This #coachbetter episode is another in our series of coaching case studies, with one of Kim’s clients, Jenn Overstreet, who is now Head of School in Italy, but when we recorded this call she was an instructional coach at the American International School of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Jenn is a highly experienced coach, and she had just graduated The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program when we spoke.

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.

In this conversation Kim and Jenn talk about…

Jenn’s experience building a coaching program at AISR
Why and how they’re hosting data retreats with teachers
What she’s including in her instructional coaching playbook as she’s transitioning out of this role, into her new school
What she was able to accomplish in The Coach as an experienced instructional coach

Connect with our Featured Guest

Jenn @

See All Podcast Episodes

Subscribe to #coachbetter via your favorite Podcast Player!

Bonus! Watch the Spotlight Version on YouTube!

Show Notes

Please tell us about your education journey? How did you get to where you are and what’s next?

Started teaching in public schools in Delaware, for 6 years, teaching multiple grade levels. When I felt an itch to move abroad, I had no idea the international world existed, I stumbled upon it, and learned that there are international schools in Italy. I went out on a limb applied to the website and got a job teaching 5th grade, my husband also got a job at another school. Was in Rome for many years, doing a variety of things including EdTech Coordinator & Director of Teaching & Learning, before I came to Riyad to launch the coaching program.

You’ve spent this year building a coaching program from scratch in your school, what has that been like? What’s worked? What would you do differently?

In my previous roles, I always took a coaching lens. I was so excited to come into the year and just focus on coaching. Alongside of this I was finishing my PhD in mindfulness and leadership and how they coexist, particularly how they align with teacher wellbeing. When teachers are satisfied with their work, they have a lot of autonomy around their own professional learning. “You have to feed the teachers so they don’t eat the kids”.

Trust was my most important thing going into this year. There’s a misconception that trust takes a long time to build. I think trust can be built quickly through following through, being visible, having open and honest communication. It doesn’t take a whole year to start.

I wanted to visit 100% of the teachers on my checklist in the first two weeks. It was also eating lunch, getting to know people personally, just being a curious individual.

Lean on the idea that you can build trust rapidly by being visible and being curious.

I entered the year wanting to be responsive to teacher needs.

What I noticed was that the November – December part of the year things got messy: field trips, Week Without Walls, MAP testing, consultants on campus. I felt like I had gone from responsive coaching to reactive conversations in hallways. That’s when I decided to pivot. I came back from winter break and tried coaching cycles. It went well. What I’ve done for the next year is calendarize the coaching cycles: a responsive time at the beginning of the year, and then mapping coaching cycles in between data cycles, and then planning times like November & December when the coaching team might be more focused on internal Professional Development and building their own systems and structures.

Just like we do in the classroom, we try things out, test it and try again. Having an inquiry mindset, approaching things from curiosity and wonder.

Communicate 40+ times to get people to actually hear your message

Focus on trust and confidentiality

Selling the program – on purpose

Hosting data retreats: what does this mean? How do they work? What do you do?

We were doing a lot of testing and data collection, but we weren’t doing as much as we could with it. We collect all this data and then the year just starts rolling and we don’t use it intentionally. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to make data visible because data tells a story. So we hosted a data retreat after all the data was collected.

3 hours per team (breaks included). A retreat from normal teaching, duties, etc for us to sit down and roll up our sleeves and dig into the data. Structure was:

Shared understanding around assessments we collected and what they tell us to get on the same page (diagnostics, screeners, beginning of the year data);
what do we notice? What are we seeing (atlas protocol)
Strategic planning (led to common word study for a grade level)

After data retreat, plan was to have a 6-week data cycle, through team-based group coaching & some individual next step coaching for individuals who wanted that.

Mini data retreat in February, same process but condensed with learning leaders leading those meetings to spread the culture of coaching; looked at mid-year benchmark data.

Ended up having 2.5 data cycles around really structured time and intentional time talking about data, for next year a good goal would be 3 cycles. Staggering data retreats with the launch of a coaching cycle, so that teachers who now have the data can

What were some of the outcomes?

