops, Some Writing, I was so struck about the amazing work we do at our school every day. Each day, students at Emerson sit in mini-lessons while their teachers demo strategies using beautiful mentor texts. Students listen carefully to read-alouds and, just like their teacher modeled, then they try a new reading strategy. Children engage in reading and writing activities for extended periods of time - independently - while their teachers give guided reading lessons and confer with peers. Students are asked in Writing Workshop, "Try and write your draft in a different way - try and bring out a new meaning or start it earlier or later in the sequence of events." And they do! All throughout workshop, teachers address students as Authors, Readers, and Writers. All of this takes place in classrooms where student thinking is apparent on the anchor charts around the room, where bountiful classroom libraries with books of many genres flow from shelves, and while sitting on beautiful rugs in the gathering area.

This doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen without a vision and commitment to, what I believe, is the best, richest curriculum we can give children. A curriculum where they are taught to be agents in their world, using their literacy as a means to make their places here on this Earth just a little bit better, whether that is via the lived-through experiences they have when reading books, or in their advocacy units in Writing Workshop.

Walking classrooms with a friend, hearing her gush over each new space and each new lesson we observed, is such a beautiful experience to look back on as I reflect on my day. Emerson teachers, not sure if you landed on this page, but believe me when I tell you it's my honor to work alongside you each day!

Liz, thank you for visiting our school! I look forward to seeing you in October and future collaboration we may continue to do!

Anyone want to see what we saw today? Head over to Twitter and look up our school's hashtag, #tigerslearn :-)

what I'm loving Wednesday

WRITE a list of things you're currently loving.

LINK your post with mine.

SHARE the love via comments!

❤ The Coaches Launch Presentation
My girl Felicia (she's a new blogger in my district, give her a follow!) but she shared how every year she begins with a Coaching Launch Presentation, so I did one for the first time this year and it has been really great. What I love about it is that it makes it clear to all staff members about what your role as a Literacy Coach is and in what ways I'm available to collaborate with teachers.

❤ our staff shout-out board
This year Jennie sent me a pin of a Staff Shout-Out board, so I put one up in the lounge:

As Union Rep for our school, I make a call for positives once a month, but I wanted a way to do more with that, so I'm glad Jennie sent me that pin! All the little papers in green are from our Union Meeting and then the others in blue and green and white are written by our staff to our staff at other points within the month. The forms are in a little plastic box on the table in our lounge with pens and tape, so it's all there for teachers when they are in the lounge. Additionally, mid-month, I am putting the forms in teachers' mailboxes in case they forget. I did that for the first time this week and after there were a bunch of new ones up! This makes me so so happy and I hope it makes the other staff members happy too. I got one this week that made me especially happy:

Thank you, Anonymous...you made my day! :-)

❤ seeing all the kiddos back in class!
It's been so good to be back at work with the kids! Below you can see a few of the kids from a very special fifth grade group that I started working with when they were in third grade. That class is such a special one in so many ways!

Also love that backpack!

❤ my team
I work with two amazing girls this year. We share a classroom and collaborate so well together! Classroom reveal is almost ready... stay tuned!

❤ friends who reach out and check on me, and send me presents :-)
Thanks Holls for sending me relaxation in a cute little bag! Sometimes when things are rough, it's important to remember to take care of yourself, and I am so appreciative of having friends like you!

❤ reaching goals
August 12th, I set a goal to run 35 miles by September 12th. Was so disciplined the last month and it felt so good to hit that goal. This next month I'm hoping to hit 40+!

What are you loving?

Write up a list and share it with me!

An InLinkz Link-up

sunday letters

WRITE your letters.

LINK them with mine.

SHARE the love via comments!

Greetings friends! I'm here for some fun, thoughtful, snarky, heartfelt and/or whatever-attitude-you'd-like-to-take letters. Do you want to write your own? I hope so! Compose your post and link them with mine!

Dear Lucy Calkins,

This week I came across a quote you had in your Guide to the Reading Workshop book of your new Units of Study: Step with me into this series, into this effort to give young people the richest possible education as readers. I love that, and I totally believe in everything your work stands for. I have seen it transform the children in the school I work in. Thank you for authentic, rigorous curriculum, now differentiated across the grades.

