Spreading Coaching Cheer at the End of the Semester

I  am going on five years of being an instructional coach. During that time, educational technology significantly shifted. Because of the pandemic, teachers adopted new technologies and teaching approaches out of necessity. Many of these teachers might not have ever considered making shifts in their practices but did so to reach students in the room and on Zoom. Also, my district adopted a new learning management system during this time. While this adoption was initially going to be a slow roll-out, COVID changed our plan overnight. 

I spent the final day of the semester sitting by a "roaring fire." In the large faculty commons area, I sat all nestled with cheer in hopes that my colleagues' gradebooks and Canvas close-outs would soon smoothly appear. I projected the fire (and wished the office was warmer) and invited colleagues to stop by to finalize whatever they still had to do. Luckily, I was given only a few challenging problems to solve. What I enjoyed most was chatting with colleagues as they walked by, laughing with division leaders as we tried to tie up the semester with a neat bow, and celebrating the fantastic work of my friends. 

So how do we get to an ending like the one I had for fall 2022? Build strong relationships. 

1. To build relationships,  instructional coaches must be available. 

We all have full plates. This year, our students' needs and our to-do lists have pulled us in many directions. Instructional coaches must appear available regardless of how long the to-do list is. Whether that be hosting drop-in times, walking through the halls at the right moment, or attending meetings - coaches need to be seen and accessible. Visibility promotes trust and more engagement, which ultimately increases the usefulness of any coach. 

2. In addition to availability, communication can build trust. 

Good communication is key to building strong relationships. Coaches should be clear and concise in their communication and listen actively to the needs and concerns of teachers. This semester, I have often reflected on when to communicate and what to share. 

Teachers need to be ready and receptive to hearing certain messages. For example, around Thanksgiving, teachers want to start thinking about wrapping up the semester. One-pagers about summative assessments and formative reviews are more powerful in November than they are in mid-September. 

Bulleted lists, tl;dr statements, and catching one-minute videos are far more palatable than two-page emails, too. 

3. Along with short messages carefully timed, effective coaches anticipate problems or challenges before they arrive.

Recognizing that teachers should check their grade syncing from the LMS to are gradebook of record is critical in December. Publishing short reminders and helpful tips two weeks BEFORE the end of the semester made the last day before the break a whole lot calmer and brighter. Sending out information about a vital tech update or instructional strategy, knowing that significant summatives are looming, can encourage teachers to use resources. Leaning into recency bias can help teachers to use tips at the right time! 

4. Regardless of the message or strategy being shared, instructional coaches know how to make every teacher feel seen, valued, and celebrated. 

People want to feel heard and valued. Sometimes the best coaching sessions start with casual conversations about a person's day or even a little venting, which opens the door to what is being shared. When people feel safe sharing their feelings, they are far more likely to want to collaborate and connect professionally. 

The biggest lesson I've learned as an instructional coach, which I was reminded of on the final day of the semester, is that a good coach recognizes every person's strength and celebrates her colleagues. Troubleshooting a tech tool, brainstorming a new teaching strategy, and preparing for a new semester are all secondary to our shared connections. Laughter, sharing stories, and reflecting together are far more important and forge relationships that create a robust and collaborative school community.

Sitting around a digital fire with friends is the best way to end the semester. 

12 Days of Tech-Mas: Ending the Semester with a Little Tech Fun

The end of the calendar year is a great time to reflect, set goals, and wrap up any projects of the past. The end of the semester brings about finality and allows for time to celebrate great work while also looking to get new energy into a fresh semester. 

This semester, I wanted to consider what teachers needed to wrap up a semester while also helping them prepare for another transition into a new semester. To make bite-sized PD festive, I played on the 12-Days of Tech-Mas pun popularized by many instructional and technology coaches on the interwebs. 

For me, the focus is to promote fast, fun, and practical tips. From using Canva templates to reorganizing Gmail, this quick PD project also features tips I had previously shared with teachers. The frequency of communication and the timing of the message are both important factors when delivering that information. Ultimately, I hope teachers feel comfortable accessing support, have opportunities to explore new ideas, and feel comfortable communicating with students.

 

At the end of the semester, creativity is necessary!

