The Power of a Thought Partner
I woke up in a bad mood today. By the time I arrived at school I was annoyed and I wasn’t exactly sure why. It may have been because it’s a Monday. We all know those can be tough. It may have been because I went to bed a little too late. It may have been because I felt stressed about the end of the month. Tomorrow is October 1st and this year I’ve committed to sharing my monthly coaching schedule with the teachers I support at the start of each month. September’s schedule was planned and shared by the end of August and it was jam packed. In hindsight I didn’t give myself enough personal work time to prep and follow up from all of the coaching cycles, unit launches and Team Time meetings we had. I was beat and each day felt like I could have used a few more hours to get everything done.
What makes October even trickier is that while September felt like I didn’t have enough time to get everything done, I still felt like I wasn’t doing “enough.” There are twelve English and Reading teachers at my school who I work with in some capacity. Seven of those twelve are in their first or second year of teaching and I want to prioritize working with them while not neglecting the others. Trying to craft a schedule where I could balance coaching cycles with teachers, work time for myself, planning and facilitating team meetings and curriculum internalization sessions left me feeling paralyzed. As I reflect on it now, I realize I was in a bad mood because I felt stuck, frozen in place with a dark cloud of a deadline hanging over me.
So, for the first three periods of the day I was cranky and a bit down. And then, at the strike of noon, things started to turn around. What kickstarted the shift towards sunshine was a meeting with Michael. He’s our organization’s Director of Instructional Coaching and today we had a check-in. I knew I wanted to talk with him about this schedule dilemma I was facing. I shared that I was feeling stuck and he asked me about which teachers I wanted to prioritize. I named our first and second year teachers as those whose students I felt would benefit most from coaching cycles but the fact that they make up nearly 60% of the teachers I work with was daunting. Our organization’s group of coaches (we call ourselves The Coaches Crew) is reading Student-Centered Coaching and one of the structures they name is group coaching. Michael and I started to disuss the possibility of me coaching a group of ELA teachers who teach the same grade and as we did, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. Planning with a group of teachers for 55 minutes once a week as opposed to four separate 55-minute planning sessions felt a bit more manageable. I was beginning to see a sliver of light through the darkness. After my conversation with Michael I had grade-level meetings scheduled with our English teachers. It was the perfect opportunity to run the idea by them. I shared the rationale and structure and both sets of teachers agreed to try it out. As we discussed this new idea, some expressed concerns about not receiving the targeted support they may need but everyone was open to trying it out. Their willingness to be flexible and collaborative made my heart sing.
At the end of the day I reflected on how much my energy and mood had shifted since the morning. I had gone from jaded to joyful and it all started because I had a thought partner. The work of coaching teachers is extremely complex and shouldn’t be done alone. Having colleagues to process and problem solve with makes this important effort not only easier, but far more sustainable. I’m curious to see how group coaching goes during October and I’m extremely grateful I’ll have an entire crew of thought-partners to process it with.