This #coachbetter episode is another in our series of coaching case studies, with one of Kim’s amazing clients, Sarah Tudge, High School Curriculum Coordinator at the International School of Manila in the Philippines. At the time of recording, Sarah had just graduated from The Coach and completed her amazing Action Research around the impact of coaching – if you want to see the outcome of her research, make sure to check out her Final Project blog post on our website at coachbetter.tv.

We’re excited to share this episode with Sarah with you because Sarah came to The Coach with a TON of coaching experience and she still learned and achieved so much, all of which was very specifically tailored for the needs of her school community because The Coach is so customizable for your individual needs. Sarah points out in this episode how valuable having a whole academic year to devote to developing her coaching skills was, and she truly made the most of it!.

This episode is a deep dive into the ways that coaching can be the bridge between more formal professional learning experiences and actual impact in the classroom. Sarah’s experience and action research throughout her time in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program really uncover the ways that coaching empowers teachers to create tangible change in their practice – with support and without evaluation.

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Show Notes

Please tell us about your journey as an educator

Started coaching in London, my job was an Advanced Skills Teachers, part of that job was to coach newly qualified teachers, as well as teachers who were in a year PD plan. When a new government came in, that role within British Schools disappeared. Then we moved to Tanzania. In Germany, I coached as well, Cognitive Coaching in Japan, now ISM CC. School has been amazingly supportive doing JK work, and doing The Coach this year.

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

Did Life Coaching and it had a massive impact on me personally. My coach has stayed with me, and helps me every time we move to a new country. That’s where I really saw, initially, the power of coaching. It really helped me with these transition spaces (one country, one role, one school to the next).

Coaching is so valuable because of its impact on students. You’re working with these brilliant educators, being a thought partner, getting data. I’ve seen phenomenal growth in classrooms.

As a curriculum coordinator, I’m often working with bringing people into the school or schoolwide initiatives. And sometimes it’s really like, where does that impact the child? Everybody’s gone to PD that they’ve absolutely loved, and you go away for a weekend, you come back to school, and school is crazy busy and somehow it doesn’t quite land with the child. I’ve seen with coaching that it is really the bridge between the experience of professional learning and growth and actual impact on the children in the classroom.

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

I think it was the idea of having this year-long course because so many coaching courses are these very intensive eight days, and you’re working and you’re practicing, and then again, you’re back into school. In Japan what we did is that the whole middle leadership was trained in cognitive coaching, and then we didn’t really have a structure that helped for it to happen. So it would be kind of like, oh, here’s five minutes in a meeting, let’s all quickly coach each other. And, and I could see without, uh, a kind of structure, it just, the impact wasn’t there as much as we had hoped it would be. This idea of having a year long course where I could be talking to you every two weeks, I could be in this global cohort of people who were giving me feedback and it just deepened my practice. And that was what I was really after, it really deepened my learning.

You have so much experience with coaching in so many different contexts, what brings all this work together for you, in your current role?

After completing The Coach, I’m lot more mindful about the type of conversations I’m having. Last week I counted how many conversations I have in a day. There are a LOT. Now, as I’m approaching one of those many conversations: I’m saying to myself: is this a coaching mindset conversation, a collaborative conversation, a FOG conversation, a coaching cycle conversation? And all of those require a cognitive shift for me, and I think that that intentionality that I didn’t have before.

The outcome of the conversation is where I have to tweak my work. I’m always thinking about what is the outcome of this conversation? And that’s where the tweak in me has to happen as well, what does this teacher need right now or in a week’s time or so? It’s again, always thinking about that impact on the students

I think it’s something that you’ve said over and over in the course when you say that teachers are busy people. Like that is a narrative that you say repeatedly. And I think I’m always like, I have this moment. I try and breathe, make a cognitive shift in my head, and then say, what is gonna be the most impactful with this very, very busy person?

Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot is, that tool toolbox that you have. That’s where, in a coaching cycle, when I’m in the coaching cycle conversation, I know that I can prep for that. It’s not just the conversation in the corridor where I just have to be able to maneuver very fast, but for the coaching cycle, I actually spend a lot of time really contemplating what question does this teacher need? And I think that’s where the power lies because you’ve got a little bit of time to really, really think and prepare.

That’s what I’ve loved about the course, being able to pull all the resources that we’ve got and thinking like, what is the thing? It’s that quest for the conversation that’s gonna land and a teacher’s gonna beam to you that this is unlocked something.