We all feel a degree of burnout at the end of a busy semester. Tech tools can be a quick and festive way to infuse creativity without requiring extreme talent in the arts. Canva is one of my favorite tools that help make documents, presentations, and multimedia messages incredibly professional in a fast way. This resource is intuitive, offers thousands of templates to editing tools, and provides a free educator account that gives access to even more features! I love using this tool to enhance my LMS, and documents. I even love teaching students to use it, too. Another great tool for adding flair to assignments is Joy Pixels. This extension allows users to add emojis to emails, LMSs, and can even be used to organize resources and documents. I use this tool to create signature attention lines in my emails, which makes finding resources I share easier to identify, bookmark, and save. These two tools are amazing and tools that I use every day to make work more festive. 

Communication is critical as grades begin to finalize, too. 

Communication becomes vital when we are all cramming work and grading into the final few days of a semester. Leveraging one's LMS is the best way to keep communication efficient, direct, and clear. In Canvas, I love the "Message Students Who" feature that allows teachers to filter and send quick messages to students who need to turn in work, revise, or should be celebrated for great work. These filters are fast and make frequent communication easy. In my district's gradebook, Skyward, I can create automated messages to communicate with parents and students regarding grades and progress reports. These tools serve as documentation and reliable ways to inform every stakeholder.

I also love leveraging features in Gmail that allow me to organize my communication from priority inboxes to the snooze feature; I can sort and arrange for emails to appear when I need them. These organizational features also allow this communication tool to become a to-do list. 

Finally, technology can be used to plan ahead. 

Setting up for the next semester (or even just the first week back after a break) can ease minds during a two-week hiatus from school. The more prepared a teacher is, the less anxiety one might feel after returning from the holidays. For my district, setting up Canvas courses is a popular way to feel ready for a new year. Whether building out a course in an LMS, printing out lesson plans, or simply creating a to-do list, getting ready for a new year is a great excuse to close a Chromebook and enjoy some much-deserved rest and relaxation. 

It's All in the Timing

Over the last year and a half, I hit the snooze button on my writing. Navigating The pandemic and pursuing another master's degree have fried my creative juices. From assisting my district in adopting a new LMS to navigating parenting three young children (the youngest immunocompromised), life's been more difficult than I'd like. We have all faced unique challenges, but I'm beginning to see the light. I'm ready to use my voice and write.

The greatest lesson I have learned these past few years is the importance of timing. As an instructional coach, I need to anticipate the needs of my colleagues. Educational beats ebb and flow. The cadence of a semester brings unique challenges and patterns that have teachers seeking specific instructional or tech-based resources. At certain points in the semester, teachers need engagement strategies and assessment ideas, or they might just be looking for ideas on implementing a new tech tool. 

Over the last few months, I've spent much time reflecting on the best time and day to send an all-staff email or making myself visible so that I am accessible to my colleagues, especially during the higher-stress seasons of the semester. Like the Genie from Aladdin, I want to be ready to appear at a moment's notice, ready to ask, "(Poof) What do you need?" The more accessible I am, the more trust I garner from my peers. Maintaining that trust and fostering strong relationships across the building has helped me continue supporting and navigating the changing landscape of learning during a pandemic.

So, it's all in the timing? How can instructional leaders master the art of timing?

Utilize backward planning.

Always start with the end goals. Once those benchmarks are established, working backward through the process helps to create more accurate outcomes, inspire impactful lesson plans, and can provide greater insight into what students (or, in the case of an instructional leader -- teachers) need. As I set my own classroom goals this year, I continued asking myself, "What skills do I hope my students will take with them after my class? How do I encourage them to reach that point?" These questions forced me to think about the summatives and end products, which has allowed me to create opportunities to practice skills more frequently and directly. For example -- in my semester-long speech class, I wanted students to speak more. Students complete mini-group challenges to practice the interpersonal skills they need for their unit summatives more often and can identify the why behind their actions and speech development. 

(For more on backward planning, check out this amazing blog post by Jennifer Gonzalez).

Set small daily goals.

I create a to-do list every morning (or even the night before). These to-do lists give me energy and keep me focused on what needs to be accomplished and in what order. This short process of writing out and reflecting on tasks has helped me increase productivity and effectiveness. Forgetting an important task is easy, especially in a busy environment. Taking two minutes to plan or organize the day has been incredibly beneficial and rewarding. I love using a good pen and crossing off items on the to-do list. Remember to work ahead when possible. Crossing off one little task that could be put off until today saves exponential time the next day. 

