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I was asked this question as I began an interview session at the Simply Coaching Summit - Quarantine Edition with Nicole Turner. My first response was to ask to change the question. I'm convinced that how coaching is the same is a much more important question. The critical components and elements of coaching that have been developed across the last twenty-five years are increasingly important during this time of rapid change in teaching. I read a veteran teacher's comment as she began distance teaching, "After 25 years of teaching I feel like a first- year teacher." What a challenge that suggests for instructional coaches! What an opportunity!
The Role of Trust
I have always stressed that vulnerability is a critical factor in a teacher gaining from an investment in coaching. Building trust increases vulnerability. Crisis creates vulnerability. People will respond to that vulnerability by either stepping forth and welcoming (even requesting) input from others or pulling back seeking safety in being invisible.

"Relationship remains the beginning point of coaching and its foundation. I keep bringing it up because this is the stage that more than any other is neglected, ignored, or considered to be unnecessary. Given that it's the foundation, it can cause the most problems when it is taken for granted. The basic ingredients for the relationship are mutual trust, respect, and freedom of expression." (James Flaherty, Coaching, Evoking Excellence in Others)

Asking and listening are ways to begin the process of building trust. The term that I use is coaching from the teacher's agenda. ( Blogs: Coaching from the Teacher Agenda and Empowering Conversations)

An empowered teacher who senses autonomy is more open to vulnerability. Christine Scudella uses the term ' autonomy supportive' for describing administrators who encourage teacher growth. "Intrinsically motivated teachers tend to perceive their administrators as "autonomy-supportive." "The teachers I interviewed said autonomy-supportive administrators can create transformational relationships characterized by trust, care, listening, openness, and demonstrated confidence in teachers."

In beginning coaching workshops, I pose this question: "You have a new teacher who is short on classroom management practices and short on instructional strategies. Where would you begin?" After I allow some time for participants to debate their ideas, I share my thought: "Whatever she wants to work on." My reasoning is that the teacher will invest the greatest energy in making progress on a goal that she has selected. That initial experience builds the coaching relationship for continued growth.

This time of forced change for teachers is a time for coaches to do much more asking and listening than telling. The way to be responsive is to hear first what teachers are thinking, feeling, finding, wondering etc. This is critical modeling as it is an important that teachers approach their students in a similar fashion. Pushing tasks and assignments out to students without sufficient time for students to talk and share and sense autonomy can undo relationships and trust that are desperately needed for students to continue learning the content but perhaps even more importantly the valuable learning how to learn skills and life coping skills.

Aimee Skidmore, a secondary teacher at College Du Leman in Geneva, Switzerland is sharing a video journal of her daily experiences with teaching during school closure on LinkedIn. In a recent post she described uncovering the need to seek a balance between students' social emotional needs and content. During the first week she describes substantially cutting the content to make sure that students are mentally "ok". She has built social spaces into her online courses and is having some individual calls with students. She is sending a message that she is there for them. Aimee sees this as preparing students for future, ongoing success. I think her approach is a model for coaches to be considering in their work with teachers.

Jim Knight also took part in the SimplyCoaching Quarantine Edition and shared the importance of coaches leading with questions. His suggested question was, "Given the time we have today, what would be most important to you?"

Pre-Coronavirus I concluded a blog with these quotes. They seem very appropriate and maybe even more important today.

Care - "Having a personality of caring about people is important. You can't be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them." (Richard Branson)

Vulnerability - "When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable." (Madeline L'Engle)

Trust - "Trusting someone doesn't mean trusting that they won't screw up, because they will, as you will. You simply trust them to do their best before, during, and after." (Bruce Deel)

I'll explore more similarities in the next few blogs. Up next- keep the focus on LEARNING.

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Part 1: Distance Coaching Versus Classroom Coaching? | Steve Barkley

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I was asked this question as I began an interview session at the Simply Coaching Summit - Quarantine Edition with Nicole Turner. My first response was to ask to change the question. I'm convinced that how coaching is the same is a much more important question.

