243. Differentiating Instructional Coaching with Chrissy Beltran

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In this episode, we chat with Chrissy Beltran, a coach for coaches who is committed to exploring the evolving role. In her work, Chrissy emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision for instructional coaching and strives to offer practical, actionable strategies.

In our conversation, she highlights the need for differentiated approaches that meet teachers where they are and underscores the value of building strong relationships. Chrissy’s approach centers on supporting teachers so they can better support students, always keeping the broader goal of student development in mind.


The Big Dream 

Chrissy’s ultimate vision for education is a system where schools empower students to discover their passions and develop the skills they need to build fulfilling lives. It’s all about helping them grow into the adults they are meant to be and build the life they want to build. 

She dreams of an environment where every child has the opportunity to explore, learn, and grow into the person they aspire to be, with equity and individual choice at the heart of the educational experience.

Mindset Shifts Required

Both new coaches and those in the role for some time can benefit by embracing a key mindset: we’re there to support teachers so they can support students—the purpose is to help grow these kids into adulthood. 

Coaches can shift from focusing only on classroom routines to embracing a broader purpose: supporting teachers as partners in student growth. Coaches must move beyond critiquing what’s “wrong,” but maintain a strong sense of purpose to look for ways to leverage every interaction as an opportunity for positive change. 

Action Steps  
For coaches looking to define their role or just get started, Chrissy recommends the following action steps: 

Step 1: Reflect on and define your personal vision for coaching. What do you want your role to look like? How do you want to spend your time? One helpful exercise is to draw out a pie chart and visually define the time you want to spend in classrooms, facilitating teams, or in meetings. 

Step 2: Once you are clear on your coaching vision, communicate it clearly with school leadership to ensure alignment and support before you dive in and communicate with teachers.

Step 3: Introduce yourself to teachers with clarity about your role, emphasizing partnership and growth rather than quick fixes or top-down mandates. It’s important for teachers to understand what a coach is and isn’t, managing expectations around instant-change or quick fixes. Instead, coaching is an ongoing process, a partnership.

Step 4: Build your coaching strategy toolbox, differentiating them as low, medium, and high-impact strategies. This helps you stay responsive to teachers and what they need, what their capacity is, and what’s most likely to move the needle for positive change. Meet teachers where they are, choosing the strategy that is most effective in working toward shared goals.

Challenges?

One of the biggest challenges coaches face is resistance from teachers. Whether it’s because of negative past experiences or uncertainty about the coaching role, some teachers simply don’t want to work with a coach. 

Building trust takes time and persistence, but it’s important to approach each relationship with respect, empathy, and a willingness to adapt strategies to individual needs. Coaches need to keep investing in the relationship, even when there’s resistance. 

One Step to Get Started 

To begin making an impact, coaches should assess their current practices and add one new strategy to their toolkit. This small step can help them better differentiate their support and more effectively meet the diverse needs of the teachers they work with.

Stay Connected

You can connect with Chrissy and find out more about her work on her website, Buzzing With Ms. B, Instagram, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Facebook group, and Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast 

To help you implement today’s takeaways, Chrissy is sharing her Book Pass PD Strategy with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 243 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below.

Quotes: 

• 3:05 “ I feel like everything we do is supposed to help little people, young people, grow into the adults that they're going to be.”
• 5:42 “ We are not responsible for the system. We can't fix the system tomorrow. We don't get to make those choices, unfortunately … But if that's always in your brain, then you can make changes towards that direction.” 
• 10:33 “ But if you can have that purpose in the back of your mind, then you can always find the motivation and the energy to move that conversation forward into something bigger.”
• 17:15 “ Some strategies are more impactful in making classroom change, and some are less so. But that doesn't mean we never use them. It doesn't mean they aren't valuable for a purpose.”

​​If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below:

TRANSCRIPT

 Chrissy Beltran, welcome to the time for teachership podcast. Thank you so much for having me today. I loved having you as a guest on my podcast, and I'm so excited to be a guest on yours. Oh my gosh. I am so excited too. And I have to say, anyone listening, instructional coaches like. Chrissy, your, uh, your podcast is like the one, anytime I need instructional coaching inspiration, I'm like, I'm just gonna binge listen to this for the next three hours.

Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you. For sure. I highly encourage people to go to your podcast and check it out, and we'll of course link to it as well in the, in the blog post and show notes. Awesome. Thanks. Um, but I'm, I'm so curious, be beyond the podcast or maybe inclusive of the podcast, like what do you want people to know about you or just keep in mind for our conversation today as we get into it.

Um, I guess that's a big question. I guess in general, just that, um, I mean, you know, I support instructional coaches and I, I am trying to help coaches make sense out of this role that is. Evolving and is very nebulous and often not defined at a school level. And, um, administrators don't often know what it is.

Teachers don't often know what it is, so it's kinda like, what are we doing? We're just building these planes and flying them and crashing and building and flying and crashing. And so, so I just, you know, I tried to provide practical, actionable coaching two coaches, because they're often missing that. We, we get into the school and it's kinda like when you're a new teacher and they stuff you in a classroom and shut the door and say, you know, see you in May.

You know, and you're like, oh my gosh, how am I allowed to be responsible for this much, you know, important stuff. And coaching is similar, similar, it's you're the first day of school, you go into your room and you're like. I guess this is my job now. I don't have students here. What is happening? And so that's really where I try to come in and provide the support because I know how isolating and, um, unsettling that feeling is of not knowing what your job is.

Oh my gosh, that resonates deeply. That is probably one of the most common things that I hear from people who have just started a coaching role. What am, what am I doing? Yes. What is my job? I remember in my interview asking, what will my job look like? And my principal was like, well, whatever you think best.

And that wasn't completely true, but it was mostly true and it was shocking. I mean, that makes me think about this next question that usually, you know, um. Ask people. I feel like as a coach and as a teacher as well, and a leader, you need to have kind of your, your north star, your big vision, right? Mm-hmm.

And so I think that kind of anchors and can help construct what your role might be. Um, and so, so I'll ask it now. So in line with the idea of freedom dreaming, which Dr. Patina love describes as dreams grounded in the critique of injustice. What is that big dream that you personally hold for either education broadly for instructional coaching, however you wanna interpret this?

Okay, sure. So when I think about. About school in general and education in general. I feel like we're very far from what I would like to see. Um, but really I feel like everything we do is supposed to help little people, young people, grow into the adults that they're going to be, who have to build a life in, in whatever place they live and.

We all get to choose what our lives are to a degree, right? We make choices, we have decisions, we have opportunities. We decide yes or no, and sometimes we don't know how those choices we make are going to impact our future lives. And you know, there are different, we some have more choices or more options or more possibilities than others.

And so I would love school to be the place where. Kids can explore and find out what they love and get good at some, some things that they're gonna need to build the life that they want to build. So like, that would, like, that's, that addresses all the issues of equity. Like if we can do this, if we can really, truly help kids become the person that they wanna be so that they have the life that they want to live.

I mean, I have friends, I just had a conversation with a friend of mine, brilliant person, struggles to live his life, you know, he just is still not sure. At our ripe old age of 44, what exactly he wants his life to look like. And I feel like we miss such an opportunity. And there are lots of factors there of course, but we miss such an opportunity in school to help kids figure out what they want before they leave.

And I think so much of that is 'cause we focus on these really discreet skills because that is what is like, they have to master these skills. They have to master these skills. And obviously skills matter, right? You cannot build a life you want without some skills, but. It is hard to see kids leaving our schools who still don't really know what they wanna do with themselves.

And 18 is very young, but we can give them more of a direction for sure, if they can only like try different things and find out what they're good at and what they enjoy. And I feel like coaching, it's difficult because. You are in, you're at the mercy, right? You're in, you're in between. You're the middle management kind of, except you don't have any power of a manager.