Study instructional strategies and find inspiration.

As an instructional coach, I have focused on what theme I wanted to share with colleagues. We are still recovering from the pandemic. By the end of this school year, I hope teachers can say that they understand how they can use specific skills and strategies they used during the pandemic to enhance their classrooms. As a result, I worked with the administration at my school to encourage a focus on instructional strategies (rather than tech tools) to help teachers see how they might blend in new ways to engage their students using various tools and methods. Halfway through the year, I am excited to see that there's been momentum for using stations, including student choice, and exploring different approaches to learning. 

Reading current literature and learning from peers on social media platforms or at conferences (even digital ones) has been incredibly growing and powerful. We always have something to learn and can find inspiration for incredible people near and far! 

Finally, focus on relationships. Whatever pressing task is consuming you, remember that it can wait.

At the heart of a successful school are strong relationships. Tasks can almost always wait. No matter what, I always have time for a friend (or a student). My colleagues are so important to me. As an instructional coach, I remind myself that whatever tech glitch or concern a teacher has at any given moment, that issue is everything to them. By stopping what I am doing for just a moment, I can add relief to their day. I am building trust, and more importantly, I am making a statement about what matters most. When teachers (or students) feel heard, validated, and supported, their whole world can change instantly. And that change, that change is culture-building and life-giving. 

Time keeps on ticking, but we can make them matter even more.

Digital and On-Demand PD: Creating New Opportunities for Learning

The pandemic gave rise to a professional development shift. Instead of having large conferences in which people traveled, many educator conferences moved to an online format. Bringing people together from around the world without traveling has allowed teachers to explore the world of educational technology and instructional strategies in a new way - from the convenience of their own homes. While I am excited to get back to convention center hopping in the future, I have loved the flexibility digital conferences have offered. This past year, I have attended conferences in places like Texas and Minnesota, places that I would never travel to just for professional learning because of cost and time. The on-demand nature created by this modality of learning has expanded my knowledge in the areas of educational technology, blended learning, and instructional strategies while challenging me to rethink adult learning and professional development structure altogether. So what's been learned? 

Always be prepared to adapt. 

In March 2020, I was supposed to attend the Midwest Google Summit in Wisconsin. Having attended that conference before, I knew it was worth the 90-minute drive and would be a collaborative trip for my fellow instructional coaches. This conference was canceled right around the initial shutdown of the pandemic, but quickly mini-conferences and related information began to fill my inbox. Many educators innovated and found creative ways to replicate or recreate that conference experience using Zoom, Google Meet, and other digital platforms to share live and recorded information. Throughout the next school year, my instructional coach friends and I even attended a few together, creating a backchannel to connect, reflect, and digitally hop to the best "room" or livestream going at the time. Through these experiences, we learned flexibility both as attendees who sometimes had to mute our cameras to get work done while listening into a session and as presenters who sometimes had to record our presentations to no audiences to be later accessed by the information educators on-demand. This test of flexibility reminded us of the importance of our content and the connections we make to others - even if it is an afterthought or reaction posted later on social media. 

Two times speed really can save a significant amount of time. 

My husband has listened to podcasts on two-times speed for some time. While chasing three small children around, it has been the only way for him to listen to a few of his favorite podcasts. Time is precious. I had always scoffed at this practice until I was forced to teach Intro to Communication in a remote format. With low-bandwidths and computers without cameras, the only way to grade speeches was having students prerecord them and upload them to Flipgrid. Watching five sections of speech videos (three at the high school and two at the community college) is time-consuming, but cutting that time in half could allow me to efficiently give important and specific feedback to my students that they deserved. Suddenly, I noticed that my habit of listening to YouTube videos, podcasts, and student work at a normal speed felt unnatural. The same feeling extended to conferences, particularly my favorite conference of the year - IDEACon. 

This past year, IDEACon (the Illinois Digital Educators Association Annual Conference) joined forces with TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) to deliver a joint digital conference. This conference meant that I had twice the on-demand videos to choose from, and I wasn't limited to four timeslots. I could essentially watch all the videos I wanted and decided when I wanted to press play. I selected pace and place, which allowed me to watch over twenty sessions over a few weeks instead of only seeing a handful of sessions in a single day. The digital conference format made blended learning possible in the professional development world. It allowed me to learn from a broader group of educators I might not have been fortunate to encounter in a more traditional format. Using the two-times speed also allowed me to rewatch and find key tidbits of information from my favorite presentations, too. 

