Assessing the Current Situation in Your School

I’ve been talking about building a vision for your school.  Coaches must be leaders when it comes to the teaching and curriculum at your school.  We must take ownership of these areas and lead our teachers to excellence.  So far, I’ve talked about the importance of vision and given you the 7 Easy Steps to Creating Your Vision.

My next post talked about Purposeful Observations, where you hone in on each of the critical areas in a classroom.  The 3^rd step to creating your vision is to Assess the Current Situation.

This part of the process is often overlooked.  Coaches must debrief with their teachers about their findings.  It is not always easy.  You must remember to be specific, honest, and polite.  If a teacher becomes defensive, don’t become defensive back.  Instead, touch them nicely on the arm and say, we are all in this together.  Let’s figure this out.  If the teacher still does not want to listen, then you may have to present him with some data.  (I will discuss this at a later time.)  Take notes about what was discussed, what resources you will provide to assist the teacher, and what the teacher says about the situation as well as what their next steps will be.  This is not to be used against the teacher.  It is to be used to work together to figure out the best way of addressing the area of concern.

After the debriefing, I use all of the notes and information from my notebook to assess where we currently are and what my next steps will be in the school.  I ask myself these questions:

I write all of the answers down.  Do not skip this step.  Then, I think about what would be the ideal demonstration of this area.   What components would it have?  What teachers would be doing and what the kids would be doing?  I also write all of this down.  This is where I want to take my teachers.  This is the goal.  

Next, I have to come up with the baby steps to help my teachers reach that goal.  These baby steps could take years.  Once you have these written down, you will be able to divide them up into a yearly plan and then a quarterly plan.  My personal plan is every 3 months.  Why 3 months?  I conduct walk throughs every 3 to 3 1/2 months.  The next walk through will determine if my plan of action has been effective or not.  Writing down my plan of action ensures that I will remain focused and it allows me to go back and check to see what my goals were.