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As the coronavirus pandemic forces states and districts to suspend instruction, leaders are adapting with a shift to distance learning. Stephanie Affinito, literacy education professor at the University at Albany in New York, offers four ways coaches can support teachers during their transition to a new reality: working remote.

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s the events of our world continue to unfold, educators everywhere are shifting their instruction to online spaces to support their students' learning remotely. Classroom teachers are working tirelessly to ensure everyone stays connected and that their students continue to learn amid COVID-19 school closures. They're gathering resources, connecting with students and other educators online, and rethinking what learning looks like in times of crisis.

Instructional coaches and leaders are also working alongside teachers to support the transition to online education and wade through the sheer quantity of resources shared online. We're planning online units of study, gathering digital texts and activities, and compiling helpful links to support students' learning in new spaces.

With all this change happening so suddenly, I've been pondering questions like:

What will instructional coaching look like as we face extended school closures?

How can we, as coaches, lead and support educators remotely?

I'd like to offer a few ideas that we can use to help sustain our teaching and learning communities from afar.

1) Reach out regularly

Educators are used to working with large social groups of colleagues and students. The sudden disruption of our communities of practice can add additional stress to our already taxing days, leaving us feeling isolated, lonely, and even scared.

During these times, coaches need to reach out to teachers to ensure they're still heard and seen. We can send weekly or daily emails asking a teacher how they're doing or how you might help from a distance, sending messages of support through our social feeds. In addition, we can offer our support, helpful resources, and even a dose of inspiration to brighten a teacher's day.

2) Create online PLCs

Although we might not be able to host in-person PLCs or team meetings, we can create opportunities for teachers to come together online. These channels can open the door for educators to talk about their new normal, collaborate with colleagues, and problem-solve challenges in a supportive community.

Coaches can facilitate these meetings by scheduling Google Hangouts, Zoom sessions, Twitter chats, or even creating Voxer groups for asynchronous sharing. If you're interested in joining my Voxer coaching group, send me a message and I'll add you in!

3) Reinvent coaching cycles

Typically, coaching cycles involve a series of coaching conversations and co-teaching to collaborate in the classroom. While in-person collaboration might not be possible in these times, we can partner with teachers through virtual coaching cycles. You might team up in Google Classroom, co-create instructional resources, or simply gather helpful instructional materials to support instruction for each teacher.

4) Lead as a learner

It's no surprise that many educators are feeling overwhelmed as they make the switch to instruction and learning online. As a coach, it's important to keep teachers focused on what matters most: authentic reading and writing, and learning that meets students' needs in our rapidly changing world.

You can give teachers permission to live as readers and writers in their new downtime by sharing your own. Post the books you're reading, snap pictures of your own writing and learning, and remind them that it's perfectly acceptable to give ourselves permission to simply be and reflect on things as they evolve.

Each passing day brings new events, challenges, and opportunities for growth. Let's team with teachers to re-imagine teaching and learning in these unprecedented times through empathy, compassion, and hope for the future!

Stephanie Affinito is a Staff Associate in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany in New York. She has a deep love of literacy coaching and supporting teachers' learning through technology. Stephanie creates spaces for authentic teacher learning that build expertise, spark professional curiosity, and foster intentional reflection to re-imagine teaching and learning for students.

Additionally, she presents regularly at state and national conferences on literacy coaching, teacher collaboration and supporting teachers' reading, writing, and learning through innovative technology.

Be sure to check out her recently published book with Heinemann Publishing, Literacy Coaching: Teaching and Learning with Digital Tools and Technology.

Image courtesy of Vecteezy.

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Coaching for Community: 4 Tips for Coaching in Unprecedented Times

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As the coronavirus pandemic forces states and districts to suspend instruction, leaders are adapting with a shift to distance learning. Stephanie Affinito, literacy education professor at the University at Albany in New York, offers four ways coaches can support teachers during their transition to a new reality: working remote.

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Fiona Hurtado, teaching and learning coach in South Africa, identifies three sources of loneliness as a coach and how to combat them.