Participate in supplemental or "slow chats" to continue the connections beyond the PD experience. 

An on-demand presentation I attended earlier in the pandemic included a hashtag for a supplemental or "slow chat" This hashtag was promoted throughout the session and was accompanied by questions that encouraged attendees to share and reflect. This slow chat creates a space where participants could interact with the presenters and the other attendees. This interaction and opportunity to engage with others is powerful. The biggest drawback that I see with online and asynchronous PD is missing the conversations with others. Utilizing social media to converse and connect makes learning extend beyond the single experience. With my latest PD session, Blended and Beyond, I am using the hashtag to engage with my attendees of an asynchronous conference. If you've something to share about blended learning, use the hashtag - #blendedandbeyond21. I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

Register for the WeVideo Creator Community Summit

Being able to attend multiple conferences and PD experience on a broader level opens people's eyes to different teaching styles. 

Attending different conferences throughout the past year and more has exposed me to different learning styles and philosophies that I would not have seen had I only had access to face-to-face professional development. Other school districts and regions of the country have unique focuses that have opened my eyes to what teaching could look like if I shifted my thinking. In my experience, I have seen new tech tools, learning management systems, and even approaches to instruction within a traditional classroom. Even the unique style of a presenter can lead to a new insight or nugget of knowledge to apply to our classrooms. 

There's always something new to learn.

Whether it is simply a presentation strategy, a new tool, or a complete overhaul of your teaching philosophy, there is always something new to learn. As teachers, our profession is always evolving, and our students are ever-changing. To meet their needs, we need to continue to grow ourselves. Professional development on a digital platform opens new doors and makes learning more accessible. This format also allows for more opportunities that are consumed on our schedules and time frame. Without leaving our couches, we can learn from the best and brightest educators. In turn, we can sign up to share our insights by creating our own videos and resources to share. We are a community, and we cannot learn in a vacuum. While I am excited to return to face-to-face learning and seeing my edu-friends in person, I am grateful for the subset of professional learning that has been born out of the pandemic. Let the learning continue!

Here are a few links to some of my favorite edtech companies that offer PD:

• Flipgrid Ambassador
• Google Certified Educator
• WeVideo Professional Learning
• Pear Deck Training
• EdPuzzle Online PD
• Adobe Creative Educator Program
• Wakelet Ambassador

Gee - I’d love to organize my Gmail Inbox: Tips for Prioritizing Your Inbox

When July hits, a sense of panic fills countless teachers. Back-to-school shopping and sales will begin. If you're not ready to dive into the 2021-2022 school year just yet, there are a few ways that you can organize your Gmail inbox to prioritize what you see and, more importantly, when you see it. Aside from "out of the office" automated responses, these Gmail tips and tricks are great for summer snoozes and even better organization in the fall. 

Snooze your mail.

Suppose you're not ready to read an email from an admin or don't want to read the tech updates for the fall, no worries! Snooze the email. Schedule the email to reappear when you're ready to read it. Summer is your time to recharge and relax. Everyone has a different process and approach. For me, I like to plan ahead. I work a little bit overtime in the mornings before my family wakes up, and then, after crossing something off my to-do list, I enjoy my days. Some people want to set aside a weekend later in the summer to prepare for the next school year. Whatever the process is for you - follow it. Snoozing your mail allows you to schedule and control your workflow in a manner that makes sense to you. 

Schedule reminders to yourself.

Speaking of pending tasks, scheduling reminders is a great way to create visual to-do lists or remind yourself to complete a time-sensitive task. Scheduled reminders allow us to focus on what is in front of us and not worry about essential actions that need to occur later. I love scheduling reminders about sending out my weekly staff email or scheduling a recurring form to appear at 6 AM when I first look at my email for the day. Other items that I schedule for myself are reminders about the start of the semester, grading periods, and other noteworthy activities that arise - like upcoming PDs and meetings. Scheduling tasks takes the worry or anxiety of forthcoming events off my plate until it is time to give it my attention.

Sort your mail by assigning labels.

