Power to the Positive, Part 2, or, Pollyannas in Combat Boots

My partner coach, Suzanne, and I are on a mission. In another installment of our militant positivity campaign, we held fluency celebrations at our staff meeting Wednesday. Each grade level shared their successes with teaching reading fluency (reading at a good rate with accuracy and expression) and got cheered on by their colleagues. All the presentations were great. Some highlights were kindergarten's chant, Sound Off (to be posted later), and first grade's demonstration of a game to engage students in learning high frequency words. My personal favorite, however, was the fourth grade presentation. The fourth grade teachers were so discouraged when we met to look at their data from the latest assessment. They have been working really hard, but they're not yet seeing the results in the data. So it was great to hear their presentation, and see them take pride in their work. I noticed how our principal started sitting up a little straighter and smiled a bit more broadly as each grade level shared their successes. When they were all done, she spoke about how proud she was of everyone.
I'm called again and again to ruminate on this famous quote from George Fox, "father" of Quakerism:

This is the word of the Lord God to you all, and a charge to you all in the presence of the living God; be patterns, be examples in all countries, places,islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing,and make the witness of God in them to bless you.

This quote is used so much that it is rather a cliche. Even so, when I really comtemplate it, it resonates so deeply that often tears will come to my eyes. I especially love the part about "answering that of God in everyone." The word answering is key, because it implies that "that of God" is not only present in each person, but is speaking. This is a concept that is easy to grasp in a classroom full of children. No matter what behavior a child is presenting, I can firmly believe that the light of God shines within her or him. Okay, not always in the moment of frustration with that child who, say, has turned around six times in the last ten minutes to make goofy faces at his friend in the back row, causing the entire class to erupt into giggles. But at least when I calm down I can come back to that faith. It has been a challenge in my coaching job to put this belief in practice as I work with adults. I would suggest that our very job description as coaches goes against the idea of answering that of God in everyone: we are there to monitor program implementation (implying that teachers need to be watched), to demonstrate lessons and to provide professional development(to show teachers the "right" way to do it). We are operating in a deficit model that is centered around looking for problems to fix. Needless to say, these aren't conditions that are conducive for building trust: who wants to be watched and told what they're doing wrong? Who wants to be led by the nose to someone else's idea of what is right?
I'm not saying that coaches shouldn't do their jobs, or that there aren't problems that can and should be fixed. What I am saying is that we shouldn't lose sight of our goal: to support teachers' growth in providing an excellent education to the students who need it most. We need to choose the coaching strategies that leverage the most positive change. Since you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, let's create a flood of honey! We "monitor" the program best by being a helpful and friendly presence. It's vitally important that we are in classrooms to be the extra pair of ears, eyes, hands, and the extra brain that has the luxury of thinking only about literacy instruction. As far as professional development goes, we get the most movement in a school when we focus on getting teachers to share what is working well. When coaches and teachers share our genuine excitement over student and teacher success, it's contagious.
So I've come to think of myself and Suzanne as Pollyannas in combat boots: stomping out negativity wherever it rears its ugly head. We hold that every student wants to learn, that all teachers want their students to be successful, that our workplace should be joyful, that each of us possesses the inner resources to grow into the educators our students need us to be.