Attitude Reflects Leadership, Captain

According to Marzano & Simms (2013), "The term coach generally means helping someone move from where he or she is to where he or she needs or wants to be" (p. 4). When I first hear the word coach, I immediately think of sports, mainly football. The coach is the leader of the team; the person who holds the team together. The coach makes the important decisions for the team; and the coach is the person who is reprimanded whenever the team does not produce the expected outcomes at games. In order for any athletic program to be successful, a good coach must be present. Simultaneously, though, "The key variables that will determine long-term progress are the people being coached" (Marzano et. al, 2013, p. 9). You can have the greatest coach in the world, but without a team of players who are willing to put in the time and work, you have nothing. The same goes for teaching: the product of a good teacher is possible only when that teachers WANTS to be a good teacher. This does not necessarily happen automatically; sometimes a coach is needed to enhance the skills of the teacher. Technically a teacher's university could be considered his or her first educational coach. We can consider the university to be the college football coach. It is the university's responsibility to provide the necessary resources for that future teacher to be successful. At times, though, teachers need additional coaching once they have secured a teaching job. They can be provided with an educational coach or mentor (we can think of this person as the professional football coach) to further enhance their skills. Just as it is important for a football coach to maintain the players' trust, and provide the players with constructive feedback, similarly, the aspects of effective educational coaching include trust, feedback, and choice. Personally, I believe trust is the most important aspect of effective educational coaching.

"Attitude reflects leadership, captain." -Remember the Titans

"Trust is an important aspect of effective coaching relationships...One factor affecting the levels of relational trust in a school is the quality of teacher-teacher and teacher-principal relationships" (Marzano et.al, 2013, p. 10). According to Peshawaria (2013), "A team with high trust will similarly produce results faster and at lower cost. It is clear that trust is one of the keys to organizational or group performance" (pp. 10). If you want your players, or teachers, to perform well, you must instill within them a sense of trust. In order to have a quality relationship between a coach and teachers (or between a football coach and his players), there must be a presence of mutual trust and respect. People will not respect someone they cannot trust. In order to earn the trust of teachers, Tschannen-Moran (2010) offered several suggestions: "Demonstrate goodwill and genuine concern for the well-being of teachers" (as cited in Morzano et. al, 2013, p. 10). Just as with students, it is easier for teachers to trust an educational coach once they know that coach's goal is to help make them successful instead of bring them down. If educational coaches prove they have the same goal as the teachers, which should be to create a successful, safe environment in which all students are provided with the tools necessary to learn, then teachers will be more willing to trust the knowledge the coaches have to share.

"A student will not care what you know until they first know that you care."

References

Marzano, R. J., & Simms, J. A. (2013).  Coaching classroom instruction. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research.

Peshawaria, R. (2013). Trust: The currency of leadership. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/rajeevpeshawaria/2013/09/22/trust-the-currency-of-leadership/#1eee4f4324f5