One of the teams uncovered a need for math extension. Sometimes the thriving students are the ones we push along instead of take deeper. After the mid year retreat, we had a team who wanted to take the learning deeper. Saw a great opportunity to strengthen tier one instruction across the board, and then enrich the thriving students. Bringing more of an inquiry stance. Team coaching cycle. Over about 4-5 weeks, we had the data conversation, we focused on tier one instruction, shifting some routines, I did some model teaching (numberless word problems, number talks, to increase student discourse, introduce math journals and writing about math); handoff for the teacher to do this ( I came in to observe), then teacher to teacher feedback.

As a coach you have to be enthusiastic about this process. I was over the top excited about the data. You have to perform for the teachers, it was genuine but I heightened my excitement about data.

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!

TAKE THE QUIZ!

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

Show Notes continued…

Creating an instructional coaching playbook: what needs to be included? How might it support a growing coaching program?

As an instructional leader, you are ensuring legacy pieces for the school beyond your tenure. As we went through the year, I was documenting things that worked, or tried, so anyone who stepped into the role would know what has been done & what works.

We’re still working on getting our structures and pieces of the playbook in place before we share with teachers. Some of the pieces that are in there are:

Philosophy of coaching / purpose statement
Models of coaching – what could it look like
How might a coaching conversation look like (values based coaching)
Coaching menu
Goal setting templates
Reflection protocols
Sentence stems
Ways to look at data

Goal is to be updated annually as a tool and culture guide for what coaching looks like at the school.

The piece that was most challenging was differentiating for roles: coaches, coordinators next year, learning leaders. Trying to be clear for our teachers on what do coaches do, what do coordinators do, what do learning leaders do – and what is the overlap.

I’m developing baseball cards of all of our teachers about their strengths and passions to help coaches and coordinators connect teachers to each other.

Tell us one coaching story from your experience that stands out in your mind: how and when have you seen coaching make an impact on learning: what was the catalyst for working together? How did the process work? What was the impact on learning?

You’ve really focused on designing a humanizing program that centers the learner and their needs. Can you tell us how you were able to do that? What did you prioritize? How did that communicate the roles of coaches and grow ownership / interest in coaching?

This whole time, you were in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program, how has The Coach supported your development as an instructional coach and a leader?

Because the Coach aligned with the academic year almost perfectly, it was an incredible resource to have you to lean on as I was working through all of these pieces. The resources were incredibly to lean on, but to have a sounding board so it didn’t feel like I was doing this alone, to have someone to talk me down or lift me up. It was the human side of the things but also the logistics of knowing if I need it I will find it in the Coach.

When you look back on the year, what do you think is most important for coaches and leaders to consider?

Learn out loud, learn publicly. Talking about your learning, above all of the other pieces, has the most impact. Teachers never viewed me as an expert, they viewed me as someone they could learn alongside, try something with, be safe with. It’s those little moments that build up over time that eliminate those feelings of being evaluated over time, and creates that joyful element. We can all have a little more fun, add a little more play, because without it, it starts to feel more intense, without it it leads to burnout.

What’s next for you?

Stepping into a Head of School role in Southern Italy. Super small school which means a lot of flexibility to create teaching and learning labsites. It’s a new school so I can weave in coaching from the beginning, weave in humanizing practices.

Ready to create a coaching culture that improves student learning and builds belonging?

Come learn with me!

I help educators, instructional coaches, informal or positional leaders work together to create thriving coaching cultures that improve student learning and build belonging.

Coaching programs based on the Thrive Model, with clarity, consistency and community, can create time and space for educators to feel seen, heard, respected and valued for the experts that they are – creating a sustainable system of educator professional growth that ultimately improves student learning.

For this kind of coaching to thrive we need to focus on both the micro view of your coaching practice and the macro view of your coaching program, so while you’re developing your individual coaching practice you’re also intentionally developing a sustainable coaching culture.

If you’re ready to build this kind of coaching culture in your school community, join us for the Thrive Coaching Certificate program!

edurolearning.com/coach

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

When you’re ready, there are three key ways we can work together:

Leave a comment below, or reply to any of my emails and let’s start a conversation to see how we can work together to create a thriving coaching culture in your school setting!

Connect with us!

Subscribe to the podcast iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher

Join our #coachbetter Facebook group

Explore our courses for coaches

CASE STUDY: Hosting Data Retreats as an Instructional Coach with Jenn Overstreet [317]