By Mary Kate Springmann and Mirella Marlar
Building relationships and fostering connections with others is at the heart of coaching, this shared understanding brought us together last summer at Baylor University. When we started the program we initially bonded over our love of coffee and naps; however, we quickly realized we shared much more than that. Our passion for being lifelong learners and our role as instructional coaches connected us. Over the course of our 10-day summer intensive program, we delved deeper into each other’s lives, discovering that at our core, we held the same values that drive our work as instructional coaches: sincerity, empathy, relationships, collaboration, and authenticity. These values formed the bedrock of our friendship. Despite working in different settings – public and private – we find immense joy from supporting our teachers not only in honing their craft, but in nurturing their hearts and minds, empowering them to become the best versions of themselves while fostering a love of learning in their students.
Throughout the course of our master’s program our dedication to being Christian leaders in schools has deepened, and what a blessing that has been. This program has helped us recognize the profound impact Christian leaders can have on our schools when approached with compassion and empathy. We took time to reflect on our current practices and embraced new strategies to foster leadership and enrich our interactions with teachers and students. Dr. Jon Eckert’s book, “Just Teaching,” resonated strongly with us in Cohort 3 of the Master of Arts in School Leadership (MASL) program, emphasizing the significance of feedback, engagement, and well-being (FEW) in our lives. These seemingly simple words hold immense power when implemented thoughtfully and personally with those we encounter. Eckert shares the importance of prioritizing well-being to facilitate effective feedback and increased engagement. Indeed, focusing on these FEW elements can significantly influence the outcomes of our efforts in supporting both students and teachers in their educational journey.
Feedback stems from authentic engagement, as engagement naturally leads to deliberate practice. Deliberate practice, in turn, relies on feedback from others to foster improvement. (Eckert, 2020) This should be the primary aim for all educators, as it is essential for nurturing lifelong learners. We collaborate with students to guide them towards becoming who they are created to be. This involves offering support and presenting challenging learning opportunities, which we assess with objective insight and provide feedback on areas for enhancement. We partner with each student to help them grow by providing scaffolding and challenging learning experiences, which we evaluate and offer feedback on areas for growth.
Similarly, educators also benefit from feedback for their own development. As two instructional coaches working in distinctly different school environments, we recognized the significance of feedback. We had the opportunity to facilitate an EdCamp session at Culture of Joy, a professional learning event hosted by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Delving into Eckert’s teachings on feedback, well-being, and engagement, we set out to create a tool that could facilitate our coach-to-teacher conversations and seamlessly transition into teacher-to-student conferences in the classroom. Drawing inspiration from a reading/writing conferring tool, we tailored this framework to support meaningful interactions between stakeholders. This tool was met with enthusiasm at Culture of Joy and has only further proven to be concrete, impactful, and user-friendly. Why? Because, what we really yearn for as human beings is to be visible to each other. This tool assists us with listening, asking clarifying questions, affirming efforts, providing value potential statements, and engaging in possibility thinking. It emphasizes strengths, guides towards further improvement, and sets measurable and achievable goals for the future. Try it yourself and see how it opens up the possibilities for students and teachers to accept feedback in a way that is positive and life-giving.
Link to Feedback Tool
Mary Kate Springmann serves as the Lower School Instructional Coach for grades 3-4 at River Oaks Baptist School in Houston, TX. She is working on her second graduate degree at Baylor University in the Master of Arts in School Leadership (MASL) program. Mirella Marlar is an instructional coach in Frisco ISD, and is also in the Baylor MASL program. Both Springmann and Marlar serve as MASL Fellows.