We want to give you a peek inside our Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program. Coaches taking part in this academic-year-long journey have graciously given us permission to post some of their learning and reflections from the private coursework they are undertaking during this program. Where possible, we have shared the course and the action task to give context for the guest post.

Watch Heather’s Video

Read Heather’s Reflection

Goals & Areas of Growth

I wanted to work with a variety of teachers this year and I was able to do that by co-planning curricular units. I helped elementary teachers use a design lens in their units of inquiry, a middle school teacher to create a media class focused on film making and a dance teacher on their pop culture unit to name a few.

I was finally able to put all my coaching knowledge to work and engage in a coaching cycle this year with a high school science teacher.

I learned that coaching secondary teachers can look different than elementary. Since my background is elementary, I can move to and from a coaching stance to a consultant role throughout a conversation. With secondary and especially a subject that is not my expertise, I found it easier to focus on the coaching to really help the teacher uncover their thinking since I am not able to play a consultant role. For the teacher, he commented that it was helpful to have a coaching cycle to clarify what he needed to create for his students and to help hold him accountable to that thinking and creating work.

Challenges

A challenge for our team is still trying to find where coaches fit into the existing structures where in the past there were none. Change is hard and there is some push back about how they want things to be like last year. Knowing about change management and helping others transition through change has helped keep my mindset in the right place.

Milestones & Coach Course

Creating the milestones in The Coach course helped the coaching team and I move forward in our vision for coaching at ASW. We were able to brainstorm a list of artifacts and coaches created what interested them. The great thing about working in the team is we were able to collaborate and create documentation that helped shape our coaching program along the way as we iterated on ideas.

I have really enjoyed doing The Coach course alongside my coaching team. It has made creating a program less daunting and made me a better coach. My advice to coaches, especially ones who are the only coach at their school, is to use this course to connect and collaborate with other coaches so that you are growing your own professional network and to dive deeper into coaching practices and strategies.

Reflecting about all the work we were able to accomplish this year, I’m excited about where we are and how we will move and grow our coaching program next year.

Next Steps

I am looking forward to more opportunities to engage in coaching cycles with teachers, facilitate learning labs and co-planning units with teachers next year.

Level Up Your Coaching with The Coach!

If you are ready to dive deep into your coaching practice, to help you #coachbetter and build a thriving coaching culture in your school, please join us for our next cohort of The Coach!

Wherever you are in building a coaching culture in your school, The Coach will give you the strategies, skills and tools you need to make coaching a success and will empower you to confidently apply instructional coaching strategies in any situation – from building a coaching program, to having coaching conversations, to being a leader in your school community. We facilitate only one cohort each academic year so we can offer individualized support for each participant.

Coaches of all levels are welcome: you’ll start the program with a self-assessment to determine exactly what the next steps are for you!