Love,

A Grateful Literacy Coach

Dear D100 Literacy Coaches,

I'm really looking forward to working with you again this year. I love the idea of visiting each others' schools and can't wait to come to all your schools. Thank you for being there for me as a sounding board and for all the knowledge you continue to share with me. Hopefully we can spend some time together on Tuesday!

:-) Michelle

Dear Coaching Bloggers,

I'm so glad I keep finding more and more of you! Are there any other coaches out there who might have landed here? Please leave me a comment with your blog so I can follow you! I love the online community we continue to build and would love more coaches to collaborate with!

Sincerely,

your future cyber coach friend :-)

Dear Paychecks,

Why am I always feeling like this....?

source

I mean, I don't think I'm asking too much to be able to afford all my stuff plus go on a few vacations, right? Either way, I'm going to definitely be more mindful of what I'm spending so I can make the holiday in Cabo for Christmas vacation happen for realsies.

Sincerely,

More-financially sound Michelle

Dear KC,

I love how you are so good at reading reviews for planning trips. "I like to read all of them. There's 4000, hang on." I know we're going to have the best Christmas holiday ever and I can't wait!

Love, Bestie

Dear FF,

I can't wait to read your first blog post! I know it's going to be great and full of such amazing knowledge and personality. I am so glad you're going to be sharing your expertise with the world!

(im)patiently waiting...

your blogging buddy

Dear LG,

I promise to put you in the Literacy Scoop more often! Until then, will shout-outs here suffice? :-)

Love, MB

Dear friends who have checked on me repeatedly over the past few weeks,

Your texts, messages, calls, notes, hugs, stories, and support has meant more to me than you know. Thank you for taking time to think about me and check on me. I am so thankful for each of you and lucky to have you in my life!

xo,

Michelle

That's all from me friends! Can't wait to read your letters!

An InLinkz Link-up

compelled tribe & building relationships

Friends, I'm back! I've been thinking about my blog for so many days, but was busy with vacation and visiting my parents and didn't really have much time to be antisocial and sit down and write. But, I'm home now, all by myself (love quiet time!) and am ready to share a back to school post with you!

In other (related) news, I just got involved with a new group of amazing educators, the #compelledtribe! I have Allie at The Positive Teacher to thank for connecting me here. What I've gathered is that we write twice a month and then share each other's work and support one another's ideas. I'm. So. In. Thank you for inviting me!

This month we are talking about building relationships (my favorite thing about teaching!) with students and teachers. But seriously though, I love being in education because of the relationships I get to have with kids and their families and teachers. Four of my closest friends are all connected to teaching and I have quite strong relationships with some very special former students. (Side note: One summer I worked for a family member from home. I was alone all day, every day and it was awful. I hope this can shed a little light about how I love to be with people!)

Building Relationships with Kids

We're Family
Especially to my homeroom, I always spoke of our kiddos and our homeroom as family, because it was true: we got along most of the time, we had fun, we annoyed each other, we got in disagreements, but we were there for each other. We were family and worked on building that each day we came to class. I always spoke of the kids on our team, and especially my little homeroom, as family.

Circle of Life
Named by my last homeroom, the Circle of Life was born. It was just a community meeting at the end of every week on Friday afternoons, except I made the kiddos sit in a circle on the floor. Even in my middle school classroom, I always had a large space in the front and center to meet as a group - to talk, to read, to discuss, to support. So, on Friday afternoons, we would sit in a circle and do appreciations and high/low. Appreciations are easy, and my best friend taught me high/low, where kids just share the high of their week and the low. Here's a video of my last homeroom (it's kinda hard to hear, but you get the idea!)

Watching that makes me totally miss kids and having my own class, so so much!

Some recommendations:

• Use something (like that stuffed animal) to pass around so they take turns listening.
• In the beginning, have them write something on a notecard so they are prepared and you can get this done in 5-10 minutes.
• You can pass the animal around one-by-one so every has an opportunity, too, but allow the right to pass.
• Be patient. This video was filmed in April of our second year together....they knew each other so well and were fine to say things they might not have shared early on.
• Now that I'm rethinking, this would probably have been better at the beginning of the week to get them in a good place for a week, but either way, this homeroom loved each other!