And so you are like, you're hearing the words come down from on high, and then you see the classrooms and you see the kids, and you see the teachers and you see the challenges every day. And so you're always trying to balance out, oh my gosh, we have this curriculum and we have this, um. We have this test coming up, the big capital T test, and this is what kids are gonna be held accountable for.

So we really do need to prepare them for that 'cause it's not fair to them to be held, you know, accountable for something we haven't prepared them for. But is that really the whole reason we're here? No, it's not the whole reason we're here. So you're having this constant little battle in your brain. And so I feel like as coaches, the reality of that is we have to always have that idea embedded in everything that we do.

Because we can't, you can't, we are not responsible for the system. We can't fix the system tomorrow. We don't get to make those choices, unfortunately, at the level that we are. Um, but if that's always in your brain, then you can make changes towards that direction. I love that. And you know, I've been, um, steeped in like little, little kids culture lately.

Yeah. Active parenting. And whereas I was a high school teacher and it's so interesting to see that little kids actually do know a lot more about what they want. Sometimes it's really expansive. Like, oh, today I wanna be a firefighter and tomorrow I wanna be a doctor and then I wanna be a veterinarian.

The next like, sure. But it is like I am clear on what I want in this moment and I see less and less of that as they get older. And so I love your vision of like. The, it's in there somewhere. Let's just like help them explore and get, like, stay connected to that. Mm-hmm. And I, it just brings me so much joy to hear that, oh, thank you so much.

Yeah, I know what you mean. And I, I see that in my children, they're four and seven and I think about, like, I, I want them to. To have found the thing that they love, you know, and mul or multiple things, you know, and so like whenever I put them in an an activity, it's not so they can like be amazing at it.

It's so they can try it and see and learn something and have a cool experience and, and put that in their pocket, you know, as something that they know about now, you know, it's like exposure and then they can choose something over time that they love. It's my goal. I love that. And you know, I actually think that that is a lot about like instructional coaching and teachers kind of as well is like, let's test this thing out.

Yes. Let's see if this like works with kids. Let's like get creative. And um, I had a colleague recently we were co-presenting and she's like, let's just play with inquiry. Like let's just play with it. And I'm like, oh, I love this idea of like. Your job can be playful. Mm-hmm. And it can be like fun and joyful and you can explore.

Yes. So I think there's so, so much power in instructional coaching to help teachers find and reconnect with like their love of teaching in addition, of course to like helping, helping students. Right. The ultimate goal. But I, I am curious, I think a lot of times. You know, we go from maybe teachers to instructional coach and it can kind of, as you mentioned, like be a very big shift where you're like, there are no kids in this room.

What am I doing now? You know, like what are those kind of mindset shifts or, uh, maybe a key mindset to keep in mind as a coach is kind of entering that role or even. A seasoned coach who's like, okay, I really wanna do things a little bit different this year. What would you tell them? Sure. I think that, um, but you know, in terms of the work that we do, we are there to support teachers because they support kids.

Supporting teachers is not the end of, of our sentence. It's not the end of what we're doing. Um, the purpose is to help grow these kids right into adults that have to make their lives, you know, with all the choices that they have. And so. You know, whenever we're working with teachers, it can be like at first you, whenever you first get started, you're kind of, it's kind of jarring 'cause you're like.

This doesn't look like my classroom. I'm visiting these rooms. It's so different and weird. Why are they doing it like that? And it's, it's hard not to have that. But you're a normal human being, right? We, we normally do this. We connect what we know and we are like comparing, you know? And like, this is different.

This is weird. And so, you know, at first we start out. Looking at what seems like not right? Right? What seems off. Um, and then over time we can actually take a step back and be like, okay, well what is the purpose here? What am I doing here? We're not, I'm not here to be like, well, this seems weird and that seems wrong, and that's wrong and this is wrong.

Instead, we have to like, think beyond what we did in the classroom and think about a bigger purpose for our work, right? So if our bigger purpose is about. It's about supporting kids and growing them. Into kids who have opportunities, right into kids who have choices because they can do all the basic things and also they know some stuff about lots of different things.

