This #coachbetter episode is another in our series of coaching case studies, with one of Kim’s amazing clients, Andrea Goodrich, grade 4 classroom teacher at Concordia International School in Hanoi, Vietnam. At the time of recording Andrea had just graduated from The Coach Certificate and Mentorship 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 excited to share this episode with Andrea with you because this episode is such a great example of the ways that classroom teachers can embrace a coaching mindset and start building a coaching culture – from the team to the whole division – in one academic year. Andrea took everything she learned in The Coach and directly applied it in her school setting and it’s already created significant momentum towards coaching.

In this conversation Andrea and Kim talk about…

How Andrea started her journey to instructional coaching
What makes coaching valuable to Andrea as a classroom teacher
The surprises she uncovered about coaching as she was learning more
What Andrea was able to accomplish in just one academic year in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program
What Andrea is considering as she moves forward in her professional growth
What she wishes she knew before she started coaching

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Show Notes

Please tell us about your journey as an educator

Became familiar with teaching overseas with some people I grew up with, that’s what sparked my interest in international teaching. It was new at the time, so I did my own research and discovered that they have job fairs. My first first job fair was UNI. My first job was in Puerto Rico, loved it and wanted to continue international teaching, 2 years in Ecuador, where I met my husband, who also became a teacher, then moved to Korea, 5 years in Korea worked as a 5th grade teacher and language support teacher. When we felt it was time to move on, we came here to Vietnam, been here for 7 years. Started in gr 2, spent 5 years with gr 4.

What made you curious about coaching? How did you decide to start exploring the role more deeply?

This is my 18th year teaching, I’m always reminded of the teachers who have mentored me, now I often find myself in that role, so coaching felt like a natural progression. It felt like something that was natural. Discussions with my principal. Her encouragement, colleagues coming me for support. Getting positive feedback and hearing that from people that you admire, like your administrators, makes you believe in yourself a little bit more when you doubt yourself. So it is really helpful to hear that from people, especially your leaders, but they also believe in you.

From your perspective as an educator, what makes coaching so valuable? Do you have a story about being coached that you might be able to share?

The influence and impact of my mentors helped shape who I am today, it really opened my eyes to the power of coaching, as I learned more about coaching, and realized it’s more than just mentoring. I see the power and value in supporting your colleagues in being the best version of themselves. Our admin and leaders don’t always have the time to coach people or help them identify goals and grow. When people have relationships with you, coaching can be even more powerful.

After going through a coaching cycle with my coaching partner, he said when you have a coach in the room it’s very different than having an administrator in the room. He felt less pressure of being evaluated like he would with an admin. That’s what makes coaching so valuable. It’s a safe space to take risks.

Once you started learning about coaching, what surprised you? What did you expect?

What surprised me is how much you need to practice: the listening skills, the paraphrasing, the asking good questions. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Thats why I feel like this journey is going to continue for me. That’s

A big part of the process is being vulnerable to practice and try – even when you’re not confident yet. That’s what makes you better, just doing it and being vulnerable. It’s not easy to coach someone, but the other side of that is the way you get better is to practice.

I was also surprised that there are so many people who are willing to be coached. After I released my needs assessment, I got so much positive feedback.

How did the artifacts you created in the Coach lead to conversations with potential coaching partners

Started out by making my definition of coaching, shared that with my Director of Teaching & Learning – before I shared with anyone else. Then I shared it out with the staff at a staff meeting. Let everyone know what I was doing and the program I was in. Let them get familiar with coaching because most people didn’t know about coaching. That got people interested and asking questions. After I had my coaching definition, I created a Needs Assessment in Phase 2 of the program. I didn’t feel ready to create a coaching menu. In the needs assessment I included my coaching definition and a rationale for why I was sharing this, along with questions about how willing they were to work with a coach, what are areas you’re finding challenging in your classroom, plus a menu that I felt comfortable supporting them. Got really good feedback. Of the 13 homeroom teachers, I got 9 responses and most of them were open to it. This showed that there’s a need and a want. Had more conversations with DTL so the school would know what I was working on. The last artifact that I created was that I completed a coaching cycle with my teaching partner. I plan to share this with the school too so they can see coaching in action.

