Amplifying Voices through Reflective Practice

One of the most impactful opportunities we build into coaching cycles is time for reflective practice. Reflection allows teachers and coaches to debrief from the hustle and bustle of a lesson or instructional block. There is so much orchestration and decision-making that goes into our instructional time. Poignant conversations can emerge from reflection.

After reflecting, teachers and coaches feel empowered to adjust plans to best meet the needs of their students in the future. This process builds capacity in overall classroom leadership and often transfers into exchanges with colleagues in the hallway, at staff meetings, and during professional development sessions.

We utilize protocols to make the time for reflection meaningful, yet concise. Although we use various protocols, below are three different approaches to reflection coach/teacher teams tend to gravitate towards the most. We use timers for all of these sessions to ensure we respect the educator’s many responsibilities. These reflective strategies don’t necessarily happen daily, but will occur several times throughout a coaching cycle.

Amplifying Voices through Professional Learning

As an instructional coach, I constantly look for ways to capitalize on teachers’ strengths so they can add even more value to our district or the overall profession. Because teachers are in the trenches daily, their words hold much power. Teachers are highly respected by each other and understand the day-to-day challenges, so it is essential to hear their voices during professional development.

Whenever I work with a teacher, we both walk away having learned something. Frequently, these takeaways benefit an entire school staff or district. When this is the case, I reach out to the building principal and central office administrators to share the learning that is taking place. When doing this, I ask if the learning aligns with the school or district improvement plan. Most of the time, it does, so I encourage teachers to share the information they are learning with their school or district community. There have also been opportunities where teachers can share on a larger scale at conferences or state-wide panels.

At times, this might be out of a teacher’s comfort zone. When this is the case, I enjoy co-presenting with teachers or finding a creative way for them to share their message in a safer space. There is always new learning on the part of the coach and teacher that needs to be celebrated in some capacity.

However, the timing is only sometimes suitable for a teacher to share the learning from a coaching cycle. Because of this, a teacher might have the opportunity to share at a different time during the year because they have impactful learning experiences to share with the masses.