Then we can kind of have that constantly running in the background of the work that we do with teachers and the work that we do with kids. And so instead of like focusing on what's wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong, we can be like, okay, how can I take this? Interaction, any coaching interaction, because we have millions of them and we don't even always consider them coaching, but any interaction you have with a teacher is an opportunity to like leverage that right into something bigger.

And so you can say, okay, I'm having a conversation passing in the hallway, right. I'm not gonna change teaching, I'm not gonna change it today. I'm not gonna, you know, completely reboot the system today, but I can do something that will help me move this conversation forward so that I can help the teacher grow in that direction and make the changes.

And if we're always having our purpose in the back of your mind, and yours might be a little different than mine, right? Everybody has a different vision of what they, what they would love to see school look like. But if you can. Have that purpose in the back of your mind, then you can kind of always find the kind of like the motivation and the energy to like move that conversation forward into something bigger and say, okay, I know that we're having a small conversation now, but I can leverage this by saying, why don't I come by and see that in your classroom tomorrow?

Or would you like to come by today and take a look at this resource or, you know, we can, we, we can continue to develop the small CS that teachers give us. So if we can focus on like, okay, let's take, we're having a, a team meeting here and we're talking about planning and we're using a curriculum, right?

And that's, that feels kind of, you know, restrictive or it feels kind of dry and pointless sometimes you're like, Ugh, this lesson is like so corny or useless. What can we do to like move that into a bigger, teachable moment, not just for kids, but for teachers? How can we have a conversation and say, you know what?

What are some opportunities we have to connect this to reality, to connect this to current events, to connect this to the world that kids live in, so that they kind of have an idea of what they believe about themselves, about the world, about what they like and what they don't like, what they think is good and what they don't think is good.

How can we like take this moment and make it bigger? And so if we can just kind of always have that mindset running. But we can take moments, leverage them into bigger stuff than, I think that as a coach, we avoid some of like the, like if somebody passes in the hallway and they're like, Ugh, parent night.

I just, ugh, talking with parents just stresses me out instead of saying, I know, right. Ugh. Parents. Which is maybe what our instinct is to do sometimes. Uh, 'cause we feel like, well, we're commiserating, which is okay to commiserate, but then we wanna say, what can we do to help you feel prepared for that? We wanna take everything and turn it into something bigger, and we have these opportunities.

We just have to keep that in the forefront that we can do this, we can make these things into bigger moments. I love that. That's such a really great concrete example too, because I imagine that is, that is a common thing people have encountered is like, yes, do I commiserate as like a fellow teacher, which I might used to have been last year, right?

Or do I coach forward? Right. Yeah, and you can do both. You demonstrate a little empathy by being like, I know it can be really stressful. What can we do is whenever you move it forward, right? Yeah. Absolutely. I, so I wanna get into differentiating coaching for sure. I want, maybe let's take one more step, just as like a, um, if I'm just getting into coaching or I'm kind of like redefining my relationship with my teachers, is there any kind of tip or action step that you would recommend for coaches who are just trying to define that role, get started, um, kind of address some of the challenges of that that we talked about?

Yeah, definitely. I think that some of it is that we have to have a clear vision for what coaching is, and if you have not been coached or if you had been coached by somebody who maybe was not the vision of coaching that you would like or had a role that wasn't. Maybe gonna look like yours or wasn't ideal, which happens all the time that we get an ideal role.

Um, if you have had that experience, then I think it's really important to like really pause and paint a picture and envision what do I want my coaching work to look like? What do I want my day to be like? Where do I wanna spend my time? Um, Angela, uh, Harkness and, and, um, Lindsay Deacon, the Educ Coach Survival Guide.

I just saw them this summer in, um. In Round Rock outside of Austin at the Region 13 Coaching Conference, and they did a really neat little activity where you draw like a circle. You could do paper plate. You kind of wanna divide it up in terms of time and how much time you wanna spend on certain things.

You know, like a little pie, pie chart. And so I think that that can be helpful just in thinking about, okay, well how much, how much time do I wanna spend in classrooms? How much time do I wanna s. Bend. You know, like I know that personally, whenever I first started coaching, I was responsible for facilitating PLC teams.