How have you been building your coaching skills this year? What are some of your key learnings from The Coach?

I feel more confident in my elevator pitch to explain what coaching is and what it is not. Coaching is more than mentoring or consulting. The three stances of coaching, how you navigate between them.

A big learning I had in The Coach is that coaching is a partnership. In my mind I was thinking more that coaching would be like consulting. It’s not all about me, it’s about us. Getting people to think and come to their own realizations rather than me giving them to them. I’ve done more consulting in the past, but in coaching you want people to come to those realizations on their own.

All the resources in The Coach helped so much. Seeing some of the videos that we got to watch, seeing other people in action helps you identify what they’re doing, and noticing what you can do. The mentor videos were really helpful.

It also helped having people in the course who were more experienced. During the cohort meetups there were people that really helped clarify those things as well.

Just going through the coaching cycle, practicing it, and watching it back, helped me come to those realizations. Watch yourself back. Record yourself, especially at the beginning so you can go back and reflect. It’s something you really have to practice, especially if you’re used to give advice more frequently.

Wherever you are in your coaching journey, if you have good intentions, it’s still going to support the people you’re working with. Be vulnerable and practice, because that’s how you learn.

What’s YOUR level of coaching mastery?

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Show Notes continued…

Now that you know so much more about coaching, what are you thinking about as you hope to apply for a coaching position in the future?

What’s going to be really important to me is to continue practicing. The next step is continuing to practice. Next year I’m going to be a grade 4 teacher, but I want to make the most of the opportunities that I have with the colleagues who have expressed interest, to continue practicing. I will collect feedback and document the work we do together will be helpful to share with the admin team to help them see the value of coaching.

I think by being proactive and asking if I can be a part of starting Learning Walks in our elementary school or maybe some mini PD workshops I could do after school. Just little things that I feel confident in that I could offer to other teachers that I know that they’d be interested in learning more about as well. Being proactive and making myself visible and available to people will really help hopefully leaders see that I would be great in that role.

What’s one thing you wish you knew before you started this journey?

I wish I would have known the impact of coaching sooner. This is a conversation I have almost every year with my principal at my annual goal meeting. I’ve been saying for years how I want to do The Coach, and I kept procrastinating. Finally this year I decided, I’m gonna do it and if I say it’s my learning goal with my principal, like I’m gonna have to do it. If I had known the impact of coaching sooner, maybe that would’ve pushed me a little bit earlier into doing it.

Seeing Lindsay & John’s session at ETC also inspired me. Like I just really like seeing their journey and like how they work together and like the impact that it had. So yeah, I think just like, I wish I would’ve seen that impact sooner, but maybe the timing was meant to be .

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

Go for it! This program is relevant for anyone in any part of their coaching journey. Even if I didn’t want to become a coach, all the skills I learned are super valuable just working with teams and working with other people. Just having a coaching mindset is valuable. Regardless of what you wanna do with it, it’s gonna be relevant for you as an educator.

I really just like that you can make it what you want it to be. There’s so many different opportunities for what you can create. The format of the whole program is very open for all different levels of coaching experience. There’s some people in the program that have been coaches for years or they’re administrators or there are people like me that are just getting started. So it’s really built for anybody anywhere along this journey. So I would say do it!

If you’re a person that really loves supporting others and seeing people grow, I feel like this course is for you because you can build off of what you’re already doing and make a bigger impact. You don’t always wanna be giving advice and like sharing your expertise, but really trying to help other people become more independent in doing that work. Regardless of what you wanna do with it, it would make a big impact.

Is there anything that we, you thought we might talk about today that I didn’t ask you about? Or anything that you’re thinking about?

I hope that people see more and more the value of having coaches in their schools. I’ve never worked in a school with coaches, but when I see the power that it has, I really actually wish that I could have had those opportunities before, because I think it would probably have made me grow even more. I see people that are willing to grow, but maybe they just don’t have that support. People want to learn, people want to be really good at what they’re doing, they just need someone to support them on that journey. And that’s why I think coaching is so awesome.

If you’re a person who likes supporting others… FIND THIS

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A Case Study: Finding Her Path to Instructional Coaching with Andrea Goodrich [293]