This #coachbetter episode is another in our series of coaching case studies, with one of Kim’s amazing clients, Jen Kagohara, ES Tech & Design Coach, Taipei American School, Taiwan. Jen is a graduate of The Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program and when we recorded this episode she had just finished the program.

These case study episodes are designed to share the story of a coach, and the development of their coaching program and practice in their unique setting.

We’re so excited to share this episode with Jen with you because Jen has had many experiences that are shared by lots of the clients Kim works with. She’s relatively new to her school, which has hired coaches, but doesn’t yet have a coaching culture. Many coaches that Kim works with are in this exact same situation – in fact we have several other podcast episodes about this very topic, one is episode 70: 5 Steps to Move from “Having Coaches” to “a Coaching Culture”). Wherever you are in the process at your school, it’s always valuable to hear what this looks like in different school contexts.

In this conversation they talk about …

What coaching looks like in her school right now
What makes coaching work and what are some challenges
Jen’s growth as a coach throughout The Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program
Her big aha moments as a new coach
What she’s planning for next in terms of her professional growth
What she wishes she knew before she started coaching
Her recommendations for new and aspiring coaches

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Show Notes

Tell us about your coaching journey – where did you start, and where are you now?

I consider myself a newbie, just dipping my toes into coaching with my move to TAS in Taiwan. 15 years ago, I didn’t have definition, when computer labs transitioned to 1:1, I was part of that change in Graded, Sao Paolo. Became a specialist teacher, moved into STEAM & Robotics. Two years ago, I joined TAS, on a Tech & Design Coach position. And that’s when the job description truly reflected my skill set.

What does coaching look like in your school right now

We have a coaching program. We’re working towards building our coaching culture. Job description was to interact with teachers, and advocate for the use of technology in an educational setting. The position has evolved a bit since I got here. Six coaches in the Lower School, and one coach coming in to Upper School, and one MS EdTech Coach. We have 3 subject area specific coaches too.

Thinking back to my learning in the coach, it’s about clarity, and we redefined our philosophy statement. This is the first year that coaching is teacher driven, student centered, teachers are not evaluated, it’s for teacher professional growth.

We’re pushing forward this message with the idea of creating this culture. Coaching is one of the options you have when you’re looking into professional growth.

What makes that work? What’s challenging in that environment?

Strengths: we have structures in time: meetings for subject areas (although some coordinator work is happening at the same time). Nobody is fighting for time to interact with faculty. I’m part of all those meetings, including team meetings. There are specific blocks of the day that you have time to coach 1:1 with faculty.

We have a team of admin who are supportive. They are involved when we take initiative. We feel like we’re growing together with them. Senior leaders see that we’re investing.

Challenges: All of us have other responsibilities. The math coach is also the math coordinator (same for literacy). There is extra responsibility in our job description. I also teach STEAM, so time is taken out of the schedule for teaching. Can cause confusion when coaching isn’t your sole position.

There’s room for more clarity, what is coaching, how it works, what it looks like.

We don’t have the buy in yet for the vision that we have. Thre’s a lot of history. We’re changing something and people have a memory of what it was before -until they realize how its changing, they might be making assumptions based on the past.

I know from your work in The Coach that you have made big strides in terms of coaching in your school setting, where did you start, and how did you get to where you are now?

When I started, I started with an idea, that this was something I needed. I needed to uncover the things that I’m not aware about my practice, that I think I need, but I’m not sure.

Aha moments: seeing myself as a leader, seeing myself as an informal leader. The relational leadership you have with a teacher. Growing your capacity and using it intentionally was a big aha moment. I need to use those intentional relationships to leverage the work of the coach.

Another aha moment, It’s very comfortable to work with the “keeners”, it would be easy to work with them forever. Then I realized I need to think about what I am doing to move the work forward with the others. I realize I need to prioritize my work to think about how to move everyone forward.

Its taking me time to recognize that people are seeing me, as outside of the classroom, as I’m closer to admin, that there is some power in that. There’s an assumption that I’m evaluating them, even though I’m not.

