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.
Read Elicia’s Reflection
What goals did you set for yourself at the beginning of the program?
At the beginning of the program, I set a goal to help lay the groundwork, vision, and structure for coaching at Saltus. Because the program was brand new and there had not really been a formal rollout, many teachers did not know what coaching was or how it could support them. Initially, I focused a lot on trying to define coaching and communicate my vision for the role. Over time, my thinking shifted. I still think coaching needs clarity and structure, but I now see building a coaching culture as something that grows through relationships, trust, and teacher experiences rather than just formal messaging.
How did each milestone support you in reaching your goal?
Each milestone supported me in different ways. My first milestone, my vision of coaching and value of coaching infographic, helped me clarify my beliefs about coaching and gave me a starting point for the program. My needs assessment shifted my thinking about differentiation and helped me recognize that teachers need different types of support depending on where they are in their practice. My coaching tracker and feedback tracker gave me practical tools to better understand where I am spending my time and how coaching is impacting teachers and students. Even though I created the tracker later in the program, it has become an important tool that I plan to build on next year.
What has been your biggest area of growth in the program?
My biggest area of growth has been in my coaching mindset. At the start of the program, I thought about a coaching mindset mostly in terms of coaching conversations. Over time, I began thinking more systemically about coaching and program development. I started seeing coaching as not only the conversations happening with teachers, but also the structures, relationships, and conditions that help a coaching culture develop over time. This shift has helped me become more patient and intentional in how I approach building the program.
Which milestone had the most impact on your professional growth this year & why? Paste your original (or an updated) reflection from that milestone in your response below.
The milestone that had the biggest impact on my professional growth was my first milestone. Creating my vision of coaching and infographic helped me articulate what I believed coaching could look like at Saltus. At the time, I was focused on how to share out information about coaching and help teachers understand the role. That thinking eventually led me to organize teacher-led professional development sessions where teachers shared work they had been doing through coaching. Hearing teachers talk with each other after those sessions became a major shift in my thinking. I realized that coaching culture spreads more through teacher experience, relationships, and teacher-to-teacher conversations than through formal promotion of coaching itself.
Where do you still have room to grow?
I still have room to grow in data collection and feedback. A lot of my coaching conversations happen informally throughout the day, and I do not always remember to collect feedback in those moments. Because I did not have as many formal coaching cycles during the first half of the year, I also have less feedback data from that time. My feedback tracker has helped me recognize the importance of capturing evidence of impact more consistently, both to improve my own practice and to help demonstrate the value of coaching over time.
What surprises and/or challenges have you had along the way?
One of the biggest challenges this year has been building a brand new program while navigating role ambiguity and uncertainty around coaching. Teachers were often unsure what coaching looked like or how it could support them, especially early in the year. Moving from the classroom into coaching was also challenging because coaching requires influence and relationship-building rather than direct control. In teaching, I could immediately make changes in my own classroom. In coaching, progress depends on teacher readiness, trust, timing, and many other factors. At the same time, I was surprised by how quickly momentum began to build once teachers started sharing their experiences and talking with each other about the impact coaching was having.
What would you do differently next time? What did you learn?
If I were doing this again, I would probably be more realistic about pacing and how long it takes to build a coaching culture. Early on, I was very focused on trying to clearly define and communicate coaching, but I learned that relationship-building and visibility take time. I would also think more intentionally about different ways to work with leadership around rollout and communication. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that sustainable change develops in stages and that trust and relationships are foundational to long-term program growth.
How did the Coach support you in your learning journey?
The Coach supported my learning journey by helping me reflect more deeply on my coaching beliefs, structures, and practice. The milestones pushed me to think intentionally about how coaching functions within a larger system and helped me connect theory to the realities of building a new program. The reflection process also helped me recognize growth that I may not have otherwise noticed during the year.
How has your learning inside the Coach impacted your coaching practice & program in your school setting?
My learning inside the Coach has directly impacted my coaching practice and the development of the program at Saltus. I now approach coaching with a much stronger systems mindset and think more intentionally about how each interaction helps build trust, visibility, and relationships over time. The program has also shifted toward a more teacher-centered and grassroots approach where teachers sharing their own experiences has become an important part of how coaching culture spreads within the school.
What next for your professional learning?
Next in my professional learning, I want to continue developing my coaching systems, especially around feedback collection and coaching cycles. I also want to continue learning more about instructional coaching, change management, and how to build sustainable coaching programs over time. As the program develops, I want to focus on balancing relationship-building with structures that help demonstrate impact and support long-term growth.
Watch Elicia’s Video
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