School administrators and coaches need to create trust with staff to encourage the risk taking and openness to feedback that will generate continuous teacher growth supporting continuous student growth. A culture of high “coachablity”.
“Schools with high relational trust, and/or leaders who cared about it, had a much better chance of serving students well than schools that ranked low on those variables.”
— Center for Courage and Renewal
With changes in staff and positions, this topic needs to be examined by the leadership team at the start of each school year and plans for consciously addressing trust building with staff set in place.
The following ten-minute video will guide you and your leadership team through exploring questions that should be answered with the staff:
- When is an observer evaluating and when is the observer coaching?
- Who in the school plays which roles?
- What communication exists between my coach and my evaluator?
- What control do I have as a mentee or coachee?
- How do I share my questions, concerns, desires, and interest?
August 18th, 2019 at 10:29 am
As I continue to facilitate sessions with principals on the performance appraisal process, the conversation between the teacher and the evaluator is a major focus of my work. The role of principal as supervisor (measurement) and coach (growth) is a difficult challenge and depends on the ability of the principal to differentiate the conversation using essential questions more than declarative statements. Principals find this aspect of the performance appraisal process challenging but necessary if they are to shift from a measurment mindset to a growth mindset. And none of this can be effective without a culture that values trusting relationships between the staff and the princpal.