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The Coach in the Classroom
Written by Co-Active Coach Martin Richards
The purpose of this book is to explore the question:
What happens when you use a coaching
approach in an educational environment?
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Contents
Contents.......................................................................................................2
Acknowledgements....................................................................................3
What is a Coaching Approach?................................................................4
Developing your coaching approach skills.............................................4
How to use this Book.................................................................................5
Coincidences................................................................................................9
Chapter 1: Inspiring Teenagers...............................................................27
Chapter 2: Attitude Makes a Difference................................................57
Chapter 3: Two Teachers’ Strategies......................................................75
Chapter 4: Classroom Fight.....................................................................93
Chapter 5: Give Up and Continue........................................................107
Chapter 6: Reading Aloud from the Book...........................................123
Chapter 7: More Talk, Less Control.....................................................139
Chapter 8: Wake Up Call.......................................................................169
Chapter 9: The Juvenile Criminal.........................................................187
Chapter 10: The Ambassador................................................................207
The Midwinter Vigil...............................................................................227
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2017, (c) Martin Richards, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Web www.martinrichards.eu
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Acknowledgements
This book is the result of many collaborations, collaboration with the
many fictional characters portrayed in this book and collaboration
with real, living people, of whom the following deserve heartfelt
and special mentions:
Hetty Brand Boswijk, CPCC, for partnering with me in
our quest to write a book together. It is an ongoing
journey of learnings and revelations.
Michele Helman, CPCC, for accelerating and easing
the final stages of writing, reading and supportively
commenting on the need for this book to be published.
Elizabeth Nostedt, ACC, DTM, PMP for proofing and
commenting on an early version of the manuscript.
Vicky Jo Varner, PCC, CPCC, for repeatedly and
meticulously proofing and commenting on the later
manuscripts.
Jenny Geuken, for the original cover artwork.
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What is a Coaching Approach?
Certified coaches use a coaching approach, on the inside. A coaching
approach names what is happening inside their bodies and inside
their minds, while they are coaching. It could be called the hidden
skill of coaching, because it’s hidden. It is not always visible in what
they do, nor audible in what they say. It is, however, apparent in
what they do not do, and what they do not say. Certified coaches do
not, for example, judge the person they are coaching. That takes
practice. Nor do they offer their opinions or experience. That takes
even more practice. Not judging and not giving advice are two of
the most powerful hidden coaching skills. There are coaching skills
that are visible and audible, they include: asking great questions,
and listening actively.
Teaching using a 'Coaching Approach' is carrying out the work of a
teacher and 'making use of the skills of a coach'. The combination is
awesome.
Teachers who use a coaching approach, interact with students in an
authentic, self-developing, reflective manner. A description of the
coach's mind-set appears gradually in all the stories in this book, an
especially in Anthony's notes at the start of each campfire story.
Developing your coaching approach skills
Whatever your professional background, the best places to start
developing your coaching approach are the the hidden skills of:
Active listening
Non-judgement
Holding back personal opinions and advice
Being comfortable with not knowing what is right or wrong
Not knowing what will happen next.
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Riccardo
Midwinter’s
Tales
of
The Coach in the Classroom
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Chapter 5: Give Up and Continue
Riccardo arrived early at the room where he had agreed to meet the
teacher, Alan, who he would be coaching this term. Seating himself
at a desk, Riccardo looked through the agreement he would be
asking Alan to sign, about confidentiality, and who was responsible
for choosing the coaching topic; and of course the logistics about
room booking, phone numbers and emails. Riccardo looked out of
the ground floor window at the late spring winds bending the birch
trees outdoors, and waited.
Alan came into the room without knocking. He was in his late fifties,
his balding head was bowed, his back was stooped. He looked like a
lost and wandering spirit. His narrow black eyes were two spheres
of night-black marble. The straggling remains of his unkempt black
hair was shoulder-length. He wore a pale grey jumper and old blue
jeans. He carried a worn briefcase under one arm and he dragged
the soles of his shoes across the floor as he walked across to
Riccardo.
Alan presented himself in a flat voice, "Hello"
"Hi, I'm Riccardo, your coach," replied Riccardo slightly too
gleefully, getting up to shake Alan's hand.
"Yes, so what do we do?"
"First, we get to know each other, find out what's going on and
maybe plan to observe some of your lessons if that's what you
would like.
"Ok."
"I have a question I would like to ask first. What brings you to
coaching?"
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"Well, as you know, this school has a lot of students from, you
know, the local area, and they are so unmotivated to learn, and they
fail, most of them, it's like eighty percent that don't get grades that
will take them into higher education and they have to do that to get
a job, the job market is demanding and they have no chance of
getting a job without good grades and a good education. Well most
of them don't get jobs anyway, nor do their parents, but it's like they
don't have any ambitions at all, any of them. It's been like that for
years, but it never used to be like that when I started teaching. Then
you could see that most of the students actually wanted to succeed,
although some of them did struggle, we did our best for them, but
now we have really poor students, I mean they are not poor in
money because they get social welfare, they are poor in other ways,
and they have no ambition maybe, perhaps it's because they have no
role models, well then it's not surprising that most of my leavers this
year are going to fail, they have nothing to look forward to, nobody
to look up to and I'm getting stick about it from the Head and even
my colleagues, and it's not like they are doing any better, they teach
the same students in other subjects and they are just as lazy with
them as they are with me, the students I mean, not the teachers. So
it's not really my fault, but I have to do something about it."
