Cal Wysocki is the founder of Fulcrum Education Solutions, a company dedicated to improving the quality of instruction in our schools.

As South Loop Strength & Conditioning has grown, we’ve found it more and more important to re-focus on the quality of the product that we’re offering in our facility – and the main arbiters of that quality are our coaches who are working with our members on a daily basis.

We’ve begun to build several systems for continuing education, dialogue, and feedback with our coaches – and we’ve seen massive changes in what’s happening in our classes. Logistics run more smoothly, workout explanations are more clear, and our coaches do a much better job of handling the social dynamics of delivering coaching and correction to members who may be frustrated, distracted, or confused – without running into nearly as much pushback.

In this discussion with Cal, we focus on the strategies and tactics that he uses to elevate the processes by which schools improve their own teachers. This is not a simple discussion of a few “quick tips.” Instead, Cal is thinking in multi-year processes surrounding building trust with staff, getting quick wins for teachers in the classroom, building trust with students, developing consistency in order to change the dynamic of feedback in a school’s culture, and integrating all of this with long-term professional development strategies.

As a person who is concerned with the quality of coaching going on in my gym on a daily basis, I found this discussion invaluable – and we’ve immediately implemented some of the ideas from this conversation at SLSC. From the bigger picture of a person who is concerned with the quality of education and the pitfalls of misaligned incentives in the school system, this conversation gave me a better foundation with which to think through the problems that we encounter as we try to improve the quality of our public schools.

Listen Here

Check out more from Cal and Fulcrum Education Solutions

Show Notes

  • [2:13] Teachers having meltdowns and abandoning children due to improper feedback
  • [6:36] When tactics fail – why building trust before implementing changes is paramount
  • [8:54] What is the process that Fulcrum Education Solutions uses to work with schools? And how do you actually improve teaching performance?
  • [17:30] How do you build trust and cut through skepticism with teachers since you’re an outside consultant”?”
  • [22:37] What are some of the typical quick wins” that you see work well for teachers to immediately improve the quality fo their instruction?”
  • [28:42] Using role-playing to practice skills of classroom management with teachers.
  • [36:00] What is the assessment process for figuring out what a teacher needs to work on – and what a school needs to work on asa whole?
  • [45:47] The nuts and bolts of the observation and coaching process for improving teacher performance.
  • [59:28] How do you coach teachers to handle students who are disruptive or who push back?
  • [1:04:06] Creating systems for deliering feedback effectively to create behavior change – and avoiding resentment and mistrust
  • [1:16:46] The many parallels between the fitness industry and education consulting.

Resources and Individuals Mentioned

  • “I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”
    -Haim G. Ginott