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oaching and being a coach have been an amazing journey for me as an educator, offering insight into the teaching profession unlike any other role. Coaches share their expertise with teachers while simultaneously learning from them, all without the time constraints of being a full-time teacher themselves. They have the freedom to walk into classrooms without the pressure of being an evaluator, and have the privileged role of listening to teachers' goals and supporting them as they reach for them.

Coaches are still somewhat of a rare species in the educational landscape, however, and despite our teaching heritage we've evolved into something that is often difficult to describe to others and, at times, even to ourselves. Although there are advantages of being a coach, it can actually feel pretty lonely at times, but it doesn't have to be. Here are a few common causes of loneliness in coaching, and some easy ways to get over the hurdle.

Cause: We might be homeless, feeling like we don't truly belong to any particular division, school or campus.

Most coaches were impactful, enthusiastic teachers in their pre-coaching lives, often invited into the coaching role because they were seen as people-persons in their schools. They'd be the ones who would instigate conversations in the lunchroom, know everyone's name (and probably their childrens' names, their dogs name, and maybe their favorite restaurant or sport!) and "always show up." Community matters to them-feeling a part of a good fight, building up a subject or grade level, developing pride and capacity in those around them brings them joy.

Coaching utilizes this skill set, but the sense of belonging within the community changes. In my role, this meant changing within a school. When I began coaching, I had all the connections of my teaching role, but my new role totally changed the dynamic of my relationships. At best, I was still a colleague but without the ties of a division; at worst, my presence was viewed with suspicion.

Fix: Turn up/show up.

Make sure you attend community events-attend school plays, stand-up meetings, sporting meets-and calendar your lunch for the same time as teachers so you can join them and bond. One bit of feedback I received from a teacher this year was to be more visible. Next year, I'm thinking of changing up where I set my meetings with teachers so that they are in areas that see more traffic (e.g., the staff room, or the library) and scheduling time to drop-in on teachers I haven't seen in a while.

Cause: Our identity might feel ambiguous, resulting in being misunderstood by faculty and leadership.

Despite coaching being an ever-growing role in districts and schools, there's still plenty of confusion about what we do and why we do it. Initially, we may be perceived as "fixers" who work only with those who need "improvement," or worse, evaluative spies. Or it may simply be that people do not know how to use us, running into the fairly major roadblock of "I'm not sure what to do with a coach." Coaches often find themselves becoming "yes people" in an effort to be useful. From my experiences talking with peers, most coaches can recollect a moment when they found themselves doing something that was not coaching at all-becoming a substitute teacher instead of a co-teacher during a coaching cycle, for example-and thinking, "How did I end up here?"

Becoming a coach can test your identity as an educator, too. For example, as a coach you might ask yourself, "If you value teaching so much, why did you choose to leave the classroom?" Suddenly the identity you forged as a teacher needs remodeling, and since many of us work alone, we are left to work on this coaching identity in isolation.

Fix: Clarify your role for others and what you value within the role. Share the following with teachers:

What is a coach?

What do you do, and maybe what don't you do?

What kind of relationship do you hope to share with them?

It also sometimes helps to offer suggestions as to how teachers can use you as a coach, and you can marry that with generating some business at an entry point that is comfortable for the teacher. Being transparent about your role makes it easier for the communities you work with to feel confident about the nature of the exchanges you have with them, and to help them-and you-find your place at the lunch table.

Cause: We lack the network gifted to us by a grade level team or department.

Rarely are coaches lucky enough to be part of a coaching team or even share an office with other coaches. However, even if they do, they may not share the same responsibilities. The many variations of the role of "coach"-literacy, numeracy, instructional, technology integration, teaching and learning, divisional specialist, and the list goes on-can almost force coaches to separate corners as we focus on our areas of expertise, and not necessarily how we are alike as coaches. If you're lucky enough to share a like-role with a colleague, as I am, it is often difficult to find time to talk shop and build a relationship in a coaching capacity as we devote our time to working with teachers.

