We want to give you a peek inside our Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program. Coaches taking part in this academic-year-long journey have graciously given us permission to post some of their learning and reflections from the private coursework they are undertaking during this program. Where possible, we have shared the course and the action task to give context for the guest post.
The Coach Final Project
The Final Project is a chance for you to reflect on everything you’ve learned and/or discovered throughout this Certificate Program. You will create an 8-10 min video sharing on the goal that you set, documenting the process of working towards your goal, reflecting on your achievement and sharing the process/outcome with our learning community. The most important part of your personal project is that it’s relevant to you, and you can demonstrate, through documentation and video, the impact your work has had on your school.
Watch Becca’s Video
Read Becca’s Reflection
My personal project tells my story from transitioning from the role of a classroom teacher into instructional coach. I went into this new role with high expectations for myself and even though I was incredibly excited, my journey was not the glorious one I had envisioned. Finally sitting down to tell my story, even though I’m not the only one who has ever experienced this and surely won’t be the last, I felt like it was a sad story. Sad in my mind because, again, I envisioned a strong, leading start in this new role. This program has put me in a vulnerable place sharing this story aloud with others outside of my meetings with Kim, my supervisor, and my coaching team, but I’m hopeful that it will encourage other teachers and new coaches that it is ok for your journey to be a little messy and bumpy in defining yourself as a coach.
I believe in telling my story, I found a way to weave in each of the components but just in case here are some more responses:
What were some key learning moments for you throughout the program? Which courses impacted your coaching practice the most?
The first section of the program that really impacted my coaching practice and journey was Seeing Myself as a Leader. I sat for weeks looking at the questions I needed to answer about being a leader and couldn’t find the words to even share how I was a leader. I knew all the ways I was a leader as a teacher but in this new role I was struggling. Working through this section really helped me look at my leadership skills in a new way, and how they translated from teaching into coaching; as well as how I could use those skills in coaching with a different look. I am walking away from this experience with a better understanding of my role and how I can make it my own while supporting the teachers and administrators that I work with.
How did this learning support you in reaching your goal? Did you actually meet your goals? How do you feel about how far you’ve come?
My goal was to be more confident in myself as a coach and fill my coaching toolkit. Each module I worked through helped put me in a place where I either needed to reflect and take action, or reflect and realize I already had the knowledge within me. Kind of like my own intense coaching cycle. I personally feel that I did meet my goal. I feel better about working with our secondary staff and have confidence in myself as a member of our coaching team. This journey was really fast tracked and helped me grow so much faster than I think I would have without it and feel that I have really come a long way since the start.
What has been the biggest value of The Coach for you?
The confidence that I am walking away from this program with.
What’s different in the Coach in comparison to other PD that you’ve received or participated in?
I feel like I was immersed within a coaching cycle this entire time- so it was an extended professional learning where I got to experience what my coachees should experience, and had time to explore how I could take my experiences and learning, and embed them right within my work as a coach. The learning was self-paced within reason, but also had embedded coaching to make sure the skills were implemented without completing the session and letting the knowledge fizzle out there.
What’s YOUR level of coaching mastery?
All coaches go through various stages of coaching mastery. Once you identify where you’re at, you can begin to build the skills needed to move to the next stage.
This quiz is based on real-life case studies compiled from years of working with coaches inside The Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program!
When you receive your results, you’ll also get your matching case study from the STRIVE Case Studies to see where you fit in the stages of coaching mastery.
Ready to tackle your challenges and move on to the next level in YOUR coaching practice?
The STRIVE Model of Coaching Mastery quiz will help you identify your level of coaching mastery by matching you with case studies compiled from years of working with coaches inside The Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program so you can easily see where you fit!
When you complete the quiz, you’ll get:
- Your matching case study,
- Specific strengths & challenges aligned to your result;
- Suggested next steps for each stage;
Plus the Case Study Document includes:
- Case studies leveled by coaching mastery;
- A framework to identify essential stages of professional growth & key areas to focus on in your professional learning;
- Alignment with the THRIVE Model for a Successful Coaching Culture;
- Space for you to reflect & prioritize so you can take action immediately!
You’ll go straight to the Quiz, and get the Case Study Document via email.
Read more from Becca…
What were your goals for this microcredential and how did you plan to meet those goals?
I really wanted more clarity on the role of a coach. To gain confidence in my coaching abilities, and really define the role for myself bringing in my strengths to our coaching team.
Working through the modules really supported growth in learning more about coaching and showed that I already had a good knowledge base of my role.
What would success look like if you met your goals? What steps do you think you need to take to reach those goals?
Success would look like being in coaching cycles with teachers across the district and supporting them in reaching their goals. Along with not feeling like my only strength in our program was being able to make visually appealing presentations for communication and professional development. To do this, I needed to really start by building relationships and being visible in schools. I also need to step out of my comfort zone and try to make connections with teachers in secondary level who were not “my people.”
What challenges did you think you and/or your stakeholders might face and how did you plan to overcome those challenges?
The biggest challenge that I faced was how overwhelmed teachers felt coming into this school year and trying to relaunch the coaching program after pandemic teaching with new administrators in a majority of our school buildings. As a team of coaches, we worked really hard to build relationships with the staff and the building administrators. While some teachers were incredibly overwhelmed being able to work with some who then shared how impactful their time was with a coach in supporting not only their professional practices, but also their personal life was an added layer of support in moving in the right direction to gain more ground in schools.
Another challenge I faced was coming from teaching first grade, I had to find a way into 6-12th grade classrooms. So I not only had to rebrand myself with K-5 teachers I’ve taught with over the last 8 years, I had to find my way in working with secondary teachers. Tackling this challenge took digging deep to identify what I could bring to secondary teachers, and finding those that I could build a relationship with to start to break in. I used our Tech PLC that I was helping co-facilitate to make connections with a high school teacher to support in her classroom, and then took needs assessment data to connect with a middle school teacher.
What did you think the impact would be on your school environment as you worked towards and ideally, achieved your goals?
I would be able to work with more teachers and support them in finding the joy in teaching again this year after the last few challenging years.
Level Up Your Coaching with The Coach!
If you are ready to develop your coaching practice over the next academic year, and explore topics like transitioning your work from individuals to teams, please join us for our next cohort of The Coach!
Wherever you are in building a coaching culture in your school, The Coach will give you the strategies, skills and tools you need to make coaching a success and will empower you to confidently apply instructional coaching strategies in any situation – from building a coaching program, to having coaching conversations, to being a leader in your school community. We facilitate only one cohort each academic year so we can offer individualized support for each participant.
Registration for our next global cohort opens once a year – check the website for details!
Find out more at: https://edurolearning.com/coach/
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