1. Step 2: “Connecting as Coach”
Coaching
Step 2: “Connecting as Coach”

2. Reflections on Lesson 1 “Be Present / Practice Intentionality”
As you paused for a moment to observe yourself in interactions with others, what did you learn?
What’s a strength you identified that you bring to interactions with others?
What’s a skill you’d like to strengthen – and why is it important to your work?

3. Search for “Moments of Effectiveness”
Reflections on Lesson 1
Search for “Moments of Effectiveness”
Think about the skill you have identified that you’d like to strengthen – your “coaching skill goal.”
Reflect on your recent interactions. Can you identify “moments of effectiveness” in your goal area (the skill you’d like to strengthen)?
As we go through the lessons together, notice ideas you’re thinking or things you’re learning that relate to the skill you want to strengthen and jot them down.

4. LEARNING PARTNER coach
“Reality Check”
For Coaches Who Are Also Supervisors:
View Video #5: Tara on the Challenges of Being Supervisor and Coach
Often coaches grapple with how to be present for a colleague when part of their role might be to evaluate him/her.
You probably wear many “hats.” It takes intentionality to connect and foster a partnership despite the fact that you might also be responsible for conducting formal program assessments.
LEARNING PARTNER coach
ASSESSOR supervisor
Tip: Mentally picture yourself with two hats: one with a sign on it that says “learning partner and coach” the other with a sign saying “assessor/supervisor.”
Articulate which hat you are wearing to the colleague you are interacting with.
Explain that it is part of your role to assess at times but those times will be clearly identified. The rest of the time, you are developing new knowledge and skills and problem solving together.

5. Review: 3 Steps to Coaching with Powerful Interactions:
Step 1: Be Present to Coach lesson one
Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Following each step in order allows the coach to intentionally connect with others and extend learning to reach a desired outcome.

6. Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Most people in our field would probably say that they’re good at “connecting with others and building relationships.”
Would you agree?
A Powerful Interactions Coach goes beyond connecting and building relationships to “using” relationships intentionally to extend a colleague’s learning.

7. Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
When we use a Powerful Interaction Approach, we convey to the person we’re coaching, “I notice you, I’m interested in you, and I want to get to know you even better.”
This moment of personal connection deeps the trusting relationship growing between you.

8. Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Sometimes we talk about work relationships as if they’re a task that can be completed and checked off a “to do” list, freeing us up to turn our attention to the “real job” of mentoring or coaching.
For an effective coach, connecting to build relationships is an ongoing, necessary part of promoting and supporting colleague’s (and our own) learning.

9. Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
After thinking about relationships in this way, Morgan, a coach from New Jersey, shared this insight:
I set aside time for paperwork, meetings, and more meetings. But after the beginning of the school year, I never think about taking time to focus on relationship building, which is what helps me be effective. I’m going to start writing “relationships” at the top of my calendar every month to remind me to focus on this work all year long.

10. Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Connected / Trusting Relationships Lead to More Effective Coaching
As you and the colleague you are coaching jointly build a trusting relationship, he/she is likely to feel safe, supported, and nurtured.
Feeling this way enables him/her to be open to taking risks, sharing practices, and trying new approaches.
(Tschannen-Moran & Tschannen-Moran 2011b)

11. “Reality Check”
Research reveals that classroom interactions in which a coach or mentor intentionally promotes learning with the teacher or other classroom professionals are “few and far between.”
(Early, et al., Pianta, 2010)
Why do you think this might be?

12. “Reality Check” Jillian, a peer mentor reflects:
“It has been a long time since I’ve been in the classroom. How am I supposed to help a teacher with transitions if I’m not sure how to do it? It often looks like total confusion to me as she helps the group get out the door.”
Applying to our work . . .
Let’s brainstorm a scenario like Jillian’s more common to our work. What might that be?
Continuing to learn . . .
How do we support a professional in a situation and/or a skill or an area in which we are unfamiliar?

13. “Reality Check” Continuing to learn . . . together
The Powerful Interactions approach believes that recognizing and articulating what you don’t know to allow you to extend your own learning.
The coaching strategies outlined in these lessons are a good place to begin.
Applying to our work . . .
Going back to our work example. What might this conversation “look like?”

14. Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
A Powerful Interaction is a teachable moment – a chance for skillful and intentional teaching and for you to stay open to learning too.
Because you are focused on the other person, you can decide what to say and do to stretch that person’s thinking and knowledge just a bit.

15. Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Why the “fix” doesn’t “stick.”
It’s easy to tell a coworker what to do or offer advice or a solution to “fix” a problem. You might feel effective for a minute or two, but chances are your “fix” didn’t stick.
With Powerful Interactions coaching, coaches and teachers collaborate as learners to create meaningful change. When coaches extend learning, they make sensitive and responsive decisions about what to say and do in the moment to help a coworker move her learning and professional practice forward.
To do so effectively, a coach must be open to learning with and from a colleague, even as the coach offers a rich array of information, experiences, strategies, and insights.

16. Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Pointing out “Moments of Effectiveness”
Coaching to extend learning includes helping another professional put goals into words, then breaking goals into clear and achievable steps.
It means pointing out his/her “moments of effectiveness” as the teacher moves toward his/her goals and describing WHY his/her actions and words are effective and matter to children.

17. Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Pointing out “Moments of Effectiveness”
A “powerful” coach invites the coachee to think about his/her intentional decision making.
In this way, the coachee can acknowledge “what worked” and repeat and even build on his/her strengths.
He/She can become a more intentional decision-maker, able to apply and adapt what he/she has learned day by day -- during, between, and after working with you.

18. Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Extending Learning and Continuing to Learn
Lead to More Effective Coaching
See video #3: “Shante & Irene Have a Coaching Conversation”
What examples of PI Coaching did you see Irene use?
When we engage in a learning partnership like Irene did with Shante in video #3, both coach and coachee are freed from feeling like they have to figure things out alone.
Learning together allows both the teacher and the coach to say, “I’m not sure” and opens the door to looking for and discovering answers and possibilities – together.

19. Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
FOCUS: Shared Goals
As a coach in a learning partnership, you can keep the focus of your interactions on shared goals. Many coaches have described times they enter into a conversation with a colleague and slip into “therapist mode” as they listen to a colleague’s personal problems or problems at work. While these conversations sometimes strengthen the coach-coachee relationship, coaches report that they actually feel frustrated at not accomplishing concrete goals.
Being a learning partner makes it easier to listen for a few minutes, acknowledge what is going on, and then say, “This is our time to continue our work around __________.”

20. “Reality Check”
There are differences in interactions between children and adults and those between adults and adults.
Monica Vacca shares this insight:
Due to their life experiences, adults have more insecurities and worries and reasons to be defensive when approaching a coaching relationship than children do.
What adults bring in terms of their background, culture, values, work ethics and habits, and professional and adult learning experiences as well as life experiences can color their interactions. These factors influence the interaction’s power for either the positive or the negative.

21. “Reality Check”
There are differences in interactions between children and adults and those between adults and adults.
Monica Vacca shares this insight:
Adults are more likely to be quick to develop first impressions, and to be not so quick to get beyond them (as a result of life experiences).
Adults are more likely to bring more static to interactions than children do simply because of all that is on their plates.
An adult’s approach to interactions is more affected by or colored by their years of experience with their profession and with other people in all areas of life and by their own static.

22. “Reality Check”
There are differences in interactions between children and adults and those between adults and adults.
Monica Vacca shares this insight:
Adults are more articulate about their thoughts and the messages they want to convey. They are also cognitively capable of deeper reflection.

23. 3 Steps to Coaching with Powerful Interactions:
Step 1: Be Present to Coach
Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
The steps aren’t followed “one after the other” and checked off as “done” when each occurs. The three steps are sequential and have a cumulative effect.
Even as the three steps build upon one another during a single interaction, they are creating a history of Powerful Interactions that will help make future interactions even more powerful.

24. 3 Steps to Coaching with Powerful Interactions:
The Three Steps: A Sequential, Cumulative Effect
Pause to Be Present. Clear Static.
Step 1: Be Present to Coach
Step 2: Connecting as a Coach
Step 3: Coaching to Extend Learning
Choose what to say/do to connect. Stay present and connected.
Identify Moments of Effectiveness. Find way to extend mutual learning

25. Review: Powerful Interactions
A Powerful Interactions coach:
Observes for and highlights competence (moments of effectiveness)
Uses observations and articulation to promote intentionality
Values individualizing to develop trusting relationships
Promotes a mutual learning partnership
Supports teachers by modeling what to say and do and how

26. Discussion/Reflection:
What stood out as particularly meaningful to you?
How, if at all, has this discussion offered you guidance towards your goal (identified in slide 2 as a skill you’d like to strengthen)?

27. Putting It into Practice:
Coaches’ Homework for Lesson 2:
What is your coaching skill goal? [skill you’d like to strengthen]
Pause for moments throughout the day to reflect on your coaching skill goal – the skill you’d like to strengthen. Describe a “moment of effectiveness” you’ve observed in the area you’d like to strengthen.
Describe one interaction where you practiced “extending the learning” by: (a) identifying someone else’s moment of effectiveness (b) describing why the action was effective
4. Describe how the person was affected (or responded):
Coaches will post their answers in the blog space on the team’s site:

28. For Additional Support:
Visit The Powerful Interactions Web site and create a user account (at no cost)
On the Powerful Interactions Web site:
View the Step 2: Connect video and Step 3: Extend video:
View the blog post Assessing and Reporting with Powerful Interactions 2/12/16
For Coaches Who Are Also Supervisors:
View Video #5: Tara on the Challenges of Being Supervisor and Coach