I am a fan of folders - physical and digital. I like having critical information sorted into alphabetized, labeled, and color-coded. Putting every piece of information in its place brings me joy and my inner Marie Kondo. At the beginning of the year, especially, teacher inboxes are filled with critical emails from so many entities, with attachments that need to be referenced later—those emails matter. Shorting information into appropriate labels can make finding essential information like health notifications from the nurse, department emails, or committee notes quicker and easier. This sense of sorting reduces the visual clutter in one's inbox and clears the way for more pressing emails and pending tasks that need to be completed immediately. 

Star your inbox to further organize and prioritize your messages.

Starred is a label automatically built into Google. Starred emails have their filter, and they also serve as visual reminders. When using the desktop version of Gmail, users can set the color of the stars. Coding stars based on priority or classification can be helpful for some. I love using stars to indicate that an email contains information or necessitates a response before leaving for the day. Color also brings me joy. The star feature is a quick tool for me that I have found helpful. Again, play with the features provided by Gmail and use the tools that apply to your organizational style. 

Use the priority inbox features to group unread, starred, and other labels as needed. 

A dean wanted help organizing his inbox a few years back. So I began experimenting with the priority inbox feature to support his organizational needs and that this feature can really help anyone who frequently receives a specific type or group of emails. For example, a coach might want to create a label for the sport they coach or the activity they sponsor. Or a teacher might simply want to sort student emails into a separate category from department or administrative emails. To prioritize automated emails for referrals, we created a priority inbox that allowed referrals to appear in a section by itself at the top. Then, all unread emails appeared below. A final third section was designated for opened emails that he started to address later. This process helped him to visualize his workflow and feel organized based on the task he needed to accomplish. While I don't have a section for labeled emails, I do like using the stars. My priority inbox is starred, read, and unread emails. This visualization gives me purpose and becomes a visual to-do list during busy times of the school year. 

No matter how you choose to organize your Gmail and your digital life, don't hesitate to use the tools that are available to you to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the tools. Keeping yourself organized is empowering and can free up your mind to worry about what's happening in the real world AND can allow you to soak up the summer sun, too! We all need a break, and tech tools like Gmail can be leveraged to help ease your mind and snooze a little longer this summer. 

Taking the Best from 2020: Lessons Worth Keeping

This summer, I am checking something off my professional bucket list by working on my principal's endorsement. Even with grad classes and internship hours, this summer is moving at a much slower pace than last summer. Summer 2020 was filled with meetings, committees, and preparing teachers to be ready for the most unpredictable school year of our lives. Despite the desire to never hear the Zoom doorbell again, many aspects of last year lead to positive learning outcomes for students and teachers alike. I have wrestled with a question this summer: how can we leverage those great lessons and learning outcomes to create innovative and powerful educational experiences for our students in fall 2021 and beyond? 

We embraced flexibility.

An ever-changing schedule and teaching circumstances forced us all to embrace flexibility. Health and safety regulations were constantly shifting as new information became available. School schedules and instructional plans were drafted, created, revised, and scrapped altogether. In that planning process, teachers identified essential skills and curricular topics that needed to be taught to support student learning. In addition, teachers across disciplines and age levels developed social-emotional learning strategies and other ways to provide students with a sense of community in their respected classrooms. Then teachers and staff had to determine the modality and methods to teach this information. We flew the plane and built it mid-flight; we were flexible. What mattered most was the connections and relationships, and all the rest came second - or some days not at all. Because of flexibility, we learned to reteach, reinvent, and recreate educational experiences that we never thought we'd have to create, all from our couches, spare bedrooms, and basements with our kids, pets, and personal lives swirling about us. And when the modalities changed from full remote to hybrid to full remote again in a week, we exhibited our flexibility and rolled with the metaphorical punches. 

While I hope to never see so many shifts in my academic career again, I hope that we are more open-minded to new learning modalities, curriculum shifts, and instructional technology. Frustrating as it was to scrap lesson plans and reimagine every academic experience, we had time to collaborate with others and reflect on what mattered most. We were flexible and then flexible again, and in some ways, we all succeeded with the educational experience we might never have tried if we were not forced to do so. 

We used technology in innovative and meaningful ways. 

