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.
Connect with SaraThe Topic: Phase 2: Implement Consistently
The Task: Share your artifact and a written reflection on your learning during this phase.
An “aha” moment I had during Phase 2 was that I don’t need complete or finalized systems and structures in place in order to focus on my own coaching skills and practices. This is something Kim said to me early on in this Phase, which gave me permission to stop focusing so much on the macro-level systems, and get back to practicing and prototyping my own coaching skills. In the absence of some of these systems and structures, it was sometimes challenging to know exactly what to focus my time and energy, but with the guidance of the coursework, I decided to focus on coaching conversations (particularly being more intentional about taking different stances) and coaching cycles.
To that end, I chose to create a Coaching Cycle template to track coaching cycles that I wanted to begin formalizing. I wanted to create this for my own organizational purposes (so that I had a place for all of my notes) as well as to provide some consistency for our team. If we are using the same template to track our coaching cycles, it’s more likely that we will use similar language when talking to teachers, which will hopefully lead to more clarity about what coaching cycles are and how they can support teaching and learning.
As I practiced using the template, it underwent a few different changes. Most recently, I added headers to the “meeting notes” table to guide each meeting throughout the coaching cycle. I’m not sure if I’m satisfied with these headers yet, and I’m also contemplating adding in key questions to ask at each stage in the cycle, but I don’t want to make the template too long, so currently they are linked in through another document. I also added in a space to jot down notes from class visits/observations/data collections at the very bottom. I don’t have a great way to organize these yet.
I have used the template for 2 different coaching cycles already, and I think it’s working well for me so far. A “next step” will be to ask the other members of my coaching team to try using it to get feedback so that we can hopefully begin using 1 template for all of the coaching cycles at our school. As we practice being more intentional about coaching cycles and “formalizing” them in way (at the very least, using the language more explicitly), it’s my hope that they become a part of the coaching culture and that more teachers see the value added in engaging in coaching cycles!
Read more from The Coach participants as they share their learning from the certificate & mentorship program…
Isidro: Coaching Cycle Infographic
Melissa: Creating a Needs Assessment
Lindy: Leadership vs Instructional Coach Coaching Conversation
Nikki: A Pathway to Instructional Coaching for All
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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.
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