Mrvaudrey

Category: Leadership

  • Focusing Impact

    My kids love to play with the hose in the backyard.

    We live in the semi-desert of Southern California, so it’s too hot to play without a sprinkler for about 8 weeks during the summer, but they’re even thrilled to dance in the rain yesterday, as the rest of the country is grappling with record snows.

    Anyway. They really like the nozzle below.

    image: elitza

    My daughter likes the mist setting, she can spray a little bit of water all over the place without soaking anything.

    That’s a lot of how I feel about my job as a coach: spreading a tiny bit of water all over.

    (Astute readers will note this is the second recent reference between water and instructional coaching. Yep. Keep reading.)

    In the last few years, getting a bird’s-eye view of capital-E-Education has made me awaken more to the world outside the four walls of my classroom. Public education must be effective for all students, and my Equity bone has been aching more and more.

    So I want to focus my impact, twisting the top of this nozzle, to be less spread-out and more focused.

    image: nomadswe.co

    As noted in recent posts, a job focused on relationships is more likely to produce growth. A site-level administrator would have more concentrated impact, more time to build relationships with staff, and more authority to produce equitable conditions for students and staff.

    All the chatter about becoming an Administrator is due to something I learned in August: My job as Ed/Tech Coach expires in June.

    Now, I’m not upset about this; like many TOSA jobs, my position was designed to have a shelf-life, and five years ain’t a bad run for an Instructional Coach.

    And b if I’m honest b it’s probably time.

    Of all the teachers I supported last year, 51% of them were classes I visited only once during the year, and never saw again.

    Nearly three out of every four classrooms I visit are people I only see once or twice a year. It’s hardly hyperbole to guess that I’m not improving the instruction of those teachers, which begs the question,

    Do we need a full-time instructional coach if I’m only driving change in 25% of my visits?

    Now, there’s a much larger conversation to be had about effective instructional coaching and an ideal staff-to-coach ratio (It’s probably not 1,000:1), but the conversation I want to have is about impact.

    I want to focus my impact on a smaller group, and it’s becoming clearer that site-level administration is a good next step in that direction.

    So as the 2018-19 school year wraps up and I clean out my desk, I’ll be looking that direction.

    More to come.

    ~Matt “Ready to be Mr. Vaudrey again” Vaudrey

  • Seat at the Table

    My favorite math lessons are the ones that end with more questions than they answered.

    Relatedly, my favorite conversations leave me more interested in learning, not satisfied with the learning Ibve done already.

    CMC has been the professional highlight of my year for the past few years, and this year was no exception.


    In her blog post,* Claire offers thanks to “Big names” in Math Education (her terms) for the encouragement and advocacy given in loud voices:

    Your work has gotten me through a difficult time professionally and I am so grateful.

    John and I will be the first to tell you that we haven’t sought notoriety within the Math Education community (and are both uncomfortable with it), so we regularly check to see that our compasses still point toward North, toward students first and always.

    But if taking a selfie, signing a book, and speaking encouragement into a microphone makes teachers stand a little taller, then it’s worth it.

    As Patricia mentions in her blog,* it’s time to start bringing more ideas to the table:

    I realized during this conference that there are so many talented teachers doing great things in their classrooms that make a big difference in the lives of their students. We need to hear from them too; their voices, their stories, their strategies so that we can all be better.

    Yeah. The comments section of this blog has been pushing on that for years.

    So that’s where I am. I want to use my medium amount of influence to make more seats at the table, to celebrate more ideas, and to pass the mic more often (even though I love the mic).

    Sunil wrote about the CMC workshop he attended, given by Chris Shore. Both parties are nudging people like me (white males with a microphone) to nudge b okay, push b the pace of education toward more students, eventually toward all.

    ~Matt “Change is a-comin’ ” Vaudrey

    *These two mention me, and Ibm sending yball there to read despite my discomfort with their praise. Thatbs how good they are.