In this #coachbetter episode Kim chats with return guest Steve Barkley, Executive VP PLS 3rd Learning, author of many books about instructional coaching, and Advisor Executive Committee of AAICIS, the Association for the Advancement of Instructional Coaching in International Schools. 

Kim is excited to share this episode with you, not only because Steve is amazing and one of her coaching superheroes, but also because he was one of our first ever guests on the show – so it’s especially interesting to hear first-hand how his thinking has evolved over time since that conversation.

In this episode they talk about:

• Systems for coaching success – especially when starting from scratch
• What leaders need to know about the long term impact of coaching – especially when talking to their school board
• How to make coaching sustainable
• What experienced coaches can do to continually refine their practice
• Trends in instructional coaching in international schools

This episode is a gold mine for coaches or school leaders looking to build successful and sustainable instructional coaching programs! Steve works with so many schools, and has such a deep understanding of how coaching works – you don’t want to miss this episode!

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Show Notes

Thinking about schools building instructional coaching programs now, what systems and structures need to be in place (particularly for international schools, who are often starting from scratch)?

Why are you doing it – vision, clear on outcomes you want to achieve

The leadership team, HoS, Board that’s deciding to create a position, they have a hypothosis in their mind. We believe by investing in this, is going to get us to this. Can we be clear that the people making the decision have been clear in this thinking so when they interview, they’re looking for & getting the right person, and then 

Need clarity to evaluate the coach or the program 

Teachers don’t know the role unless we have clarity

Move whole family to a place where people don’t even know what the job is

What should school leaders know about the long term impact of instructional coaching when they are initially pitching this idea to their board?

Increased student achievement, growth: academic, more students performing at a higher level. It has to be measured by student growth. If a place is implementing instructional coaching and it’s new, I don’t know anything about the politics of your board, but I can guarantee that you’ll be asked what did we get from our investment in instructional coaching.

The outcome is what you’re using to define the coaches role at the start. Now you have to work backwards, because student achievement is not a quick result. 

Outcomes students need to reach

What do students need to do to cause that outcome (teachers don’t cause student achievement, students cause student achievement)

What does the teacher need to do

What needs to be built into our program to get the teacher to do that

Supports: PD, instructional coaching

Planning backward leadership goes last, implementation, leadership goes first

Now coaches implement that process: admin with ES staff talks about the goal for this year to be increase student math performance, what is it that students need to do that would cause their math performance to go up, admin gets teachers to list those behaviors. Coach creates a sandwich board sign and knock on teacher doors and say “this is what I’m selling”

We didn’t hire instructional coaches to change teacher behavior, we hired instructional coaches to change student behavior. You can’t change student behavior without changing teacher behavior.

When admin says : raise scores. Say “When you’re going in and out of classrooms, what would you see kids doing that would cause reading performance to go up”

Coach principal partnership: start here

The first time you model: the teacher places all of her attention on the students. What did the coach get the students to do. Now the conversation is, is that what you want to get the students to do, if it is, I’ll come back again, and this time you can watch me and see connections between what I’m doing and what students are doing.

Biggest change in my history is now I look at what students are doing – would have mostly looked at teachers. Pre-conference: teacher tells me what teachers want kids to be doing, post conference is about reporting what kids did, where did they do what you wanted them to do and why did they do it, where weren’t they and that’s a reason to change.

If you’re going to have a partnership or a team, you need to have a common goal.

How can coaches and school leaders best work together to ensure instructional coaching is sustainable over time?

The coach needs to become the coach of coaching. You will never have sufficient coaching in a school if the instructional coach is the only person doing the coaching. You get multiple teachers working together coaching each other and you start another group.

Coaching is not an isolated activity, but a culture embedded in the school. 

How are coaches building the coaching culture of the school, coachability of individuals, which should be part of coach-leadership accountability.

Do you have any department heads who have yet to invite the instructional coach into their classroom for feedback. If so, I would question why they are still HoDs. If you’ve made the decision to invest in this position, you have a belief about instructional coaching, why would you have someone in a HoD role that is not engaging in this process.