It goes beyond feeling comfortable, you have to build trust with the teacher. We don’t have to have a personal relationship, it can be professional and still make progress. You have to be ok with those things, and be intentional about how you are building trust, putting money into the piggy bank.

What has your coaching looked like this year?

We use ConnectHub to track our coaching. We adopted it this year. I had 100% interaction in my grade levels. There was never any pushback. I was collaborating a lot, I was used as a consultant a lot, but not as much as a coach. I see this as a work in progress. It’s important to keep track and name those things so we can move forward with intentionality.

The teachers I work with are not aware of those stances either, so I need to make that more visible for them. It could also be part of the culture, this is something new even for the coaches

What have been some aha moments in your role over the course of the year?

Reflective sessions. One of my intentions for next year is being more of a proactive coach not a reactive coach. I initiated some reflection conversations because I realized I had a gap in my practice in terms of feedback, processing and reflection. This gives me specific feedback, and data to set intentions for next year. Being very specific about the feedback I’m asking for. I sent them the questions before hand. We worked together the whole year, even though this wasn’t part of a coaching cycle. Did add more interactions: how was this helpful for you? What was one thing that made an impact?

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.

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Show Notes continued…

What are you thinking about in terms of refining your practice for next year?

Amplifying the feedback piece. Bringing more clarity to my work with coaching partners, helping them understand what the work together will look like. I would like to use that to promote more collaboration, to work intentionally with some teachers and make sure that spreads out to the team. Find ways to have more consistency across the grade level to amplify the best practice and positive results.

Having an agenda when I work with teachers – it is so helpful to have a structure in mind before the conversation. Refining my skills in that. Being more organized, clear and intentional, explaining the purpose and the why behind things.

Thinking back over your first years as a coach, what do you wish you knew before you started?

The trust piece and building relationships and how the relationships are not personal, they’re professional. You can’t just make everyone like you, that’s not the point. You need to make sure you interact professionally with all these different unique personalities. The strategies and steps to build that trust. Different specific ways to build trust: by being personable, for example. What are the other strategies you can try.

The power of collecting data, feedback, even observations so you have information to act on to inform your next steps. Even when you have to say how valuable your role was.

The clarity in the outcomes, something I’m still trying to wrap my mind around. What are the clear expectations so you know you are on the right track. I set my bar really high, how can I make sure I’m on the right track. How do I know I’m being effective, hwat are the results that my admin is expecting of me, what are the results I expect of me. Collecting and measuring data on my job is my role.

What’s one thing you would recommend all new coaches do to be successful in their role?

Coaches also deserve coaches. Model how you want your coaching partners to interact with you, by being a learner. It was very helpful to have all the supports that the Coach offers you through the year, having a mentor, all the office hours, the global cohort. That’s important, especially when you’re starting.

You need to have your own sounding board, your board of trustees, who you are going to get together, share things and bounce ideas. Just to keep your mental health in check, it’s heavy work. Being able to share with others and have a team of coaches you can rely on, and be inspired by is really important.

The notion that it’s going to be awkward and uncomfortable at first, but it’s the practice that makes it more comfortable.

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

If you’re not sure which course is right for you, try one of our FREE workshops where you’ll be able to dig deeper into the concepts we talked about today, and get a peek at all of our courses for coaches.

We have workshops (and courses) to support coaches at every stage of their career, from

all educators (and leaders) curious about embracing a coaching mindset
new and aspiring coaches making the move from classroom to coach; to
current coaches ready to be more intentional and strategic in their practice; to
established coaches leveraging their coaching experience to lead.

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

If you’re curious right now, you have questions, please reach out. You can leave a comment below, join our #coachbetter Facebook group, or find us on social media at Eduro Learning and send me a DM. I’d love to support you on your coaching journey. See you next time!

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Case Study: Navigating a New Coaching Role & School Culture with Jen Kagohara [276]