On Morning Practice and Teacher Feedback

In high school and college I played water polo. Contrary to popular opinion, this sport does not involve horses, but does involve silly looking hats. It also involves an incredible amount of swimming, treading water (played in all deep pools), and hand-to-hand combat with your opponent as you struggle to get position in front of the goal. So you need to be in great shape to be a good player and that takes a ton of hard work, especially for someone like me who was not a naturally gifted swimmer. When I say hard work, I mean things like treading water the length of the pool while holding metal folding chairs above your head, 30 minutes of swimming sprints after an exhausting game, or morning practices 4 days a week at 6am with another practice in the afternoon.

I hated this. After the last morning practice of the year, I was quickly calculating how many days until they started again the following year (about 270 BTW) and dreading the return of jumping into an outdoor pool when the sun wasn’t up yet. The work was exhausting and in the moment, not at all fun. But the thousands of laps swam and hours spent treading water were what I needed to be a good player. And I could only work as hard as I needed to if I had a coach there pushing me, giving me encouragement, or calling me out when I was slacking off. When I worked out alone in the off-season, I could never get as good a workout as when Mr. Ruth, Coach L, or Jason was there pushing me to do more than I thought possible. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about coaching and feedback because we’re in a time of the year when my teachers, our school, and I are getting a lot of it. Like many organizations KIPP Philadelphia, does regular 360 reviews where you get to hear what your boss, your peers, and your direct reports think about you. We got those last week. As a second year KIPP school, we get an independent, three-day review of what our school is doing well and what we can do better from SchoolWorks, a nationally recognized organization who specializes in this kind of work. This takes place next week. And teachers are getting their formal, mid-year reviews over the next three weeks (in conjunction with our regular coaching program). 

Just like with my old water polo practices, the process of getting feedback can be hard. You never really know for sure what someone is going to write or say about you which can cause anxiety. Hearing that you can do something better can bruise your ego. There can be confusion if you don’t understand exactly why someone thinks that or what you did to cause that impression. Feedback can cause many people lots of stress, especially if not done well. Mike Goldstein (BTW, a fellow alum of Wilson High School in West Lawn, PA) of MATCH Charter School and its associated programs has the definitive post on how to make feedback easier to process and accept. Read the whole thing, but it basically boils down to making feedback as regular, consistent, and easily understood as possible.

But even when these conditions are met, some (many?) people are still going to be uncomfortable when they sit down to read their review, open up an email with their 360 report, or talk with their manager about how their lesson could have been stronger. I know that I still am. For example, when I get written feedback, I need to put it aside for a few hours before looking at it. Eventually the anxiousness of knowing the feedback is sitting there out-weighs the anxiousness of opening it up and I can read what someone wrote. Just like I always hated morning water polo practices, I never really love the idea of getting feedback.

But just like water polo practice, I know I need people holding me accountable and working to make me and the school better. And 99.9% of the time, the feedback is on the mark and helpful. And while I find the run-up to getting feedback uncomfortable, I love the work that comes after getting feedback where I can take what people have said and figure out how to make the school stronger. That feels good, just like it feels good to finish a hard swim workout. So do I get excited about getting feedback? No, not really, but I love getting better at my job and making our school stronger and feedback is the only way that happens. If I could do 8 years of morning practices, I can read my 360 report.