Our Daily Show Interview! Linda Hopper, Ph.D.: Coaching in the Classroom Out Now!
SPRINGFIELD - Teachers looking for new ways to engage and empower their students now have a playbook to use as they adopt a “coaching” mindset. A new book about “Coaching in the Classroom” aims to expand educators’ view on teaching beyond the restrictions of standardized testing.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Author Linda Hopper, Ph.D., said she began with a career in business coaching and consulting before shifting gears to become a teacher, finding her prior experience relevant in her new role.
“I went into the classroom - that was a second career for me - to see how I could implement coaching into a classroom,” Hopper said on Our Daily Show! on Riverbender.com. “My goal was always to figure out how to bring it so every single teacher could do it in their classroom.”
Hopper doesn’t buy into the “one-size-fits-all” approach of centering education around standardized testing, instead giving students the tools they need for life outside the classroom.
“We’re spending our time teaching to a test so that students are prepared for college, and I get that - but there’s so much more that they need to be prepared for, and part of that is understanding who they are and what their strengths are,” she said. “We don’t focus on that - in fact, we do the opposite.”
Not only should students know their strengths, they should also know how to apply them in a real-world setting. One eye-opening example Hopper gave was a comment from her daughter-in-law, who said she didn’t understand geometry until she began quilting.
“We don’t provide those opportunities for students to really apply that learning,” she said of outdated educational methods. “What coaching does is helps students identify that, ‘You’re not like everybody else, you don’t need to be like everybody else, you just need to worry about you and how do you take care of yourself?’”
She said this extends to teaching students how to manage stress in their daily lives, such as using meditation as a technique to calm down before a big test. She noted the lack of emphasis cookie-cutter curriculum places on mental health management, underscoring the need for a more holistic approach in the classroom.
At the center of her message is the need for teachers to take a more personalized approach to educating their students. But becoming a coach in the classroom is just as much a learning experience for students as it is for teachers, who should practice what they teach; Hopper said they should regularly evaluate their own progress and maintain their mental health along the way.
Softcover, hardcover, and e-book editions of “Coaching in the Classroom: A Guide for Empowering Students and Teachers” are available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and through the Balboa Press website, where you can also find more information behind the book and Hopper herself.
To learn more about “Coaching in the Classroom,” see the full interview with Hopper at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
