Posts by Karen Anderson, PCC, M. Ed.
We Did It! – Measuring Impact
Congratulations! This month’s three-part focus has been on celebrating the impact of coaching from one district’s perspective. Now, we will celebrate one school’s success in a year’s time. Jackson Middle School is a technology magnet school in Garland ISD. In 2014, the school was struggling with Index 2 on the state accountability system. This index is the Student Growth…
Read MoreChoosing When to Give Feedback
As educators, our days are full of opportunities for giving reflective feedback. Typically, one of two situations appears as the time for giving feedback. One is the cycle of listen and give feedback; the other is observe and give feedback. Both are opportunities for growth. Listen and Give Feedback. Listening and giving feedback is an…
Read MorePerfecting our Reflective Feedback
Some of the most compelling reasons to practice reflective feedback come from the TNTP study called The Irreplaceables, which focuses on the real retention crisis: failure to retain the right teachers. The study’s conclusions demand our attention with regard to feedback. Defined, the irreplaceables are “teachers who are so successful they are nearly impossible to…
Read MoreFeedback AND Evaluation: Two Pieces of the Growth Puzzle
Imagine teachers saying . . . “give me more” . . . “your feedback is critical to my ongoing growth as a professional.” Well, that is a reality in more and more schools. Schools are making the shift to a coaching culture with a growth mindset that presumes positive intent. And, they are using the…
Read MorePositive Presuppositions—The Questions We Ask
In this month’s series, we have focused on the mindset of presuming positive intent. Now, we are ready for what you have all been waiting for . . . the questions. How do you construct questions so that your language matches your mindset? Here we go . . . positive presuppositions. As educators, we have…
Read MoreWorking on New Hardwiring
In this month’s Ezine, we looked at the difference between the global notion of presuming positive intent (a mindset) and the technical skill of designing our questions or statements into positive presuppositions. The purpose of this blog is to consider ways to ensure our spoken language matches our mindset of belief in others. So how…
Read MorePresuming Positive Intent and Positive Presuppositions
Welcome Back! It’s a new year, a new beginning, and that special time of the year that offers us all a fresh start! Just listen to this celebration from Principal, Amy Howell of Northwest ISD, Texas. “I wanted to let you know a wonderful celebration we had! During our coaching conversations we talked about the…
Read MoreListen For . . . Second Dimension
“When a quality listener listens, they listen to people and believe in others completely. They encourage and support others in being the best they can be, just in how they listen, without saying a word.” David Rock While the two previous articles in this series have offered a “sneak peek” from our second book into…
Read MoreListening and Paraphrasing – Communication Bookends
“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and to be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” Ralph Nichols Paraphrasing is the skill that is evidence we have listened. It is the skill that feeds the human need Nichols speaks of in the quotation above. When we…
Read MoreShifting Conceptual Thinking through a Paraphrase
Earlier this month, you practiced how Listening For can be paraphrased by acknowledging or clarifying what the person wants or by summarizing or organizing the thinking of the person. This practice will focus on the third kind of paraphrase – shifting conceptual thinking which has the potential to accelerate and advance the movement of another’s thinking.…
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