Fix: Devote time to connecting and learning from your coaching colleagues, either "at home" or from your broader coaching network.

A really exciting move our team is making this coming year is to all take a coaching course together. Although the content isn't new, the course will give us structure and purpose for conversations about our coaching and make us prioritize time to learn together.

Another move I made in the last few months was to join a blogging tribe; knowing there are other coaches out there who might offer different perspectives has made my reflections more considered and probably more honest. Reaching out on Twitter and other platforms is eye-opening in affirming the work you are doing. Being a contributor, as well as a consumer, of the wealth of knowledge and experience is what cements that sense of belonging to a community.

A wise friend of mine often says we teach people how to treat us, and it rings true when I think of the feelings of loneliness I've experienced as a coach. Getting over the feeling of loneliness ultimately comes down to how we actively foster relationships with those around us. If we want to get over the hurdle, we have to make the leap!

About our Guest Blogger

Fiona Hurtado has been in education for 15 years, teaching on five continents in High and Middle Schools, and coaching for the last three in South Africa. As a member of her schools' Teaching and Learning team, she works across two campuses, Grades Pre K-12, supporting teachers as they strive towards their professional goals and improving student learning. Fiona is passionate about formative assessment and learning through concepts, and leveraging these to connect teachers and enhance the coaching process. In her spare time, Fiona can be found adventuring overseas with her husband and two kids.

Be sure to check out her blog and follow Fiona on Twitter @Fi_Hurtado!

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Fiona Hurtado, teaching and learning coach in South Africa, identifies three sources of loneliness as a coach and how to combat them. C oaching and being a coach have been an amazing journey for me as an educator, offering insight into the teaching profession unlike any other role.

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4 Ways IC's Can Support Teachers Virtually

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4 Ways IC's Can Support Teachers Virtually

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Relationships between teachers and ICs have never been more pertinent than they are right now while working from a distance. Amber Van Den Berg, instructional coach with Westfield Washington Schools in Indiana, relays a handful of her go-to techniques to support both students and educators in remote learning environments. 💻

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020 will be a year to remember! Every school and district was forced to wrap their heads around virtual learning without any warning, bringing about one of the biggest changes in education to date. No matter how far along your school was with regard to e-learning, 1:1 devices, or innovative technological tools, virtual learning took on a whole new meaning for students, educators, and parents. All of us had to fail forward in the ongoing journey to support student learning.

Whether you're starting the new school year remotely, or might face extended periods of virtual learning again in the future, it's imperative that everyone is prepared. Instructional coaches are no exception; we, too, need to model a positive attitude and a commitment to supporting our teachers and students in remote learning environments. Below are four tips to help you do so!

Encourage creative collaboration

The feeling of isolation can set in very quickly when learning virtually. Instructional coaches need to encourage teachers to continue collaborating between grade level or content area teams.

Even if students aren't in the building, they still deserve a curriculum that's strong and aligned. To accomplish that, teachers need to collaborate! It often helps teachers to have a fresh set of eyes or someone to pose reflective questions about how to build a cohesive unit that not only meets state standards but also meets the desired learning outcomes.

Coaches also need to encourage teachers to get creative about ways they can get students collaborating. Many students benefit from collaborating with their peers whether that be video conferencing, commenting on each other's work, or sharing videos.

Attend a classroom community circle

Often virtual learning can make instructional coaches feel disconnected from the students in their building. If that's the case for you, consider asking classroom teachers to invite you along to any virtual community circles or classroom events. Seeing the faces of the students that normally fill the rooms and hallways is often reinvigorating for both the teacher and coach.

Facilitate team meetings

Instructional coaches can help facilitate the process of unit and lesson planning with teams of teachers. They often have the luxury of being in and out of many classrooms and can provide a team of teachers with a fresh perspective from ideas to maximize student engagement, to ways to build a sense of community in the virtual classroom.

