Coaching Behavior - are we focused on this key piece?

Coaching Behavior - are we focused on this key piece?

As I get set to work with staff as a principal, I keep wondering how I can keep the focus on "coaching the behavior" instead of so many schools in which incentives and consequences have returned to schools just with another name called PBIS.

We know from the book Drive by Daniel Pink -- thanks to a new teacher friend I am listening to and from my drive to Door County each day -- that external motivators don't work. It is student choice, curiosity, and ownership that educators now call "student engagement" that works. Keeping students highly engaged in interesting, self-valuing work is what matters most.

How does this help us keep the focusing on coaching behavior? Understanding that all the time spent on big rewards that exclude some instead of providing more social time for students to develop relationships and coaching/re-teaching social skills when student behavior misses the mark is key. The best counselors are those who are on the playground as often as possible to help students generalize social skills from the counseling curriculum.

There is a lot to think about each summer - and that is what educators are busy doing as they head into another exciting year to influence students academic and behavioral growth.