Readiness for Field Supervising

1. Readiness for Field Supervising TAMU-CC College of Education

2. Norms • Contribute to your learning and the learning of others through participating fully. • Create and hold a respectful • space for people to speak and to • be heard. • Keep Confidences. • Take a risk. • Be on time.

3. Outcomes Help you understand what mentoring is all about by: • Building Relationships • Building Capacity • Being Reflective

4. Mentoring Overview

5. What is Mentoring?

6. What is it? Mentoring Mentoring is a confidential, professional relationship designed to assist and facilitate a teacher in accomplishing breakthroughs and achieve goals that are beyond the norm.

7. What Makes a Good Mentor? Attributes for Mentoring • Effective communication skills • Accountability to self and others • Integrity in relationships • Positivity and persistence • Supportiveness and empathy • Self-directedness and organization

8. Skills for Mentoring • Listening • Paraphrasing • Facilitating • Mentoring • Reflecting • Maintaining client confidentiality

9. Role of the Mentor The role of the mentor is to assist teachers in enhancing their professional and personal effectiveness through structured conversations and action around the challenges, goals, and desires which make up their days. The role is aptly described as being a “thinking partner,” working with plans for achieving the desired result.

10. Imagine… • a relationship where the total focus is on you, on what you want in your life, and on what will help you achieve it. • someone listening, not only to your words, but also what’s behind them. • someone who listens to the very best in you, even when you can’t hear it in yourself. • someone who will help you account for what you want and keep you moving forward toward your goals. Adapted from Co-Active Coaching by Whitworth, Kimsey-House, and Sanhal

11. Imagine a relationship… • with someone who is totally curious about your dreams and aspirations for your classroom and your students. • with a person who is sometimes even more committed to helping you achieve what you want than you are. • with someone who will hold the flag at the top of the hill, encouraging you to press on, someone to celebrate your victories and help you learn from your setbacks. Adapted from Co-Active Coaching by Whitworth, Kimsey-House, and Sanhal

12. Imagine… • someone who listens to you without judgment and allows you to show emotion—in fact, accepts you without analyzing you. • you have someplace to consolidate, to integrate, and to push on…and you get to talk to this person regularly and consistently. • a relationship where you finally break free of those self-limiting conversations you’ve been having over the years and that powerful part of you is always encouraged. Adapted from Co-Active Coaching by Whitworth, Kimsey-House, and Sanhal

13. Why Mentoring?

14. Why Mentoring? Teachers will have an ally with whom to brainstorm, plan, and implement classroom improvement resulting in: • clarification of their goals/what they want. • creation of well thought-out and detailed action plans for accomplishing goals. • a greater likelihood for accomplishing goals for improvement.

15. What possibilities could a mentor or “thinking partner” provide for a teacher? Support Build confidence Feedback Hold accountable Different perspective Maintain focus Focus on Action Focus on Meta-cognitive Thinking Reduce Stress

16. Building Relationships

17. Building Relationships • Trust • Paying attention to words, thoughts and feelings • Positive Communication – both verbal and non-verbal.

18. Establishing Trust (Creating a safe, supportive environment that produces ongoing mutual respect and trust) • Show genuine concern for the mentee’s welfare and future • Demonstrate personal integrity, honesty and sincerity • Establish clear agreements and keep promises • Demonstrate respect for mentee’s perceptions, learning style, personal being • Provide ongoing support for new behaviors and actions, including those involving risk- taking and fear of failure • Ask permission to mentor in sensitive, new areas

19. “Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.” Barbara De Angelis

20. Being Present as a Mentor (Being fully conscious and creating spontaneous relationship with the mentee, using a style that is open, flexible and confident) • Be present and flexible during the mentoring process (“dance in the moment”) • Access and trust your own intuition (“go with your gut”) • Be open to not knowing the answers and taking risks • See many ways to work with the mentee and choose what is most effective • Use humor effectively to create lightness and energy • Confidently shift perspectives and experiment with new possibilities for action. • Demonstrate confidence in working with strong emotions

21. "Listening looks easy, but it's not simple. Every head is a world." -Cuban Proverb

22. “…a vocal competition in which the one who is catching his breath is called the listener.”— Anonymous Listening is NOT…

23. “…paying close attention to what is being said beneath the words. You listen not only to the 'music,' but to the essence of the person speaking. You listen not only for what someone knows, but for what he or she is."— Peter Senge Listening IS…

24. Listening – A Way of Life When people sense that we’re receptive to their ideas and feelings, they feel safe to open up. When we understand that listening means receiving everything, we discover that there’s a lot to hear.