And that was like an every Tuesday, you know, once you hit the door, until you leave the the school thing, you know, it wasn't like something I could choose or not choose. And that required preparation as well. So that was like Tuesday shot, right? Tuesday was gone. Part of Monday was also gone to prepare for Tuesday.

Monday was also leadership after school. Wednesday was this, you know, after school learning. Thursday I had to prepare for an hour of pd. Those things are just already like off your calendar, so then you really have. To think about with that white space that you have, what kind of coach do I wanna be and what is my coaching work gonna look like?

And the beauty of differentiating coaching is that I think it actually, you have to define your coaching role in order to be able to do this. And you have to have an idea of how you wanna differentiate in order to find your coaching role because you're a picking strategies that you are, you think will be most helpful to teachers to kind of focus on.

And that's going to be the main crux of your folks, your of your coaching work. But then you're also saying, okay, in this moment, how am I going to be responsive to teachers? And that's where we differentiate, that's where we create the personalized experience. So in terms of like defining your role, you wanna have big picture ideas and you wanna have like, you know, like a, like a goal and a vision of what you want your coaching to be.

And you wanna be able to clearly communicate that with administration and clarify all of that first before you even bother talking to a teacher. Because that's, if not, you're gonna be sadly disappointed. And it's gonna be very confusing for teachers as well. So make sure you're on the same page there.

And then make sure you can communicate it clearly with teachers and when you go to introduce yourself, that you are clear on what a coach is and what a coach isn't. That it is a partner. It is somebody to help support teachers to grow, to find opportunities for learning, and to do that together. Um, and it's not that you're gonna be able to fix anybody.

You're not gonna fix anything and walk into a classroom and just change everything overnight. It's not gonna happen. Um, and, and I think that sometimes that's a position that administrators put us in. You know, so be aware of like the realities of the role. Define it clearly with what strategies you're gonna focus on.

So then you have flexibility within that to meet teachers' needs because you already know the big picture, if that makes sense. That makes total sense. And I, I am so curious as you like kind of preview differentiated coaching strategies and stuff, I'm like, ooh, I wanna know more. So can you take us through, I mean, I know your, like your book is on undifferentiated coaching and I'm, I'm so curious to know.

Um. Yeah, just like what, what, what's included in that? What does that mean? What does that look like? Sure. Um, so yes, I am writing a book. Uh, it should be coming out in May or June with a SCD, so I'm super excited about that. And it's about a coaching strategy toolbox. So the idea is that each of us has this little toolbox and it's full of different strategy.

Some of them you don't even realize are gonna contribute to your coaching. Right? And so in terms of. The value of each strategy, I have them sorted into low impact, medium impact, and high impact. 'cause some strategies are more impactful in making classroom change and some are less so. But that doesn't mean we never use them.

It doesn't mean they aren't valuable for a purpose. So you kind of have to consider in the moment, okay, what is my purpose? What is my intent? How much time does the teacher have? Like how responsive are they to the work that we are trying to do here? Do they like working with me? Do they not want to work with me?

It's just the reality, right? And so you have to think about what your purpose is in order to select some possible strategies that could move your interactions forward. And so, kind of like I mentioned before, really responding to teacher needs. Being attuned to like what is the actual issue that they're having so that we can address that instead of just having like a trite response or well, have you tried the curriculum and you know, kind of directing people back to stuff they already know.

We want to think about what is it that they're telling me? Really listen so that we can uncover the root of the issues that they're having, and then choose a strategy from your toolbox that you could use to move this forward into to further coaching work. And so whether that is moving very slowly along with a teacher who is not.

Super besties with you, um, and runs the other way whenever they see you. But you wanna make a real point of relationship building, right? You wanna demonstrate empathy, you wanna build credibility, and that's low level and less invasive. You can choose one of those strategies. You can try recommending a resource just to show that you know, resources, right?