A few of my colleagues and dear friends were tech resistant for a while. When we started using Chromebooks at a rapid rate, some said, "I'm fine with paper." As Google Classroom captivated our content, a few stuck to the shallow end. In March 2020, those barely wadding in the kiddie pool of educational technology had to dive headfirst into uncharted waters. Being in full quarantine, all teachers had to adopt educational tools to deliver content and only had a weekend to prepare. With that challenge thrust upon us, so many teachers rose to the incredible feat of using educational technology to communicate, collaborate, and innovate with their students. Teachers learned Kahoot, Pear Deck, Flipgrid, EdPuzzle, Padlet, and every Google Workspace tool in the toolbox. They mastered online feedback with extensions like Mote and Permanent Clipboard. They even became content creators with Screencastify and WeVideo. Teachers found countless tools and ways to formatively assess and engage students in the learning process even while learning from home. 

Some teachers might have stayed shallow with these tools or never tried many of them at all. Trying something new and creating a walkthrough video or recording can be intimidating. Like our students, we judge ourselves and strive for perfection, which can hinder the creative process, but we went all in and surprised ourselves because we had no choice. I am so excited to see what teachers generate and create moving forward. Because we have tried, sometimes failed, but more often than not succeeded with these new tools to innovate our teaching, we now can continue to do so while still enjoying our face-to-face time with students and maybe even writing something on paper every once in a while, too. 

We forged personalized learning pathways. 

With new educational technology skills and flexibility under our belts, we have the tools to implement blended learning and personalization into the classroom more than ever. Last year, teachers had to retool and rethink how they taught lessons. Many created videos and resources that can supplement and personalize student learning. The tools we spent hours designing and developing do not have to be wasted because we are back to in-person learning. 

We learned that some students learn better in a flipped classroom environment or with resources to rewatch or pause as needed during the pandemic. As such, I am hopeful that moving forward, we've created multiple ways for students to acquire knowledge and also various ways in which students can demonstrate mastery. My district adopted a new LMS platform that if we had not been in the pandemic, we would not have shifted our curriculum and assessments nearly as quickly. Again, now that we have created resources out of necessity, I hope that those resources will continue to provide multiple pathways on which students can navigate and learn. 

We encouraged student self-efficacy. 

Beyond school, the pandemic was difficult for our children. Being isolated, in a place of uncertainty, and coping with a myriad of challenges at home, countless students faced situations that increased anxiety and fear. While they had to cope with a great deal, they also learned that they could take charge of their learning. Students had to innovate and create. They had to think in ways they might never have to before. While some students disengaged, teachers also found that some students soared with digital and remote learning. While we can agree that in-person learning is what works best for most students at the K-12 level, some students found great success in a digital or remote environment. Incorporating some of those strategies into our classrooms can help increase student learning independence and efficacy. Students CAN be the drivers of their learning, and we witnessed this firsthand during the pandemic. Encouraging students to take ownership of their learning will help them pursue education and careers beyond the K-12 hallways.  

We extended grace. 

Finally, one takeaway I hope we continue to remember is giving grace to our students, our colleagues, and most importantly, ourselves. This past year, there were days when the internet failed us, when lessons didn't work, and when students were unable to show up for a myriad of reasons. Collectively, we attempted to assume the best in all people and all situations. We accepted failures and shortcomings, and we provided support to our colleagues when we needed to do so. Let us continue to see the best, believe the best, and lift up others when needed. When we remember and truly honor the word grace, our schools, and our world can begin to heal from 2020. 

As a future educational leader, I hope to leverage our most challenging experiences for the positive. Every situation is an opportunity to learn. This last year was perhaps the most challenging collective experience we all faced together. Taking the best moments and outcomes from this past year, I believe we can create a much more innovative and positive educational experience for our students moving forward. 

What's in Your Gratitude Bag?: Coaching Edition

Recently my cousin accepted a new job as a literacy coach. The focus of our coaching roles (literacy and technology) and the levels that we teach (elementary and high school) differ. Still, she wanted advice on how to coach. Her inquiry made me begin thinking and preparing for 2021-22. This year as in-person learning resumes, students and teachers may return fatigued. Instruction may require rethinking, replanning, and reenvisioning as teachers and students adapt to a new normal. While many school stakeholders certainly do not want to redo any part of last year, we must reflect on the benefits and the challenges that taught us so much during pandemic learning. 