The conversation in the corridor I have to move really fast.

We’ve been talking a lot about the difference between coaching and school-wide professional growth plan processes, can you tell us more about that?

As a curriculum coordinator post-covid, schools have changed, through the last 3 schools that I’ve been at, listening to my admin team, they have been saying that their urgent need / goal is to get into more classrooms, and then at the end of the year there’s a flurry to get into classrooms to see everything that’s required. So I’ve been thinking maybe we need to do something a little bit different.

It’s time and scale that might need to be different. What’s similar what’s different in a growth model vs coaching cycles. Figuring out where the leverage point is in the very busy school environment.

In your recent action research, you worked with teachers in a coaching cycle to uncover how they felt about coaching, in comparison to a more formal professional growth plan process, what did you find?

3 teachers worked with me in a coaching cycle. I was very intentional about choosing different teachers (not all the “genki” teachers). They felt that they grew, impacted students, felt seen, heard, values. The agency part is what they really spoke about. At the end, they all said: We are so busy and having this opportunity really led to growth and impact on students in the classroom. It’s hard to do this at scale.

Two things I’ve been contemplating:

The goal: the meeting where you sit with the teacher and get the goal that has an emotional impact. It’s really hard to do that on a large scale.
Post observation reflection: where the growth sits.
The agency and the reflective growth is where the big growth happens
Data on student impact .

Next year, we’re going to swap. I’ve been in the departmental track, next year I will move into the individual track.

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Show Notes continued…

What do you wish school leaders knew about the value of coaching?

Because a coach isn’t working directly with kids, it’s often a cost cutting measure to let coaches go first when the budget needs to be tightened. You’re very clear about this in the course about how you have to show your worth to retain your position.

Coaching mindset: impacts teachers, coaching cycles impacts kids. A teacher has an impact of practice and a coaching mindset might help them figure out the

Over this year in The Coach, you’ve been doing a lot of intentional work around the impact of coaching, what has been rising to the surface for you, as an experienced coach and leader?

It’s hard to pick one – I got so much out of the program. One thing is systems. I feel like I have been trained as a coach for quite a long time, but my systems weren’t that great. The way you are so intentional about the agenda, and keeping records, really systemizing the way I’ve been working.

The other piece that really impacted me was thinking about leadership. Coaches thinking about themselves as a leader. As a Curriculum Coordinator I’m part of the program leader team, it just made me really consider that part of it. Who am I working with, how am I being intentional about who I’m working with. Curriculum Coordinator and Coaches are so similar. I’m trying to fuse those two together at the moment for next year.

You’ve been brilliant with me because I came in thinking I would do 20 coaching cycles, but now I know the amount I could actually do.

When you’re trying to get curriculum into the class

Given all of your experience this year, how might educators start a conversation in their school about the impact of coaching?

What is coaching, what isn’t it. So everyone is really clear about what this thing is.

Going back to my first experience, we’d all been trained, but we couldn’t really do it.

It’s not this, it’s not that. The clarity on what this is.

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

It takes time and you’ve gotta practice. You might know the theory, but when you’re in the conversation, you might trip up and it might not land perfectly. We cognitively understand the skills, but it’s only through practicing that you start to become more proficient. Being kind to yourself, and reflect on what you might be able to improve.

What’s on your radar for next year?

Coaching for equity. I’ve done a lot of reading. I want to practice, I want to get better. I want to keep working with teachers.

Teachers said after coaching: I feel energized about my practice. That relationship with those three teachers, they saw me as a thought partner, I want to develop that. I have 100 educators I want to develop that with them.

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

Structures, systems, pausing. Forgiveness. If you start with those good foundations. All the things you need, you can pick up and hand to a teacher, you’re starting in such a great place. Having those systems is so valuable.

Coaching is a lot more complicated than just sitting down and having a conversation. Knowing what the different types of conversations look like. The space in between when a teacher might feel like they’re not making an impact. Each of those parts of the coaching cycle might need different types of questions and structures. It’s like a life cycle of learning. If you can have a good system, good at taking notes, good at knowing, next steps. It took ages for me to trust in the metacognitive. All those little bits, try and get your systems.

I loved the course, I really loved the way it’s paced, the reflective nature of it, how much I learnt, I’m so grateful for the experience.

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CASE STUDY: Bridging the Gap Between Professional Learning & Classroom Action with Sarah Tudge [305]