You're demonstrating your credibility, you're showing that you are listening to a need that they have. You can try serving as a sounding board just listening to the issues that they have and giving, you know, certain. What you're really doing when you're being a sounding board is you are listening to what issues that they have, kind of sorting out those issues with them through questioning, and then say, well then what can we do?

How can we do something about this? We don't wanna vent for all eternity. We wanna do something to make your lives better as a teacher and your kids' lives better as students. So what can we do? These so are, they're like very low impact things that you can do if that's what the moment calls for and you want, instead of saying, well, let's go jump right into a coaching cycle.

They're not gonna respond to that. And so, so many times we try to get everybody, and I've seen this at schools where people try to get everybody into the same. Like a routine, like a, um, like a system where they have people go through a coaching cycle every two weeks and then they move on to the next person or something.

They kind of systematize it because coaching is so, like I said, nebulous, but that doesn't meet the needs of the teachers where they are, which is what differentiation is all about. We wanna meet the needs of where they are and move them forward a little bit. That's what we do with kids. It's, we wanna do the same thing with teachers.

So you wanna think about what impact can I choose right now? What is my purpose and how can I move this forward? So there are low, uh, medium and high impact strategies. High impact strategies tend to be the ones that you see in coaching cycles. So looking at, um, model lessons, co-taught lessons in the moment, coaching, video coaching, and then medium impact strategies are more about alignment and knowledge building things that you would tend to do in teams, but you can do one-on-one as well.

Wow. That's incredible. And thank you for giving those specific examples because you are right that not everyone wants coaching and there are people who literally run. Yes. So that's so helpful to think about. Okay, like what do I do here? And then what do I do with perhaps the new teacher who's like. I wanna try all the things.

Let's go coaching. Yay. Right? Yeah, exactly. 'cause you wanna respond to the person in front of you. You want to teach like, and coach the actual teacher, not like the model cookie cutter of a teacher. Right. Um, and so we have to support the person that we're actually working with by responding to the needs that they have and to their interest level and to their skill level.

And um, and sometimes the best thing we can do is just. Continue to move the relationship forward because if we dump in a really high impact strategy right at the beginning, that can be a real turnoff. Like if you're working with a veteran teacher and you offered to model a lesson, they're probably not gonna be super excited if they were not already excited about you.

Yeah, exactly. Um, I am curious, I'm sure you've encountered, I mean, I'm sure just like personally you've encountered, but also like coaching coaches, you've encountered challenges that people have faced in coaching. I mean, that I, that's probably the number one that comes to mind is like resistance to the idea of coaching.

And now you're paired with them. Sure. Yeah. But I mean, so we could go with that one, or we could go with another one you're thinking of. I'm curious. Uh, of, of a challenge that you've experienced or, or had others experience and like, how do they work through it or what's kind of the, the way forward when they encounter that challenge?

Sure. I can give a couple of examples. Um, I mean, this is one that I have myself seen. You know, personally, I mean, we've all experienced resistance. Nobody walks into a school and has everybody go, I'm so glad you're here. Like, it's just not gonna happen. So, so one, one person that I, that I did work with, one teacher, um, there was definitely resistance, I think had nothing to do with me at the time.

I think it was. Simply the coaching role. You know, it was, um, who are you coming in here to tell me literally anything And, uh, you don't even have a classroom of your own. I did two months ago before the summer ended, but you're right, I currently do not. So that was a big, um, a really hard, stressful time for me.

Person was kind of imposing, um, and, uh, was used to being left alone because they were, um, borderline aggressive. You know, so like, kind of, you know, even physically would use, you know, like I since was a tall person. I'm not a very tall person. Um, but I've been around tall people my whole life, so it, it didn't stress me out, but I think it stressed out a lot of people.

And so, you know. Having to find a way. I, I really thought back at the time to my own students who sometimes came in in that same manner and they had generally come in in that manner. 'cause they had had experiences in the past. Who that that had actually shaped them into thinking that, you know, teachers were there to get 'em in trouble or something along those lines, and that they kind of couldn't be trusted.

