Lindsay Deacon: The Edu Coach Survival Guide

C3 Connecting, Coaches, Cognition

Episode Notes:

-Lindsay comes from a family of educators. Lindsay’s first coach was trained in Jim Knight’s Instructional Coaching and she was asked to replace her years later. She had the opportunity to go to Kansas to learn from the Instructional Coaching Group. She found her passion for coaching in this time.

-Lindsay is very connected with Jim Knight's work. She also has bounced back and forth from coaching to the classroom and back again. She purposefully chose to go back to the classroom in 2020. Her definition of a coach has evolved through this time.

-A coach is a collaborative partner that will help to set and meet goals. They will help to enhance teaching practices as well as student achievement.

-The EduCoach Survival Guide

-Eisenhower Matrix Strategy - Four quadrants, prioritize everything you have to do by urgent, not urgent, important, not important. Sticky notes for each item and put them up based on each component. WIth less priority items, think about how you can eliminate it or delegate it. Lindsay tried this tactic on a white board and made it visual for herself, students, and other staff members.

-As coaches it seems like there are so many urgent or busy work requests, so we need to align our work with what is going to have a large impact.

-Be clear about your role with the people you coach. Do you set coaching agreements? She highly recommends setting these in order to avoid falling into the friend zone with a coachee.

-Find your network! In order to improve our practice we need our peers. Visualize, journal, and sketch what you want from your learning network. #educoach Be creative and take the lead.

-The most important thing coaches can do is be listeners, be listeners to the story of what teachers are telling.

-Good coaches listen and funnel the conversation with good questions. By the end, the teacher feels that they got some of the most pressing business out, but also found a plan as to what to do next.

-Coach retention- What do you really love about coaching? What do you hate? Think about journaling or sketching this out. How can you adjust things to make it more about what you love?

-Smile File - portfolio of things that bring you back to your coaching happy moments.

-Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can’t do?

Connect with Lindsay:

https://educoachsurvivalguide.com/

The EduCoach Survival Guide on Instagram or Twitter

Twitter: @TheRealLindsay2