Meeting One: 13th September 2011

Here is what the first coaching-couching group thought were reasons why this forum would be important for themselves, their students, their departments and the school.


















We also established a set of ground-rules for the forum - our coach-couch-code-of-conduct:










Listening
Carefully, objective, intelligent listening is important in coaching.  Each coach/couch session will involve listening non-judgementally - and without offering comments or "helpful" approvals or prompts - to a teacher describe an issue pertinent to his or her practice. 

So, having established our coach-couch-code-of-conduct, each participant raised one or two issues with which he or she is currently grappling.  As a group we chose to focus this week on "fire-fighting versus time-management".  We listened to one teacher describe her difficulties with balancing larger projects with smaller deadlines, marking with planning, administration with blue-sky thinking - and feeling that doing it all, all the time, felt more like fire-fighting than thoughtful, well-organised time-management.  Was this strange - or normal? Realisically, what can be done to ease this struggle without compromising teaching and learning?

Does this sound like a familiar issue?

Solutions

These tips are the scribable fruits of our discussion.  What is less easy to pen is the sense of possibility and realistic creativity which comes as a result of dialogue. 

We look forward to hearing back from our first couch-coachee as to how these ideas have benefitted her teaching and learning ....