And I figured that that was probably, in many cases, a situation that teachers had seen as well, whenever they were acting in that way. I'm gonna guess that regardless of the quality of their instruction, that they had had those experiences. And maybe that was kind of the root of the problem, you know? And so I definitely.

There were things that had to be done. We did a lot of team things. There was a lot of alignment conversation. There were a lot of planning supports and, you know, she wasn't really excited about any of that. But, um, I, I think that keeping a constant demeanor of respect and sort of a persistent. Positivity.

Not like an annoying, like, everything's great, la la, la. Not that, but, you know, kind of a, I, you know, I know this is hard, but I believe we can do it. You know, and then showing up and actually following through. So I think eventually I, I wore her down to where she would at least, you know, have engage in conversations with me that we're not, you know, snippy and rude.

Right. So then over time. It took, I mean, this really, this was like a two to three year process, um, because we were doing lots of team things, but actually, and I would visit the classroom, but there was, there were always stories about, well, oh, we're not doing that because this, or we're not doing that because that, or I choose to do this instead.

And so it was a lot and, and my job was not like police officer or anything, but it certainly was to say, okay, well we plan to do this, and you, there's no evidence that you ever have done any of that. So like, is there an issue with it? Or like, why are we planning things that don't happen? What's the point?

You know? So we had small conversations over time and I just kept investing in the relationship and investing in the relationship over time. And then the strategy that I picked once, I felt like she was ready to kind of move into a higher impact. Coaching strategy because it had taken a long time to get there.

I chose to work with her on visiting other colleagues because I feel like that is a great gateway drug into coaching. Okay. It's high impact. It's incredibly high impact, but it's not you. And so they are more likely to be receptive, and so you could just say, who do you wanna see? And you can start with it wide open.

If you really are having a hard, if it's a really hard nut to crack, start with the door wide open. What do you wanna see? And they can choose what they'd like to see. And then from there you can narrow it down and say, okay, so we've been talking about this specific area. Tell me a little bit about this.

You know what? I know somebody who's really great in that area. Maybe we can go visit them. And then you can start moving them through that process till eventually you are. You've established a pretty good coaching relationship and you can get in that classroom as well and do more coaching work with them.

Um, so that, that is one strategy that if it's not in your toolbox visiting a colleague or a peer observation, it can also be called, um, learning walks. Some people call 'em that, but I prefer, like, we're not just focused on this one classroom experience, right? Because sometimes learning walks are like visiting a whole grade level or something.

This is. You're taking a teacher to see another teacher, the other teacher knows they're coming and has prepared for that moment and has a conversation with the guest teacher when it's over, and then you can also have a conversation with them. So that is one that if you are dealing with a teacher, trying to work with a teacher who has demonstrated resistance over time to any kind of change in their classroom, visiting a colleague can be life changing.

Oh my gosh, that's so good. The moment you said it, I was like, that's it, that's the end. Because it totally takes you as the coach out of the equation and, and the fact that they were like, oh, you don't have a classroom any, like anymore or at this moment. Exactly. Like, it's like, oh, here's someone who does and they're doing this thing that you want or want to try.

Right. Let's just, I'm just, I'm just here in the background. I'm just the facilitator. The connector will debrief after, like I love that. Yes. Brilliant. One of the challenges that I faced when I started coaching is I came from a school that was not affluent in any way, but was like solid middle class for the most part.

You know, there were, I mean, you know, on average it was, it was middle class, lower middle class. And then I moved to a school who had, that had, um, many students in poverty and so. The teachers would say things like, well, that won't work here, because they knew where I came from. And I mean, it was like seven miles away, right?

But it was on the other side of the freeway, and it was right by the border. I live in El Paso, it was right by the, the, um, the, the Mexican border. So it was, you know, a lot of kids who. Did not have a lot of resources at home, and so the teachers tended to say, well, that won't work here. They would even tell me things like, well, our classrooms are too small for that, even though the school.

The architect was the same architect, so it was the exact same building as the school that I came from. But the things that we get stuck, right, the limitations that we put on ourselves, it never occurred to me to say my classroom was too small for that in my school. And then I came to the exact same building and they were like, no, it's too small.

