Three Simple Secrets of School-Based Coaching

By Juli Kendall

As part of a new partnership, teachermagazine.org is publishing this regular column by members of the Teacher Leaders Network , a professional community of accomplished educators dedicated to sharing ideas and expanding the influence of teachers.

Written on a sticky note stuck to the edge of my laptop are three phrases: listen first, teach by example, be patient. These are the three things I've learned as a school-based literacy coach. My notes on these simple but essential guidelines are a scaffold for the coaching I do, a reminder to be focused on the needs of the teachers and their students, a collection of what I've learned over 15 years.

I wonder how coaches who are flung into the adult-learning role without much preparation deal with the reactions of teachers with whom they work. Many of us who coach have enduring memories of our first interactions with classroom teachers; indeed, our early struggles are about as easy to forget as a bad case of the stomach flu. Why, then, do so many education decisionmakers easily accept the idea that there exists a superhuman race whose members can walk into a classroom the very first day and "take on" the role of a coach without any guidance...