It seems like you just wrapped up the year with your students. They made tremendous progress over the course of the year. The routine of the day flowed naturally, the expectations about what is and isn’t appropriate behavior is clear to them (and to you), and you left the school year feeling confident that they were ready for the challenges that lie ahead. \

Expectations of the Year Ahead

Now, you're deep into the summer, enjoying a much needed break. You're probably looking forward to your new group of students in the fall. You may even be preparing for the new year, and you may have already planned a list of wonderful first day of school activities that you hope will go off without a hitch.

As coaches, we've all encountered resistant teachers. Resistance to coaching can take many forms. You might encounter a teacher who is direct, making it clear they don't want your help. Or a teacher who is passive, putting off your meetings and recommendations, or acting like they're open to coaching but never actually changing their behavior. While this can be frustrating, you shouldn’t assume the teacher is to blame.

It’s been a great year. You have just conducted some professional development trainings for the group of teachers you are coaching. You got the opportunity to visit their classrooms and see them in action, do formal and informal CLASS observations, and had countless coaching conversations. You see that it’s all beginning to click. You have the teachers’ buy-in, and the motivation is high.

Think back to a time when you were a student in a classroom.

Yes, I know some of us, including myself, don’t want to think back that far, but for the sake of this discussion, let’s try it.

 Do you ever find it difficult to explain to others what you do as a profession and what CLASS is?

When I was a classroom teacher and people asked me about my job, I could say, “I am a teacher,” and everyone knew exactly what I did. But, when I joined Teachstone and began delivering trainings on the CLASS tool, things seemed to change. I couldn’t answer that question with such a simple answer. Here is a recent conversation I had at an airport where I was asked about what I did for a living.

CLASS® specialists are always thinking about the complexity of the CLASS tool as we prepare for our trainings. As a trained CLASS observer, I am comfortable observing and recognizing quality interactions that fit in the tool. But I needed a strategy to convey this information to those who may not be as familiar with the tool.

As it turns out, using an analogy is a perfect way to make the complex relatable, less overwhelming, and more familiar to our participants. 

Imagine this scenario:  As a coach, you walk into a classroom to conduct an informal CLASS observation followed by a coaching conversation. During this conversation you might ask the teacher to share some of the highlights of her week and challenges that she has been facing. You also plan to share what you observed during your time in the classroom, some areas of strength that you noted, and opportunities for growth. You have grand plans of how this visit will go.  

If you've ever been through a CLASS Observation training, you are probably familiar with the graphic below. Research tells us that improving teacher-child interactions is a process that includes many pieces. 

The first step is to identify a teacher’s strengths and opportunities for growth, which can be done through a CLASS observation. Once you have this data, you can share it with teachers through a formal report, a face-to-face conference, or a feedback session. You’re off to a great start, but now what?

I’d like you to take a minute and think about the answers to the following questions:

• Why do you write out a shopping list before you go to the grocery store each week?
• Why do you scramble to do 3 loads of laundry on a Sunday night just before the week begins?
• Why do you spend time writing out lesson plans to submit to your Director at the beginning of the month?
• What is the purpose of balancing your checkbook each month?