It was so weird, right? And so seeing such a different way of looking at teaching was really eye-opening and having a teacher visit their colleague down the hall and say, because they would say those that won't work with these kids. These are the same kids, okay? Next door. They are random sampling for the most part of the same kids.

So if you walk seven feet, you can see that this can happen, this can be done, right? And I think that the other beauty of visiting a colleague, which is one of my favorite strategies, obviously. First of all, I don't have to do a lot. I get to go watch a cool lesson, and that's like the best. But on top of that, they get to see a real thing in action with real kids.

And you get to have this conversation that highlights the strengths of another teacher in your school. You get to like help lift up that teacher into leadership and you get to build these relationships across your school where one teacher can go seek out another teacher instead of, you know, sometimes they come, they come to their teachers.

This is not the case of this example, but there are those teachers that come to you for everything, right? They will knock on your door before they knock on anybody else's, and you want them to have another friend that they can trust, that they know is a great teacher, that they can go knock on their door too, because they're gonna get such a different perspective from that teacher, and they are going to build the cross grade level, you know, cross vertical alignment teams that really makes schools grow.

If everybody looks to you all the time. They, you, you can't grow a school. There's one of you. It's not possible. You've gotta help build those relationships across your school, where even second grade can go to fifth grade because they know that fifth grade teacher is so good at teaching writing, and they wanna see what they do.

Brilliant. Oh my gosh. Also, one of my favorite strategies. This is, I'm so glad you highlighted all of those pieces. Brilliant. Um, okay. As we wrap up the episode, a little bit of a lightning round here for the last few questions. Okay. So what is one thing you would encourage audience members to do once they end the episode?

Something they could implement right away. I think, um, um, a really tangible thing because it's a lightning round, right? So a really tangible thing. You can tell I'm not good at lightning round. Uh, uh, something that it's easy to do is, is really take a look at what does your coaching look like right now?

What strategies are you comfortable using? And then add one so that you can differentiate further and meet teachers' needs in a different way. Brilliant. Okay. Next one. This is for fun. It could relate to what we're talking about or not, but what is something you personally have been learning about lately?

So I, um, you know, I mean we, I, I love to learn through reading historical fiction, and I know it's not like I, I need the story first and then I can dig into the history. So that's what helped it stick in my brain. Um, without a story, it doesn't stick. So I have been, I read this book about ancient Vietnam and these two si, it was based on a true story of these two sisters, and they had been trained their whole lives to be like warriors.

And then their father would, because it was, this was whenever the Han was like, um. Was had like overtaken the country and so the father, and they had completely undone their ways. I did not know that Vietnam prior to that had been like a matriarchal structure. I had no idea. So whenever the Hanh came, they were like, no, you're gonna like get married.

You're gonna have, you know, these households, you're gonna raise your children in this way. All this stuff is really interesting. And so these two sisters. Became warriors. And then whenever their father was executed, they raised this army to fight against the Han and it was a woman like an all women army.

And I had never heard that story before and I did not know that's what the book was about when I started reading it. But it was fascinating and it was based on a true story. Oh my gosh. Okay, now that needs to go on my tv. Yeah, it's, it's called Bronze Drum is the name of the book. Bronze Drum. Okay. Thank you for that.

Yeah, it was really good. Sure. And then finally, where can folks learn more about with you, connect with you? Maybe share the name of your podcast? Sure. Uh, podcast is instructional coaching with Miss B. You can listen anywhere you listen to podcast. And then you could also listen on the website at buzzing with miss b.com.

And so I try to get the episodes on there as well, um, every week. But you know, there's like over 250 episodes so you know, there's bound to be a topic you're interested in. Amazing. Thank you so much. And we, um, when that book comes out, we can always like link, even if, oh, thanks, this episode airs before it, we can go back and link it so that just people can find the book and we will keep you all posted on that.

Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, Christy. This was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance. Thank you. I'm so glad that I got to talk with you today.

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