Community Building Games

Anytime is a great time for games and activities to build community, especially at the start of the school year! There's the classics: Human Knot, Two Truths and a Lie, and Find Someone Who. There's also this really great game called Graduation that I have in one of my books at school - I need to get a copy for you all because I can't find one online!

The point is, you have to go slow to go fast. You have to take time to build trust among your students or they will not take risks in their learning. These activities, when done with the debriefing sessions afterwards, really help build that community that is vital to learning, so please, don't think it's all just silly games!

And when classroom management breaks down (and it will at some point), know it's okay to set the content aside and continue working to build trust with your kiddos. Even in my 10th year in the classroom, I still found myself in moments in the winter when I couldn't get management down, there was too much interrupting, or students weren't being respectful. Know that in those instances, you have to call a time-out, and get the trust and respect put back into your classroom community, or it will be a struggle each day to get the learning done. Even better: Schedule time every other week for some kind of community builder, just to not let it get to that breaking point!

Building Relationships with Staff

I'm about to embark on my third year as a literacy coach! Like everything else, it's been a work in progress, but one thing I wish I had known back then was the 1:1 meeting. The purpose of these meetings (two colleagues together for 1:1 talking time, no agendas) is to build their realationship and build trust. This idea came from Steve Zeleman, author of 13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment, and I just love it. Here's a definition as sited in the book, page 57:

An intentional, face to face, one to one meeting with another person to understand their interests, passions, and story, and to share your own, to explore trust with the other person and the possibility of a public relationship with them.... so you can act together on issues of common concern

He continues, with what a one-on-one meeting is not:

• an opportunity to sell your ideas or to ask for help with a task or project
• an occasion for chitchat
• a search fro someone who agrees with your point of view
• a search for friendships (Instead, it helps you build a public relationship, which is not the same as a private, personal friendship.)

Here are some possible questions to begin your conversations:

• I'd like to learn more about how you came to teaching in the first place.
• What are some goals that are important to you in your work?
• I wonder whether any particular experiences led you to these goals?

Why use this strategy? It's a great way to build bridges with the people that you work with. Through these talks, you'll find so much information about each other and, more than likely, find lots of common ground to build on! I'm hoping to give this strategy a try this fall!

Definitely check out the book, too, which has lots of ideas leadership and coaching work!

What about you?

How do you build strong relationships with students and staff?

Leave a comment so we can keep the conversation going!

Feels so good to be back, friends! Happy Monday Tuesday! (Still don't know what day it is!) :-)

the last Daring Greatly book study!

Get the details for this challenge here!

Hey friends! The challenge is almost done, and I'm thankful, because it is hard to write every day! With all the other things I was doing, some days were super hard to keep up!

Anyways, I'm bringing you one more post on Daring Greatly, and I'm going to focus on Chapter 6: Disruptive Engagement: Daring to Rehumanize Education and Work.

On Creating a Space for Creativity and Innovation
Brené asked the 2009 Entrepreneur or the Year: What is the most significant barrier to creativity and innovation? He said,

"I don't know if it has a name, but honestly, it's the fear of introducing an idea and being ridiculed, laughed at, and belittled. If you're willing to subject yourself to that experience, and if you survive it, then it becomes the fear of failure and the fear of being wrong. People believe they're only as good as their ideas and that their ideas can't seem too 'out there' and they can't 'no know' everything. The problem is that innovative ideas often sound crazy and failure and learning are part of revolution. Evolutio and incremental change is important and we need it, but we're desperate for real revolution and that requires a different type of courage and creativity."

When Brené talked to middle school kids about classroom experiences, one girl said,

"There are times when you can ask questions or challenge ideas, but if you've got a teacher that doesn't like that or the kids in the class make fun of people who do that, it's bad. I think most of us learn that it's best to just keep your head down, your mouth shut, and your grades high.

Okay, can we just stop there for a minute. Middle school kids and what they are saying is on par with a CEO of a huge corporation. If we want to make our classrooms safe, we have to dare greatly and be vulnerable with our students and our colleagues, so kids feel enough courage to share their ideas in a productive way and feel safe doing so!

