Skyrocket Your Teacher Coaching. Michael Cary Sonbert

their instructional (and overall leadership) misses by implementing something new in their schools. They think this new thing will be the change the school has been looking for. The change it desperately needs. It could be a new math curriculum or a new approach to school culture. It could be a shift to blended learning or new SMART Boards. And on and on. All these new things do is lead to disinvestment and reform fatigue from teachers who likely don’t believe the school leader will be able to support the execution of whatever the new thing is anyway. Think back to my example of the boss at the Italian restaurant. It wouldn’t have mattered if he upgraded every ingredient in the building so that we used only the finest ingredients found anywhere. And it wouldn’t have mattered if he overhauled the entire menu from top to bottom. Building renovations, new job titles, and even changing the name of the restaurant wouldn’t have mattered. He was the issue. No new thing was going to fix that.

      And while many leaders will point to the same culprit—lack of time —as the reason for their instructional misses and ineffectiveness, this is almost never the case. Yes, time is in short supply in this work (I’ll talk more about time later on). But it’s the hiding and high-fiving that are stopping them from being extraordinary leaders for teachers and students.

      But we can fix that.

      The solution is for a school leader to be an expert. An expert who provides accurate feedback, delivered succinctly, with clear criteria for improvement, followed by concrete goals and next steps. An expert in the way Tom Brady is an expert at throwing a football or Simone Biles is an expert at the balance beam.

      Let’s journey back into the past again to my other job at an Italian restaurant. This boss was a hothead. He screamed. A lot. He threw garlic knots at us when we messed up. He cursed at us. But here’s the thing: I liked working for him. When a customer had an issue, he was front and center to handle it (sometimes throwing garlic knots at them if he thought their concern was petty). When the head chef called in sick, he stepped up and spent the night cooking and sweating with us in the kitchen. When it snowed and one of the delivery drivers got stuck in a snowbank, he was out there with us, in knee-deep snow, pushing the car out. He was there first and left last. He was an expert at every part of the business. He knew how to do everything, was willing to do anything, and he watched every staff member and critiqued us continually. He’d even give me feedback on the size of the balls of dough that would eventually become pizzas, which I was sometimes charged with rolling. If there was one that was too small, even slightly, he always caught it. And while I didn’t enjoy being yelled at by him (and I don’t suggest doing this with your teachers, ever), it was always after I’d done something that didn’t meet the bar he’d set for us. It was always in an attempt to make me better.

      While it’s likely not possible for any school leader to be an expert at everything from phonics to chemistry and from abstract art to The Scarlet Letter (and I’d argue they shouldn’t be), it is possible for you to become an expert at building classroom culture, lesson design and delivery, and deeply engaging students, regardless of content. But to do this, you need a simplified approach that allows you to simultaneously build your knowledge, capacity, and confidence. And I dive into this approach in the next chapter.

      But there’s something else you need as well. And for some of you, this will be a major mindset shift. But without adopting this mindset, you simply won’t be able to access this book to the same degree as someone who has this mindset. Without adopting this mindset, you won’t be nearly as effective an instructional leader as you possibly can be.

      Ready? Here it is: You need to be okay with naming that the students in your school are your students.

      This seems obvious, but too often school leaders tell teachers things like, “You know your kids better than anyone,” and “You know what’s best for your students.” Whether this is true or not is not the point. The point is, all the students in your school are your students first. And last. Yes, their teachers spend the most time with them. But you’re the one who’s ultimately responsible for their success (or failure). You’re the one sitting in data meetings with your bosses and stakeholders while teachers are off on summer vacation. You’re the one looking at a sea of red, being grilled by your superintendent, or members of the archdiocese, or your board, about how you’re going to turn it all to green. You’re the one whose picture makes it to the newspaper when test scores drop. You’re the one parents, neighbors, and reporters want to speak to when they have an issue. The buck stops with you. Even if you’re an instructional coach and not the principal or AP, I’ll bet you’re still held more accountable for student results than teachers are.