Convo 1: Assuming The Best Hurts No one.

This honestly goes for any relationship you have at school, whether adult or kid. I can’t think of a time where I wished I didn’t assume the best, but plenty of times where I wish I did. For me, my patience runs out with adults before kids. Knowing yourself is key, but that’s for a different post.

In the medical field there is a thing called a “differential diagnosis” where you match the symptoms to a multitude of possibilities before making a decision on what the issue is. Using this strategy as a way to reason your way to assuming the best could work for you. It has for me.

I was coaching a teacher on behavior interventions for a student that really gave her the blues. I was a new coach. I thought my feedback was clear and easy to follow. But day after day we still were in the same place. Fast forward to our debrief, there were a bunch of different places I could have landed before assuming, she just wasn’t doing what I asked (1). In my head I made it about me (2). She didn’t want to do what I asked because she didn’t like me for XYZ reason, didn’t respect me, etc (3). It created a negative tone in our session and in the end, I wasn’t able to help her and the kid was still unsuccessful too.

I made no less than 3 wrong assumptions before self-destructing the relationship for her and the student. Later on, I found out the issue was that she didn’t know what using my feedback looked like in the moment because her teaching style and mine were so different. Problem solved, but too late.

If I had assumed the best, been kinder, I could have brought us all closer to the end goal. By navigating with optimism and good faith, we enhance our educational impact and journey together. And you’re just a more pleasant person to be around, who doesn’t want that?

That’s the bell 🔔 Talk to y’all later!