Brené thought about this long and hard about what's above and came up with "disruptive engagement" (p.187). She says,

"To reignite creativity, innovation, and learning, leaders must rehumanize education and work. This means understanding how scarcity is affecting the way we lead and work, learning how to engage with vulnerability, and recognizing and combating shame."

What does shame look like?
She gave some examples of shame in a culture: blaming, gossiping, favoritism, name calling, and harassment, and she said that doing nothing about these things is equally dangerous to the target and the whole organization.

I can remember on of the schools I worked at previously. Our principal, who I have so much respect for, did not tolerate any gossip. He would talk to people one and one, tell them it's okay to vent, but not to do it in the lounge in front of everyone. I admired him for doing this, and our school was always so so positive!

Feedback
Brené also talked a lot about feedback and said without it, there can be no transformational change. She also discussed how you need to normalize the discomfort that goes along with feedback (p. 198). She would say, "If you're comfortable, I'm not teaching and you're not learning." But you have to cultivate the courage to be uncomfortable.

As a coach, this is something that I have struggled with. No one likes being uncomfortable. But perhaps we just need to change our thinking, and lean into the discomfort a little bit. When we get feedback and have great conversations, we grow. If our bottom lines are student success, how can we not do this?

She goes on to talk about sitting on the same side of the table when giving feedback, and shares this list to ready herself to do so:

 As a literacy coach, this is so applicable to the work that I hope to do this year. I've made so many mistakes in the past two years, and I really hope to move forward, cultivate relationships by modeling my vulnerability, so we can all work side-by-side to do what's best for students.

And, I leave you with this quote, that is most certainly sticking with me:

In what ways are you leading?

In what ways have you been uncomfortable?

Please share!

An InLinkz Link-up

all in?

One of my Tiger Bloggers was telling me the other day, "I'm sorry I haven't been to Blogging Club, I've just been too busy!" That's the thing about life - there are so many choices, so many possibilities. And life is too short. The older I get, the more I realize that you have to be very selective in what you say yes to - in your personal life and in your professional life.

For the past two years, I have said yes to Literacy Coaching and I have really loved it and learned so much. When I left the classroom in 2013, I had this feeling that I wasn't done there, and this is something that continues to take  up time in my inner dialog. Last weekend, my very insightful friend asked me, "Well, Michelle, are you all in with your coaching?" And I asked myself, (and am still asking myself) "Am I?"

Classroom teaching is a crazy experience - so overwhelming, so busy, so rewarding, so powerful. Coaching, too, is all of those things, but obviously different. The thing with coaching is that it won't get me relationships with students that can yield emails like this, four years after the fact:

First Author's Chair with my 6th group of 6th Graders

Katia was one of my sixth grade students during the 2008-2009 school year, my last in Phoenix as I worked on completing my Master's degree at ASU. This particular group got my very first attempts at Reading Workshop, back when I really didn't know what I was doing, but was trying like you-know-what to make it all work. Because of the work we did that year in reading and writing, that was my first class to be so bonded over stories and conversations about books and our quarterly Author's Chair writing celebrations. In 2009, I came to Chicago, but when that group in Phoenix had their promotion in 2011, my colleague (and one of best friends) Liz and I went back as a surprise to all the eighth graders who were being promoted to high school:

Katia and I, 2011

Liz, one of the best teachers I know!

May is a time of celebrations: end-of-the-year trips, memory books, retirement parties, graduations. It's a time to reflect on our work and remember all those people who have guided us and helped us along our way. It's a time of the year that I just love - seeing former students as successful graduates and moving on to their future goals is the reason I do what I do.

It would be a lie if I told you that I was fine missing out on all of this. Please don't misunderstand: I love my coaching position! It's just not the same because I'm missing those super invested relationships with kids. Is this something that should concern me? If, two years later I'm still thinking about it, am I meant to be a classroom teacher? I know there are no easy answers, but I know I won't keep receiving emails like the one above should I continue coaching. And if I'm being totally honest, that email - that's the reason I continue to be passionate about public education.

Coaches, admins, former classroom teachers: Do you struggle with the same thing? Please share!