I spent last month coaching a new lead teacher, Jenn. She has been collecting observations on her new teaching assistant, Fran, and needed support in problem-solving her next steps as a leader. She mentioned the assistant teacher saying things like, “Don’t cry, you’re a big girl” to a toddler. Jenn has little training in leadership and doesn’t want to approach her assistant, without fear of tension or stress being brought into the environment. Now the thing you need to know about Fran is that she is 8 months pregnant and she is pretty much counting down the days until she doesn’t work anymore. She is a young, first-time Mom and you and I both know that as soon as she sees that baby, she’s good as retired. At least for a little while. I know that Fran has already checked out, but that doesn’t mean the Jenn has to suffer through the next few weeks watching Fran treat children in a way that is uncomfortable to her either.
As her coach, I offered to complete an informal observation and document all the teacher-child interactions over the course of a few hours in her classroom. I would jot down each and every word. Each and every action. For each and every adult in the room. Then, we could present the data in a meeting and hope that it opens up a conversation for Jenn’s staff in regards to goals they would like to set.. Anytime I use observation data to share teacher performance, I call it “the third point.” Instead of having a conversation around so-and-so doing this-or-that, we give all of our attention to the data, “the third point.” I ensure that the observation data is entirely objective. We always turn the conversation back to the data, because data doesn’t have feelings. And if data doesn’t have feelings, we can’t offend data. And data can’t just disappear or walk away when the going gets tough. Whenever the conversation heads towards the blaming realm, I refocus the team back to the data. In this case, it was important that when I jotted down a note regarding the words or actions of the teachers, I did not include the names. The data was presented as a collective case and didn’t point out the words/actions of individual teachers. This was a vital decision, as Jenn didn’t intend to create more stress in her classroom, but instead wanted a common goal to works towards.
Jenn agreed to the observation and the goal-setting meeting with her staff, but it wasn’t without hesitation. “Is it even worth it? Fran is only going to be here for a few more days and then she’s gone. She’s probably not even going to come back. She’s leaving anyways,” she confided. Jenn was right. But, instead of agreeing with Jenn, I chose to challenge her.
The reality for Jenn, as a new teacher, is that while Fran may be the first staff member that she finds to be disengaged and “not really present,” or interacting with children in a negative way, Fran won’t be the last. I challenged Jenn to change her mindset. Instead of working on “fixing” Fran, we should switch our focus to “building” Jenn. If we could work together to build Jenn’s leadership abilities, the next time she has a “Fran” as her assistant, the better equipped she would be. Let’s be real. She is GOING to have Fran again, but Fran is just going to have another name. Maybe Leslie, or Frank, or Sammy. If we could switch our focus from “She’s only going to be here for a little while longer…is it even worth it?” to “How can we work together to be much better than yesterday?” we were bound to be successful. Thankfully Jenn was up for the challenge and we have already begun implementing goals to ensure she can be the most effective teacher leader around!
It’s a work in progress.
As for Fran, she recently gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. And, as we guessed it, she isn’t coming back. Jenn was right, she left anyways.