My first piece of advice for a new instructional coach is to focus on relationships. Teachers need to feel safe to share their instructional practices and experiences with the coach if the coach wants to impact student learning. When teachers collaborate with me, I always follow up with small gestures of gratitude. From handwritten notes, stickers, motivational pencils, and more, I try to keep a stockpile of small tokens that can be used to show my appreciation and respect for my colleagues. These items are often found at the dollar store or in the discount corner at Target. However, the gestures of expressing gratitude foster strong relationships and remind my colleagues of how much they are positively impacting their students and the school community through their efforts to grow, learn, and inspire. 

To support her preparations to adopt this critical practice in her coaching bag of tricks, I hit my favorite bargain bins to create a visual representation of how to coach with heart. 

Always fill your coaching bag with kind words. 

Regardless of the circumstance or the stress level, a challenging classroom situation can be remedied with kind words. Having students and or teachers write down goals, affirmations, and kindness is an exercise that can recenter and uplift anyone. Even in times of notable success with academic goals or achievements, kind words can still have a lasting impact. After meeting with teachers for a coaching cycle or delivering a professional development session, I always write a handwritten note on a card or a customized post-it note to remind my colleagues that they are valued.

Don't forget to fill your coaching bag with supplies. 

In addition to kind words, having the right tools readily available at any time makes for a reliable coach. A pencil, fun pen, or colorful post-its can be helpful in and out of the classroom. Having a tool to share with a teacher to inspire them or provide them with a way to brainstorm ideas goes a long way. Leaving a practical but inspiring token brightens a person's day and can continue to serve as a small reminder that meaningful learning is happening. Also, always having supplies on hand keeps teachers coming back to the coaching office or station when in need of a tool or a teaching tip. 

Fill your bag with books that inspire. 

Another way to keep teachers inspired is having an inspirational book on hand. I love the book Teach Like a Pirate and others written by Dave Burgess's publishing company. These books are conversational, informative, and engaging. Having a book to lend on an instructional approach or topic can be a great conversation starter. It is also a way to get teachers coming back. Eventually, they have to return the book with my name and annotations all over it. Still, I have purchased at least three Teach Like a Pirates and two copies of The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros. I am sure that I have more books out than I can count, but books are meant to be shared, loved, and sometimes lost in the process. Most of the time, I get them back, and when I don't, I am always happy to keep supporting edu-authors. Be Real: Educate from the Heart by Tara Martin, Shift This by Joy Kirr, and Tech with Heart by Stacey Roshan are some of my other favorites if you're looking for a summer read. 

Fill your bags with resources that keep you organized. 

As Gretchen Rubin notes in her book Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness (2019), "Nothing is more exhausting than the task that's never started." Even teachers procrastinate or avoid getting started because we feel overwhelmed, have too much physical or mental clutter, or are tired. Having tools or tricks to help teachers stay organized can serve as a motivator to take action. Whether it is creating a Google Sheet to help a teacher track data, labeling file folders, or dropping off a fresh stack of post-its, being ready to help a teacher feel organized can completely shift their mindset. Most often, I find myself assisting teachers in organizing their Google Drive or webtools. Using the bookmark toolbar such as Toby, color coding, or developing a naming convention are small tips to help teachers feel more organized and save time. Teachers can also organize their commonly used comments to save more time and give better feedback to students. Permanent Clipboard is my favorite tool to give to teachers seeking better organization as it provides students with feedback and organizes them. 

Fill your bag with ways that allow you to lift others. 

Whether it is time-saving tech tips, books with endless amounts of reading strategy tips, or school supplies to make people smile, the most important item to have in your coaching bag is whatever best allows you to lift up others. As I consider what advice to give any new coach, the best thing to bring to the table is oneself. We are all unique individuals with great strengths to offer students and our colleagues. For me, my strength is to see any glass as half full. That positivity is how I'm wired. Using optimism to help teachers see the best in a given situation allows me to begin a conversation that can lead to lasting change in their classrooms and in our school. Find your strength. Reflect on who you are and what you value. Then find ways to keep your coaching bag full by taking care of yourself and seeking inspiration to keep filling that bag. I try taking care of myself by spending time chasing around my three kids, running, and reading every nonfiction book in my school’s library that I can manage to find and forget to checkout, much to the chagrin of my librarian buddy. :) We are in the business of learning, and our clients are colleagues and students who we are fortunate to serve all school year.

To get started on preparing for a new coaching role or just a new school year, take out a post-it or a notebook. Find your favorite pen and create a gratitude list. Then you'll know exactly how to fill that bag.