Jennifer Abrams: The Raw Fairy Godmother of Coaching

Formerly a high school English teacher and a new teacher coach in Palo Alto Unified School District (Palo Alto, CA), Jennifer Abrams is currently a communications consultant and author who works with educators and others on new teacher and employee support, being generationally savvy, effective collaboration skills, having hard conversations and creating identity safe workplaces. 

 

Jennifer’s publications include Having Hard Conversations, The Multigenerational Workplace: Communicate, Collaborate & Create Community, Hard Conversations Unpacked - the Whos, Whens and What Ifs, and Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives.  Her newest book is Stretching Your Learning Edges: Growing (Up) at Work.  

 

Jennifer shares her work in other mediums as a featured columnist on growth and change for Learning Forward’s The Learning Professional journal as well as contributing to The International Educator (TIE) focusing her writing on adult development and collaboration skills. 

 

Jennifer has been invited to keynote, facilitate and coach at schools and conferences worldwide and is honored to have been named one of the “18 Women All K-12 Educators Should Know,” by Education Week’s ‘Finding Common Ground’’ blog.  More about Jennifer’s work can be found at her website, www.jenniferabrams.com, and on Twitter @jenniferabrams. 

Episode Notes:

-High school English teacher for 9 years, then a New Teacher Coach, professional developer, Education, and Communications Consultant.

-Finding your voice around what matters- her mission

-Coaching in its purest sense is I am a thought partner, a cheerleader, a raw fairy godmother, all in service to whatever goal that the people I am working with have, which is to support students.

-Can you find your voice in a way that matters, in a humane and growth-producing way?

-It is about the development of the other person so that they feel more assured and grounded in how they want to make those changes. 

-New teachers need just-in-time training that is ongoing and that is an intentional experience.

-There is no one thing that helps to retain new teachers or any teachers. It is more about looking at your context and the challenges that you are facing in your area and saying how might we look at that. How do we go to the balcony to look at things with people?

-Stretching Your Learning Edges: Growing Up at Work

-Purposeful, ongoing support for the development of an adult in a school will be so helpful, and something that needs to be focused on.

-Mrs. Kalman, “ Somebody is learning how to be a person by watching you.”

-We need to keep growing and developing, we are not done!

-We have credentials in how to teach, but we do not have credentials in how to talk to one another. We need to develop our skills in this area: being coaches, being a facilitator, being a team member. 

-We need to own our own development.

-Changing arenas in education can be a tough road. 

-Top 5 things to remember:

1. Your development needs to continue. Grow Yourself!
2. Know your identity and how you see the world differently than others. Know my biases and limitations.
3. Suspend my certainty that I have it the right way. Where can I inquire more?
4. Be quiet. Watch and listen. 
5. How can I be a more effective person in collaboration? How can I build up my skill set to be even more of a value add to my team members?

-Find your voice around what matters!

-Be quiet: Let people talk! The pause, the pause, the pause!

Connect with Jennifer:

Twitter:@JenniferAbrams

Website: JenniferAbrams.com

Email: jennifer@jenniferabrams.com

Instagram: @JenniferFAbrams