This document discusses building a positive school culture and having coaching conversations to increase teacher capacity. It focuses on creating a supportive environment for teamwork and growth, providing informal feedback to teachers through daily walkthroughs, using evaluations as a tool for development, having crucial conversations with struggling teachers, and promoting transparency through peer and outside feedback. The goal is to empower teachers and make them feel supported through regular coaching rather than evaluations alone.

1. Culture and Conversation
To Increase Teacher Capacity

2. Welcome!
From Your Session Leaders:

3. Our Essential Question is:
“How do we build culture and conversation in our schools that will
increase teacher capacity?”
FOCI:
1. Creating a positive school culture that supports teamwork and
personal development
2. Using daily coaching conversations in a yearlong effort to grow
3. Using NCEES as an authentic tool for teacher growth
4. Having crucial conversations when the going gets tough
5. Building transparency and openness to outside feedback

4. Focus One: Creating a Positive School
Culture that Supports Teamwork and Personal
Development
Jim Goodnight, the CEO of SAS, says:
“95% of my assets drive out of the gates
every evening. It is my job to maintain a
work environment that keeps people
coming back every morning.”

5. Reflect silently:
You have been sent to be principal of School Z.
This is a low performing school that is being
watched by the federal government.
Teachers are “hunkered down” and basically shut
their doors, do their thing, try to teach kids to do
better on state tests, and mostly try not to draw
attention to themselves.
Discuss:
What are your FIRST STEPS in building a
culture that is open to receiving feedback for
improvement?

6. Focus Two: Using Daily Coaching
Conversation in a Yearlong Effort to Grow
Leadership author John Maxwell says:
“Leaders become great, not because of their
power, but because of their ability to empower
others.”

7. Reflect silently:
Think about empowering others. What does that
mean?
How is coaching different from supervising?
What are some of the missing ingredients in our
typical daily walkthroughs with teachers?
Is leading telling or showing?

8. Let’s Talk Honestly:
How do you give teachers informal feedback after
a walkthrough?
Is an average teacher in your building more likely
to get this feedback 3 or 4 times a week? 3 or 4
times a month? Or 3 or 4 times a year?
Is this a two-way conversation or a quick note
or email? Is it just a post observation after a
formal evaluation?

9. Let’s Talk Honestly:
Whatever you are currently doing, how could it be
improved from the teachers’ point of view?
Do you know of coaching methods or conversation
starters to make this more effective?
Given that we have to manage the building, and don’t
get into classrooms as much as we should, what
structures would empower teachers to help each
other?
How important is regular feedback to your best
teachers?

10. Focus Three: Using NCEES as an Authentic
Tool for Teacher Growth
Susan Black, writing for the ASCD Educational
Leadership blog states:
“For the most part, principals consider evaluating
teachers a tiresome chore, one that takes an
enormous amount of time from their busy
schedules.”

11. Reflect silently:
How can we make the NCEES process more
efficient for us and more effective for the
teachers?
TPAI-R is gone. Why the laborious scripting still?
During post-observation, do you allow the teacher
to lead and tie in his/her personal growth
plan?

12. Powerful Questions:
“What do you need to do your job better?”
“How can I support you in improving?”
What others have you found to be powerful?

13. Focus Four: Having Crucial Conversations
when the Going Gets Tough
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.”

14. Eight Tips on How to Manage Good Teachers
You Don’t Like (Business Insider Magazine):
1. Accept that you don’t need to be friends with all your
employees
2. Figure out why that employee bothers you.
3. Remain positive with them.
4. Focus on how they benefit your team.
5. Don’t let emotions hinder your leadership.
6. Be upfront.
7. Work closely with them.
8. Observe how others handle them.

15. Career Counseling for Low Performers:
1. Don’t hire other people’s lemons, first and foremost!
2. Action Plans, Monitored Improvement Plans, Directed
Improvement Plans exist for growth of low
performers. Provide resources for people to get
better.
3. Document negative behaviors and provide due
process.
4. Keep H.R. in the loop.
5. Some people benefit from friendly career
counseling.

16. Focus Five (Close): Building Transparency
and Openness to Outside Feedback
si·lo (noun)
1. a tower or pit on a farm used to store grain.
2. an underground chamber in which a guided missile is kept
ready for firing.
(verb)
1. To isolate (one system, process, department, etc.) from others.
"most companies have expensive IT systems they have
developed over the years, but they are siloed"

17. Methods to Increase Openness:
1. Talk a lot about teaching as a craft to be honed.
2. Talk about your own growth as a teacher and
administrator and the role of others in helping you
improve.
3. Provide scripts for teacher feedback that maintains
professionalism with prompts like:
1. “What I noticed was…”
2. “What I wondered was…”
3. “Have you considered…”
4. “When was learning best for kids?”
5. “When could learning have been better for kids?”

18. Structures for Outside Feedback:
1. Peer Coaching from teachers on the same grade level or
department within your school.
2. Instructional Rounds with teams of teachers from various
grade levels or departments within your building.
3. Peer Review with teams of teachers from other schools.
4. Peer Review with teams of administrators from other
schools.
The success/failure of these structures lies in the
preparation of people to give and receive the feedback.

19. Our Essential Question was:
“How do we build culture and conversation in our schools that will
increase teacher capacity?”
Our FOCI were:
1. Creating a positive school culture that supports team work and
personal development
2. Using daily coaching conversations in a yearlong effort to grow
3. Using NCEES as an authentic tool for teacher growth
4. Having crucial conversations when the going gets tough
5. Building transparency and openness to outside feedback