Victories of coaching

Have you ever felt like this after coaching?

This is what I’ve felt for the past two days.  Proud, satisfied, exuberant, joyful, and just happy.  My work has been so fulfilling.  I’m one of those people who loves to put a smile on other’s faces, get them laughing, and realize that we have to enjoy life despite any hardships we endure especially in education.  We gotta have a laugh.

My victories will be written extensively in other posts, however I had to share right away.

Briefly…I presented on “Writing in Math” and it went extraordinarily well!   I was on Cloud 9!   Teachers who came were left with a lot of wheels turning.  Other ELA coaches were pondering as well.   More on that coming soon….(in another post).

Secondly, I felt like a proud parent/mama of some of these teachers because I’m seeing the “fruits of my labor”–for lack of a better term.  One teacher is facing her fear of math and becoming empowered, excited, and confident.  She loves the trust we’ve built with each other.  She knows I’m not there to judge her, but just have a professional conversation.  She’s brimming with ideas for us to do.  Yesterday, I came in to watch her do a numbers talk and then I did a division activity with her students.  By the end of the hour, I was jumping with joy (on the inside).  There was really rigorous work going on–not only by the teacher, but by the students.  It was amazing to see.  By the time I went back to my car, I was so overjoyed that I started to cry.  Tears of victory. Tears of joy.

And then today, we debriefed about the whole lesson.   The conversation was so rich.  Thought provoking questions.   Plans for the upcoming units.

But what really moves me is that the teachers that work with me value being teachers.  They are pushing their practice.  They want to learn.  They want to think outside of the box.  They want to try.  It’s nothing less than extraordinary.

However proud I am of my teacher(s) and the work I do with them, the victory isn’t my win.  The victory is theirs.