25. Breaking Through to the Dimension of Full Listening • Commit to full listening • Be a sender or a receiver • Wait before responding/ask for more • Listen actively • Listen as if you’re the only listener • Focus on the message, not the messenger • Remember that understanding is not agreeing

26. Breaking Through to the Dimension of Full Listening • Avoid “piggybacking” and counterpointing • Be careful of advice and questions • Listen without obligation to act • Listen with your body • Allow and encourage emotion • Say your thanks

27. Listening for the Silence Silence provides an opportunity for learning. Some individuals need time to think quietly. Silence can also indicate confusion, boredom or even physical discomfort. • Don’t be afraid of silence • Encourage silence • Use the silence as an opportunity for reflection

28. Listen. Do not have an opinion while you listen because frankly, your opinion doesn’t hold much water outside of “Your Universe”. Just listen. Listen until their brain has been twisted like a dripping towel and what they have to say is all over the floor.-Hugh Elliott

29. Three Forms of Paraphrasing Acknowledge/Clarify Summarize/Organize Shift (Conceptual) Focus

30. Acknowledge/Clarify( A brief statement in the listener’s words reflecting what was said) • You’re concerned about _________________. • You would like to see ___________________. • You’re feeling badly about _______________. • You’re trying to figure out ________________. • You know it can be _____________________.

31. Summarize/Organize(A statement illuminating themes.) • You have 2 (or more) goals here: One is ____ and the other is ____. • So, on one hand ________. On the other hand _______. • There seem to be three (any #) themes: 1) ___ 2) ______ 3) _______. • So, we have a hierarchy of ideas. It is ________________.

32. Shift in Conceptual Focus(A statement reflecting ideas at a logical level difference.) So here (in this case) • a value is __________________. • an assumption is ____________. • a goal is __________________. • a belief is __________________. • a concept is ________________. • an intention is _______________. • a perspective is ______________. or One way to look at this may be ___. Another way to view this is _______.

33. Common Less-Than-Helpful Approaches to Listening Listening for: • opportunities to sound intelligent. • a chance to seem funny. • how you can sound important. • getting information you want. • external distractions such as other noises/talking. • what’s flawed in the other person’s words. • your own thoughts, and not listening at all. • how you can fix the problem. • how you can benefit.

34. Committing to a New Way of Being Let go of your attachment to being right - and suddenly, your mind is more open. You're able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment.– Ralph Marston

35. Exercise: Practice Listening Think of something happy in your life (personal or professional) and share with the group or a partner.

36. "To say that a person feels listened to means a lot more than just their ideas get heard. It's a sign of respect. It makes people feel valued." — DeborahTannen Author and Professor of Linguistics Georgetown University A Foundation for Trust

37. Fully Listening Mentors • Wait before responding • Ask for more • Handle distractions • Listen actively – feed back in your words what you’ve heard

38. Move Toward Love “Love is the merchandise which all the world demands; if you store it in your heart, every soul will become your customer.” -- Hazrat Inayat Khan

39. Moving Toward Loving Teachers • Foster mutual respect • Model kindness and genuine concern • Recognize failure as a step toward growth • Invest in team members’ personal success • Provide tactful, honest feedback

40. Experiment with “It’s all OK!” • It’s an attitude • Practice facing our imperfections and those of others • By allowing we discover solutions and take actions untainted with negativity

41. Celebrate Mistakes • Gets our attention • Allows us to take risks • Shows commitment to quality • Uses mistakes to practice • Mistakes are powerful teachers

42. If you can’t love it all, love as much as you can.

43. Building Capacity Our conversations create our world. And . . . You get to choose the conversations.

44. Problem Focus Why didn’t you hit your targets? Why did you do that? Why isn’t this working? Solution Focus What do you need to do next time to hit your targets? What do you want to do next? What do you/we need to do to make this work? Problem vs. Solution Questions

45. Creating Safety for Dialogue How do we create and maintain safety to allow others to be fully engaged? • Watch for signs… • Step out of content… • Create safety… • Step back into content…

46. Types of Capacity Dialogues/Discussions • Action Plan Discussion • Solution Focus Discussion • Identifying Instructional Strategies Discussion • Data-Based Discussion

47. Action Plan Discussions • What do you want? What is your desired outcome? • What would it look like and feel like to you? • How will you know you have what you want? • What is stopping you from having what you want now? • Who can support you in what you want? • What resources do you need to get what you want? • What are you willing to do in the next 24/48 hours to get what you want?

48. Solution Focus Dialogue •What do you need to do next time to hit your target(s)? • What do you want to do next? • What do you/we need to do to make this work? • What do you want today as a result of this conversation? • How can I help you think through this situation/challenge/plan/etc.? • What would be a measure of success as a result of this conversation? • Tell me more… • If you say yes to this, what are you saying no to? or • If you say no to this, what are you saying yes to?

49. Identifying Instructional Strategies Dialogue • What will you do? • What might be some ways to engage students in a dialogue about their responsibility for their own learning and learning outcomes?

50. Data-Based Discussion Initial Impressions • What are/were you initial thoughts about …..? • How did it go? Supporting Data • What evidence led you to your conclusion? • What are you noticing about these data in relationship to the outcomes? • What about the data is surprising to you? Cont’d on next slide