In every classroom across the nation, terms like teacher evaluation, teacher assessments, performance assessments, classroom evaluations and teacher observations create anxiety on the part of the teachers. What coaching aims to do is to remove the evaluative terminology, generate an atmosphere that is conducive to teacher learning, and provide support in a risk-free environment.

Becoming accustomed as a coach to not having your own classroom or your own students was probably challenging. I am sure, however, you quickly engaged in conversations with your colleagues about offering to demonstrate or co-teach some lessons to those teachers willing to share their students with you. Although alien at first, I’ll bet it was very rewarding to work with students again and feel that great “high” that a teacher feels when the lesson worked well.