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.
The Topic: Phase 2: Implement Consistently
The Task: Share your artifact and a written reflection on your learning during this phase.
There were so many aha moments for me in this phase. There were so many things I was wondering about, like: how to build a coaching program; how to find coaching partners and work with resistant colleagues; what the coaching cycle looked like; what kind of questions are best to ask in coaching conversations; what a coaching conversation sounded like… and the list went on. This phase brought all of that together for me.
One big aha moment for me came after watching “The Carriage Train” video. This was a great visual to help start thinking about a strategy to reach colleagues and where to best invest my energy as a coach. It helped to think about building capacity and creating leadership within the school that can potentially help to create a movement and encourage resistant teachers. It also helped me to start thinking about how a coach can often represent the change that can be intimidating.
Another big aha moment for me was learning that coaches do a lot of listening. It is our job to focus on the goals of our partner, and to listen to empower them. Of course, there may be times when we need to change our stance and play more of a consultant role, but the big goal is to draw out what our partner already has inside of them through reflective conversations. Thinking about using tentative language reminds me a lot of the kind of teaching I do in my own classroom. Reading and Writing workshop also uses a lot of invitational language to invite the students to try out new strategies and challenge themselves. I found a close connection to the way I speak to my students, and how a coach uses tentative language. This made me think that this kind of communication already feels pretty comfortable for me.
Another big aha moment for me was that coaching conversations sound just like that… a conversation. After listening to one of Kim’s example conversations, my biggest takeaway was that it flowed so naturally. I could see where Kim moved between stances, starting from a coaching stance and moving to a consultant stance, but it didn’t feel at all forced. This clearly comes from practice, but also from listening and being able to respond to what your coaching partner has said. I have started trying to practice having coaching conversations, and they still feel very very forced, but I know with practice it will get easier.
The biggest obstacle for me was thinking ahead to my milestone artifact. In truth, I wanted to create everything because I know that all of the options will be really useful. I decided to create a needs assessment as my school does not have a coaching program. As my school implements its coaching program, it is going to be really important to listen to the needs and ideas of our staff to make decisions and set goals. The results from the needs assessment would give us some direction.
However… I didn’t know where to start! I was wondering if I should create a needs assessment that I could share now before having established a coaching program at my schooll- or if I should create one thinking ahead to when we have already started implementing the program. Kim suggested that I create one for now so that I could take a pulse of the current situation at my school. Next I’d have to think about questions I could ask. I decided to look for examples online, and asked Kim for some support. Kim suggested that I create a google doc with all of my ideas and she would offer some feedback. In the document, I wrote down my goals, how I wanted to analyze the data, and possible questions I wanted to ask. Kim’s feedback was incredibly helpful! She helped me to think about some high leverage questions that would give me some insight into the experiences my colleagues have had with coaching; what they thought was missing from our current professional development; how they like to learn; and perhaps some misconceptions about coaching that they may have. Kim also guided me to think about phrasing the questions so that the data I received back would be quantitative and more efficient to analyze. Kim gave me a lot of support, but I felt empowered through the process and I’m sure I could create a survey with more independence in the future.
I shared this needs assessment with my principal, and he was really enthusiastic about using it to learn more about what our colleagues are thinking and their experiences. He also suggested sharing this survey with the whole school as we whole school goals for PD. I think the results from the survey will give me some direction for how I could create a coaching menu and communicate my (potential) role to colleagues.
Thinking about goals, I would say I’m still early on in the process. My school is making moves to implement a program, but I think the work I am doing is still very much related to this course and not in practice yet. I would like to sit down with the leadership team to discuss some ways we can make the program sustainable by setting up systems and structures. I think that is an important next step to take.
For my personal next step, I am going to be working on practicing a coaching cycle. I have made a connection with one of my colleagues, and we met to chat briefly and set some intentions/partner agreements. We will meet next week to have a pre-observation meeting.
This is a link to the planning document that I created and where Kim gave me lots of feedback.
This is a link to the needs assessment that I created.
Read more from The Coach participants as they share their learning from the certificate & mentorship program…
Lindy: Leadership vs Instructional Coach Coaching Conversation
Nikki: A Pathway to Instructional Coaching for All
Ana Cristina: What is Coaching?
Angela: The Benefits of Coaching
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