What do coaches do when leadership is not seeing the value or supporting the process?

What are the goals and the outcomes that the leader has for the school, in what ways could a coaching culture assist you in creating that? If you believe that collective efficacy is essential, what role would teachers coaching each other do to build that. How do you communicate that? What does that believe require of you?

What do administrators believe about collective teacher efficacy and teacher collaboration – blog post to link

Coaches skills are around changing teacher behavior to change student behavior – not about telling them how to do their job. Leadership is about changing behavior.

What behaviors do I need to take on, so teachers will also change their behavior.

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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!

You’ll go straight to the Quiz, and get the Case Study Document via email.

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Show Notes continued…

What can coaches do to continually refine their practice – from new to experienced coaches?

Continually sharpening your communication skills that allow you to build a partnership with the people you’re working with. How do I let my admin know I’m anxious to be a partner with them in moving towards the goals they have for the school – exactly the same as working with teachers, which is also just like the conversation teachers are looking to have with kids.

The best of coaching skills are the best of teaching skills because they’re all about building a partnership with people. That’s a never-ending skill set: wherever you are in your career, you’re always building skills around: listening, as my confidence grows, I can listen better, the better I can listen, the easier it gets. 

What trends are you seeing among international schools in your work with instructional coaching?

Moving instructional coaching from a position to a skill set. Why would you want grade level leaders to have instructional coaching skills? Why would you want your learning resource / ELL Specialist people to have instructional coaching skills? Seeing that skill set reach out greater and great. Quite an occurrence of seeing coaches become admin or a curriculum role. That skills set that they practice as an instructional coach becomes a foundation for leadership work.

Your job can become more important when you move from being the person who coaches to the person who prepares a lot of people to work in a coaching role. Leading the development of coaching skills.

Budget wise – can’t justify a full position, but can justify each of their dept heads having one period a day. That one period could be them coaching, or covering a teachers class so they can go have a coaching conversation.

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Ready to Learn More about Planning for Successful Instructional Coaching?

If you’re ready to dig deeper into how to make instructional coaching successful – or if you’re new to instructional coaching and you’re curious about getting started, join us for one of our courses for coaches!

To learn more about these options, we have three FREE workshops to share with you today.

For New or Aspiring Coaches

If you’re just getting started as a coach, and you want to be successful in your early years, watch our New to Coaching Workshop, which highlights the key mindset and skill set shifts you’ll need when moving from the classroom to a coaching role. The workshop will also tell you all about our online course, Getting Started as a Coach. This course is specifically designed for classroom teachers who are moving into a coaching role so you’re prepared for the transition. It’s focused on exactly the skillset & mindset shifts you need to so you can be successful in your first years as an instructional coach. 

For Experienced Coaches

If you’re already a coach & you want to think about being more intentional & strategic in your practice, watch our workshop on the Thrive Model for Coaching Success which will help you evaluate your program and your practice to see where you may have room to grow. You’ll walk away with a clear picture of exactly what you need to focus on to build a thriving coaching culture – and help you decide if our year-long mentorship and certification program, The Coach, is right for you, right now. This program is designed for current coaches who are focused on building a coaching culture through intentional and strategic coaching work at all levels – with teachers and school leaders.

For Coaches Ready to Lead

For experienced coaches ready to look at the bigger picture of the school to see what might be supporting or hindering the sustainability of the coaching program, and you want to make sure your school has all of the systems and structures in place, watch our workshop: Scaling Your Impact as an Instructional Coach. You’ll get a bird’s eye view of what’s needed to make coaching sustainable for you as an individual coach and for your school. When you’re ready to put that learning into action, join us in our online course for coaches ready to lead: Coaches as Leaders and put it all into practice – with support from Kim and our global cohort! This course is designed for experienced coaches, ready to lead.

You can find all the workshops on our coachbetter website at coachbetter.tv/workshops

Wherever you are in your coaching journey, we can support you!

For All Coaches

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