"Perhaps I should mention that what we say here, stays here, I won't
speak about this with anyone. I have an agreement about
confidentiality for us to look at and …"
"I don't care who you tell. It's no secret. The whole school is under
pressure to get these students through their education with good
grades. Everyone knows what kind of students we have, and where
they come from. You have been at this school for a while, right and
you have seen the students we have here, almost none of them are
from here, this country I mean.
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That's part of the whole problem, they don't come from here and
they don't know how to be students at a school like this one, in this
country. They only know how to mess around like teenagers, and
how to sign on for social welfare when they leave school, that's
when they aren't driving around on their mopeds or praying in their
church or whatever it's called. And their parents aren't much better,
we get pressure from them too to make their kids work hard in
school and they have no self-discipline at home, not like we have it,
you know what I mean, some of the parents can get heavy-handed
with their kids, knock them around a bit, maybe that's what they
need, a firm hand, but we don't do that here, you can't hit them, you
can't even touch them, and that's where the lack of respect comes
from, they don't respect the teachers, the kids I mean; and the
parents, they don't respect us too. It's a mess, and I don't know what
to do so that's why I asked for coaching, maybe you have some ideas
about what I can do. I mean what can I do with them? It’s too late to
make any difference anyway!"
"What I am hearing, in between the lines, is that you want to
motivate them to behave, learn, succeed."
"Yes."
"And you said that results important for you and your job; and for
them and their jobs, as well as for the general benefit of the local
community."
"Sure, but what do you suggest?"
"We are close to the end of term, and we have time for an
observation or two."
"So you can see what's happening? But I just told you."
"You told me about the students. And the purpose of an observation
is to see what you do, how you interact with the students, how you
motivate them to behave, learn and succeed."
"And then you will tell me better ways to do it!"
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"Not tell. The aim is for you to find those other ways by reflecting on
what you do, what else you could do, and what specifically you
want to try doing."
"It's a bit late for this class, they are right at the end of their final year
at school, their grades will be finalized at the end of the month. You
know their grades are based on all their previous performances in
class and on all the tests, the last test is in two weeks’ time, so there's
not much of a chance of changing anything for them."
"Then we need to move quickly to set up an observation."
"Do you really expect it will make any difference to their grades?"
"I expect it will make a difference to how you teach."
Alan paused, for the first time in thirty minutes, he paused in silent
thought. Riccardo kept quiet and waited. The trees outside the
window stood to attention.
Alan continued, "It might. At least I can learn something for next
year's students. They aren't much better than these. It's either that or
I start looking for a teaching job somewhere else, or a different job. I
could drive a bus, no problem, a bit early start but I could get used
to that, it would be better than coming here every day and banging
my head against a brick wall, but if you could show me how I could
teach better, so I can reach these little buggers then I wouldn't have
to get up in the morning and drive a bus all day. Actually, I'd prefer
that, I like being a teacher, it's just that I don't get these kids at all,
not at all. Are we done now?"
"Not quite. I need some direction from you about what to observe,
and we need to plan the dates."
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"Well for a start you can see how motivated they are, or aren't. There
are a couple of students who do get on with their work, but for the
main part they just sleep through the lesson or waste their time in
endless arguments with each other, but not with me, I am tough on
talking back, I don't accept it from anyone. You will see, I am sure
you have seen it before if you have been to any of the lessons in this
school. It's nothing unique for me. It's the students!"
For the observation, Riccardo recalled that Alan's question was,
"What can I do with them?; it’s too late to make any difference!" He
had asked Riccardo to observe the motivation level of the students,
and how it shifts during lesson time.
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Riccardo drew a chart showing 4 levels:
Disengaged
Mildly engaged
Mostly engaged
Highly engaged
When the lesson commenced, Alan sat at the front of the room and
called out the attendance list, noting with disappointment in his
voice that certain students were not attending this lesson. He
lamented their chances of passing the course. "This is the last week
before the final test, do you think there's any point in missing
lessons at this stage? I can't help you if you don't come to the lesson.
I have done my best all term and you skip lessons and still expect to
get good grades," he berated the students who had come to his
lesson today.
There was a dismal sense of submission in the room. Riccardo could
feel it in the whole of his body as a lowering of energy, hope and
expectation.
"What can we do here?" asks the voice in Riccardo’s head. "Simply
observe," replies Riccardo. "Observe, then coach."
Alan rose from his seat, walked around the room and handed out a
three-page worksheet to each student. The students groaned and
said they couldn’t answer these kinds of questions.
