What happens when we treat teacher coaching the same way we teach our students — with intention, flexibility and empathy?

David Seale, principal at Avondale Elementary in Birmingham, Alabama, led a session on being a great school leader at the 2025 Coaching for Change Conference by showing how differentiated coaching can transform teacher morale, retention and student success.  Seale began by pointing out that a school leader’s best method of affecting student success in the school is to hire, train and retain highly effective teachers. Giving teachers the targeted support they need is a big part of this process.

 “I take care of kids — and I take care of the people who take care of kids,” Seale said. “That’s my job.”

In his session, his stories were honest — sometimes painfully so — and filled with real examples of what works, what doesn’t, and why it all comes back to relationships.

Here’s what we learned.

 

Lesson 1: Great Teachers Want to Grow

One of the first confessions Seale made was how easy it is to ignore your strongest teachers.

Top-tier teachers — the ones with model classrooms and stellar student outcomes — still want to be pushed. In fact, they expect it.

Just like a busy teacher often focuses on getting the struggling students up to grade level at the expense of helping the advanced student grow even more, busy school leaders often put their focus on the newly hired teacher “who has done a really good job of not showing [them] that she cries every afternoon because she’s struggling.” Meanwhile, coaches often assume they don’t need to worry about “Ms. Johnson,” who was teacher of the year and always has something exciting happening in her classroom.

But those top-tier teachers — the ones with model classrooms and stellar student outcomes — still want to be pushed. In fact, they expect it.

Seale pointed out, though, that those great teachers did not become great by not wanting to learn and grow – in fact, the teachers who say they are fine as they are often the ones that need the most help. The great teachers are the ones who want to keep improving all the time, and they need support to do that.

Don’t let excellence lead to invisibility. The best teachers are often the most open to feedback —give it to them.

 

Lesson 2: Coaching Teachers Requires Differentiation

Seale outlined three categories of teachers based on skill, confidence and experience—not years in the profession alone. He emphasized that each group needs a different coaching approach.

• Category 1: New, struggling or unaware teachers need directive coaching. “You’re the expert,” Seale explained. “Tell them what they need to work on.”
• Category 2: Developing teachers need dialogical coaching. Work together to identify focus areas and co-create goals.
• Category 3: Highly effective, confident teachers need facilitative coaching. Ask questions that help them reflect and decide their own growth targets.

He provided a table in his slides, and I am recreating it here to give you an idea of how these categories work:

	Directive	Dialogical	Facilitative
Mode of Discourse	Advocacy	Balance of advocacy and inquiry	Inquiry
Decision-Maker	Coach	Teacher with coach	Teacher
Coach Approach	Provides expert knowledge	Collaborates with teacher	Asks questions only
Teacher Knowledge	Needs new knowledge to improve	Has some knowledge but could use new knowledge to improve	Knows the answer for improvement, just needs someone to draw it out
Teacher Category	1	2	3

 

Lesson 3: When You Don’t Make Time to Coach, You Make Time to Rehire

One of the problems many schools have with providing coaching to their teachers, especially the teachers they think are doing great and do not need extra support, is that it costs time and money, both of which are hard to find.

However, Seale pointed out that when teachers do not feel that support, they leave, and when they leave, it takes more time and money to replace them than it would have to get them that support to begin with.

In a moment of raw honesty, Seale described a year when he let coaching slide.

The result? Nine teacher vacancies.

After this jarring realization, he thought about what could have happened to cause such a high turnover rate, and he realized that the only thing that really changed was his direct involvement with supporting his staff.

He recognized that if he had been spending more time doing differentiated teacher coaching, then he would have recognized the signs earlier and could have given them the support they needed.

Instead, he was faced with having to find a lot more time than it would have taken to give his teachers that support to find replacements for them instead.

You always pay for coaching — either by doing it intentionally or by scrambling to replace teachers later.

He also pointed out that, depending on the time of year when the teacher leaves, “There is zero guarantee that whoever you get to replace the person who’s leaving is going to bring the same kind of skills.”

The closer it is to the school year, the more likely it is that you will end up hiring anyone who can take up space in the classroom, which means the new teachers will need even more support and coaching the following year.

So, support your teachers now, and avoid all of that!

The moral of the story is that

 

Lesson 4: Start Conversations, Not Checklists

To support differentiated coaching, Seale shared a powerful set of tools, including a coaching conversation protocol and follow-up forms. But the real magic came from his mindset. Coaching wasn’t about checking a box — it was about helping teachers identify and solve problems of practice, one conversation at a time.

For example, when a veteran teacher mentioned her lesson pacing was off, Seale didn’t fix it for her. He asked questions. When a new teacher struggled with small groups, he found some teachers he knew were good at small groups, he watched the struggling teachers class one time and got someone else to watch it another, and he gave the teacher time to go watch some of the teachers he knew were doing small groups successfully. When someone confessed they didn’t understand the district’s new reading software, he brought in the district coordinator for personalized help.

The common thread? Each teacher felt heard, seen and supported as an individual.

 

Lesson 5: Observation Isn’t Coaching — But It Can Lead to It

Seale acknowledged that standard observations have their place, but often do little to grow teachers.

“They scratch the surface, but they don’t really dig deep,” he said. Real growth happens after observation — when you have the right conversation.

He recommended starting with post-observation chats, then moving into ongoing coaching cycles based on the teacher’s category and needs. He also emphasized using walkthroughs, benchmark data and even hallway conversations to spark meaningful follow-up.

Real growth happens after observation — when you have the right conversation.

 

Lesson 6: Use Rounding for Quick but Meaningful Check-ins

Borrowing a strategy from the medical field, Seale shared his use of “rounding” as a fast, effective way to check in with teachers. His five go-to questions:

1. What’s something going well right now?
2. What’s one way I can help you be more successful?
3. Are there any resources you need?
4. Is there anything you’re struggling with?
5. Who in the building would you like to recognize for their support?

These questions open doors. Sometimes they lead to coaching. Sometimes they reveal burnout or hidden stress. And often, they build the trust needed for deeper work later.

The trick here is to make sure to do something with these responses. Seale pointed out that he asks the question on recognition because it is always good to help people feel grateful for the support they are receiving, but he also takes the answers and writes a quick note to the person the teacher mentions, letting the helper know that Seale was talking to one of the teachers who mentioned how much help the teacher had gotten from the helper, which is a great way to give specific kudos to a teacher without just saying, “You’re awesome.”

The third question on his list is about resources. It’s a quick, in-the-moment check-in, but now you’ll know what they need. Later, help make sure they get it!

In essence, the point of this activity is that you should never underestimate the power of asking, “How can I help?” It builds trust and support with your teachers.

 

Lesson 7: Coaching Is the Best Retention Strategy You’ve Got

Ultimately, Seale reminded us that coaching isn’t just about instruction — it’s about connection.

Teachers don’t leave because of pay alone. More often, they leave because they feel unseen, unsupported or stagnant. So, when you make them feel seen and supported and give them opportunities to grow, they will want to stay.

His results speak volumes. After recommitting to differentiated coaching this year, Seale saw significant increases in teacher satisfaction and retention.

When you make teachers feel seen and supported and give them opportunities to grow, they will want to stay.

 

Final Thoughts

Seale ended by noting that as a school leader, you always want to see a return on your time investment. So, what’s the return here?

 “There are fewer vacancies, more retention, a healthier climate and culture, trust, student achievement, student success, happier parents, world peace,” Seale said.

He admitted that maybe world peace is going a little too far, but he added that building peace is a realistic outcome, and that is worth its weight in gold.

 

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