The Bilingual Nook

Thoughtful Thursday

In a past life I was a literacy coach, so I still follow a few coaching blogs.  This post caught my eye. The article is good, but the real value for me was in the video clips.  This one, from Michael Goldstein's blog, Starting an Ed School: showcasing a teacher (who, by the way, is acting) in a reflective coaching conversation. 






I highly recommend checking out the original blog post this video came from because there are three more amazing clips of the same teacher/actress showing us other versions of getting in our own way when we are trying to improve instruction.

The video below is from David Ginsberg's post on coachability  and helps illustrate what it means to be "coachable."





As I watched, I found my thoughts moving away from seeing through eyes of a coach to looking in the mirror.  Watching these video clips was a great opportunity for me to be self-reflective. I think being coachable is, of course, important when you are working with a coach.  But it is even more important when you are your own coach.  It's so important to own what you can if you want to bring about change.  And it's so easy for me to slip away from a circle of influence focus.

 I think the more stressed and overloaded I feel, the more likely I am to lean toward a fixed mindset/ external locus of control, focusing on issues that concern me but that I have no influence over.  Don't believe me? Check out my recent blog posts.  Thanksgiving. Report cards. Conferences.  I wonder if my "Excuse" mode surfaces from stress or from feeling insecure about not meeting expectations.

Something for me to be thoughtful about for a while longer...

What about you?  How coachable are you?  What do you do to get yourself to a more "coachable" place when you start to slip away?