Create assessments

Virtual learning requires teachers to think differently about how they ask students to show their learning and growth. Instructional coaches play an instrumental role in helping teachers create or modify assessments. Using tools like Flipgrid or Edulastic, or the comment feature in Google Docs, allows students to show their learning in ways that aren't just multiple choice assessments.

It's helpful to create a Week at a Glance to communicate assessments across a building or grade level, like the one below. It helps ensure that students know how to use the variety of tools for formative or summative assessments and is particularly useful if your students see more than one teacher.

Find time to work 1:1 with your teachers

Sometimes team and group planning can be overwhelming for teachers. Maybe they're new to the content or grade level, need additional "think time," or are new to teaching.

Whatever the case, making sure you're available for one-on-one teacher planning is crucial! This can be done via Zoom, a phone call, a text thread, or an in-person meeting with them-if it's safe. No matter the avenue you take, teachers will benefit from you processing their ideas with them.

Just as teachers often provide virtual office hours for students, instructional coaches can do the same for teachers. Making yourself available for an hour to troubleshoot issues, time for Q&A, or simply time to bond with colleagues-teachers need social emotional learning too!-helps your teachers feel supported.

Pro tip: Consider hosting your virtual office hours at different days and times so that as many teachers as possible can take advantage of your schedule.

Find resources

When learning shifts online, it's necessary to find new or different resources to support student learning. It might mean finding resources to place on a Padlet, creating digital anchor charts, or previewing potential video links for students to watch. Coaches can also help identify innovative tools for teams to deliver content differently or provide students with alternative ways to show their learning. Helping vet resources, research new innovative tools to use, or starting templates helps teachers feel confident in providing quality instruction and practice for students.

Model the use of video

Using video apps like Loom, Screencastify, or Smore allow you to conduct mini-lessons of new content for the entire class, small groups, or individual students. Not only can instructional coaches provide feedback to teachers on the length, visuals, and learning outcomes of taped lessons, they can also join in the fun of taping lessons for students. At a minimum, coaches can create videos of generic lessons to send to teachers to model the process or creation of these visuals.

Encourage reflection

Instructional coaches can help teachers capitalize on what is working well by asking reflective questions. Posing deeply reflective questions to individual teachers or teams not only helps build self-confidence, but also helps us reach our number one goal of providing quality instruction that promotes student learning.

Here are a few of my go-to examples:

How do we use what we know now to improve for the next school year?

What's working well for students? How do we know?

How are we delivering content? Is that proving to be beneficial for students? How do we know? Are we varying how we deliver content to meet all the different learners?

How are we asking students to show their learning? What other opportunities could we provide for students to show their thinking and learning?

Celebrate success

Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate! It seems simple, but when we're not in the school building, the little celebrations we do seem to disappear.

If teachers videotape lessons, celebrate them being vulnerable! If teachers find a new collaborative tool for students, celebrate them thinking outside the box! When teachers share how students improved during a unit of study, celebrate the student successes with them!

There has never been a better time for instructional coaches to model lifelong learning, vulnerability, and innovative thinking. The teachers and students we support are counting on us to partner with them in order to build their confidence and help them grow.

Whether your district is 100% in-person, a hybrid approach, or virtual, I encourage you to continually find ways to connect, facilitate, create, or celebrate with your staff and students!

Amber Van Den Berg is an instructional coach in the Westfield Washington School District in Indiana. She's spent the last 8 years in different coaching roles. Prior to that, she taught 7 years in middle school Language Arts, Literature, and Public Speaking.

Amber's favorite parts of her job are collaborating with teachers and celebrating student successes. Besides her passion for modeling lifelong learning, she spends her free time teaching fitness classes and going with her husband to watch their two children play travel sports.

Be sure to follow Amber on Twitter @AmberVDB_IC!

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4 Ways ICs Can Support Teachers and Students Virtually

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Relationships between teachers and ICs have never been more pertinent than they are right now while working from a distance. Amber Van Den Berg, instructional coach with Westfield Washington Schools in Indiana, relays a handful of her go-to techniques to support both students and educators in remote learning environments. 💻

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Instructional coaches need to encourage teachers to continue collaborating between grade level or content area teams.