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Alan launched into his introduction for the lesson, "As usual, I
expect you to complete the worksheet – to the best of your ability –
and hand it in at the end of the lesson, which is in ninety minutes.
You should be able to do these kinds of questions, it's basic stuff you
should know it by now, we have been through it time and time
again and you should have got it by now. It's going to be on the test
for sure. No, they aren't the test questions, that would be stupid
wouldn't it? These are almost the same, I have written them
especially for you to practice today so that you can pass the test. If
you need any help you may come to the front desk where I will do
my very, very best to help you. You may not leave your seat for any
other reason. Yes you may go to the toilet if you think it will help,
but I will mark you absent if you are gone for longer than five
minutes and don't come back smelling of cigarette smoke, I'm not
stupid."
A muffled groan ran through the room, and through Riccardo's
heart too.
"What’s the feeling in the room?" asked the voice in Riccardo’s head,
"How would you describe what you are feeling?" "A victim," replied
Riccardo." I feel like a victim. I feel like giving up." The voice then asked,
"Whose feeling is it? Who does it belong to?"
Most of the students remained in their seats and rested their heads
on their desks. A couple of students started picking a fight with each
other using some well-chosen provocative words. Alan stopped this
with some well-chosen words of his own! One student left the room
to go to the bathroom. He didn’t come back.
Riccardo remained in his place at the back of the room and wrote
notes, mainly about how it felt to be in this classroom, but also
exactly what Alan was saying and doing at every step of the lesson.
After an hour had passed, some of the students got up and left the
room; they didn’t come back either. Alan did not acknowledge or
respond to their absence except to write a note of their names.
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The few students who were in the room seemed to be looking at the
worksheet that Alan had handed out. There was not much writing
going on. A couple of times one student or another went up to Alan
and seemed to be getting help.
When the end of the lesson arrived, the remaining students departed
the room, most of them leaving their worksheets lying behind on
their desks. Alan went around the room, sighing as he picked up the
worksheets and wrote the students’ names at the top of the front
page as necessary. He filed the sheets away for later marking.
"There's not much to mark even after a whole lesson," Alan
lamented. "And these scores will be included in their final grades!
They have no chance!"
Alan suggested, "Can we do the coaching straight away?" Riccardo,
sick in his stomach and still reeling from the lesson, agreed. They
walked to the same room as before. Alan launched into, "You saw
how they were didn't you and this was a quiet day I think you being
there calmed them down a bit they must have thought you were
there to look at them not me and that was good I mean at least there
weren't any fights there can be especially if one of the boys has gone
off with one of the other boy's girlfriend they change girlfriends
more often than they change their clothes."
"Can we focus on the lesson, and see what happened and what you
could choose to do differently?"
"You saw what they did. Half of them just went to sleep and the
other half; well, they didn't do much. I looked at their papers at the
end of the lesson and none of them will get more than ten percent
right, ten percent after a whole term and we have been doing these
questions for three weeks now, they just don't get it and it's not
hard, look, they are simple calculations!"
Alan showed Riccardo the worksheet. The calculations were indeed
simple.
"Can we focus on what you did during the lesson, and see what you
could choose to do differently?"
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"It would have been better for them to stay at home, not bother
coming to school at all! Some of them obviously have given up."
"Given up! Now that's a wide-open door," yelled Riccardo's inner
voice.
Riccardo asked Alan, "When did the students give up?"
"Some of them gave up at the start of the year when they moved to
this school. They've slept through three years of education it's no
wonder they haven't learned anything … "
Riccardo jumped in and inquired, "How close are you to giving up?"
Startled by the question, Alan stopped and thought for a good
while. Minutes ticked by. Riccardo kept silent.
Alan returned with a strong voice that has not been heard before
today, "I am not going to give up. I must do things differently next
time, that's clear. We can see the same kind of students coming up
next year and I can't bear to have this situation again with the
students being so de-motivated. We have to do something. I have to
do something."
"Whoah. That was a SHIFT!" Riccardo could feel it down to his bones.
"Perhaps we could make a list of some of the things you could do
differently?" he suggested.
Together they spent the last few minutes of the coaching session
brainstorming things Alan could do differently when he had the
chance.
Alan said he would turn those ideas into plans of what he hopes to
do differently with the next group, next term.
"When will you tell him about his negativity?" asked Riccardo's inner
voice. "Not right now, it's the end of the coaching session. I want to end on
a good note," defended Riccardo.
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Alan seemed to have regained some energy at the end of this
session, he thanked Riccardo and stood up to leave the room.
Riccardo followed Alan out of the room but continued to swim in
the feelings of despair and victimhood that had been apparent
during the coaching. He felt disempowered, useless, at the point of
giving up.
"What is it you are feeling? Whose feelings are they?" asked the inner
voice again.
Riccardo was feeling lost. Tired and lost. He decided that he needed
a cup of strong coffee, a brisk walk, and a break from coaching for a
while until he could find himself again.
"When will you tell him about his negativity?" asked Riccardo's inner
voice.
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