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The way to be responsive is to hear first what teachers are thinking, feeling, finding, wondering etc

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"Even if students aren't in the building, they still deserve a curriculum that's strong and aligned. To accomplish that, teachers need to collaborate! "  - YES!!!  This is SO hard right now because teachers have little time to collaborate ... BUT collaboration will give teachers time back in return.  I love how the writer recognized the need for ALL students to have quality instruction - collaboration ensures this!

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Collaboration is crucial for teacher and student success. Love all of the options for 1:1 opportunities for staff to contact the coach. The virtual office hours worked well in the Spring and I enjoyed it because it really let me know how to serve individual teachers.

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Collaboration and creativity are two key ideas from this article for me. It is so important to encourage collaboration, especially in the virtual environment, and I loved the idea of getting creative with engaging students!

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teachers need social emotional learning too!

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This article rings particularly true for me, as I became a coach in a school I didn't teach in. Creating an identity, building trust, and finding community was complicated further as my first year I was also an admin intern, so my role was blurred. It continues to take time and showing up to conversations, becoming part of the community, and actively giving my efforts towards relationship building to combat that loneliness. Being part of coaching cohorts like these are when I feel most at home in this role.

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value of building relationships not being evaluative and defining coaching role

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value of building relationships not being evaluative and defining coaching role

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agree that collaboration is critical among students and teachers/coaches

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Trust is the foundation, especially during remote learning. This opens the door for communication. Also, communication needs to be more listening/asking vs. telling.

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You can't be a good leader unless you genuinely like people. So true. Relationship building is key.

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Our teachers have been doing a great job with collaboration.  I feel like I'm trying to catch up with them!

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An empowered teacher who senses autonomy is more open to vulnerability

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I agree with idea of teacher autonomy. Last year was my first year of coaching and I was very teacher driven, I noticed that with my really lost teachers sometimes having them chose what they are interested in working on doesn't always work. Sometimes they need more direction.

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Defining more clearly how I can be helpful is important, especially during remote learning.

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Trust is essential to supporting growth. Allowing teachers to be more vulnerable and comfortable with change.

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Student collaboration is still super important - I had not even thought about that.  I've referred teachers to one another, but with all of the social distancing - my mind had not even thought about the importance of the students still working together. 

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Student collaboration is still super important - I had not even thought about that.  I've referred teachers to one another, but with all of the social distancing - my mind had not even thought about the importance of the students still working together. 

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Having the opportunity to be a part of the morning meeting of classrooms has been critical for me as a coach.

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Not really an “aha” but more of an “AMEN!”-even though the students are not in the building they still deserve a curriculum that is strong and aligned. Collaboration is more important than ever now!!

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"There has never been a better time for instructional coaches to model lifelong learning, vulnerability, and innovative thinking." Love this quote!

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I used to feel like this pre-Covid but now I can meet with more schools and teachers in a week than before thanks to Zoom!

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Finding ways for students to collaborate in this virtual environment is so important. Teachers and ICs should work together to come up with creative ways for students to collaborate.

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Yes! Ideas for how to support teachers at a time when they need it the most.

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There has never been a better time for instructional coaches to model lifelong learning, vulnerability, and innovative thinking.

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Creative collaboration, encourage teachers to collaborate with each other.  When teachers have an understanding of how they can do it virtually, they will get excited about ways to guide their students.

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I really liked the idea of Instructional Coaches having virtual office hours for teachers.

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It's so important to remain connected to teachers during this time in order to maintain relationships and support teachers

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Everyone feels like a first year teacher.

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Everyone feels like a first year teacher.

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This change has forced many great educators out of their comfort zones and they need support. We cannot provide that until we have established trust and solid relationships with everyone.

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Celebrating success is something I need to do more of to help build the morale at my school.

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I love "fail forward" and how we can model and embrace growth mindset. 

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I love "fail forward" and how we can model and embrace growth mindset. 