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 Coach Learning Journey Video Reflection
The Learning Journey Video Reflection is a chance for you to reflect on everything you’ve learned and/or discovered throughout this Certificate Program. You will create an 8-10 min video sharing on the goal that you set, documenting the process of working towards your goal, reflecting on your achievement and sharing the process/outcome with our learning community. The most important part of your personal project is that it’s relevant to you, and you can demonstrate, through documentation and video, the impact your work has had on your school.
Watch Ken’s Video
The Coach program has really helped me in many of my roles. I find myself thinking more systematically that I did at this time last year. As a teacher, I ask myself many of the coaching questions when I am preparing for lessons or reflecting.
What goals did you set for yourself at the beginning of the program?
At the beginning of the course, I was spending significant extra hours at work and wanted to find a way to spend some of those hours invested more wisely both in myself and in ways that would help our school. As our PreK-12 Digital learning Coach, I knew that I could benefit from the program, but I was also very curious if being a full-time Instructional Coach might be a career option for me. My core goal was to use the course to see if I wanted to make the transition from coaching educational technology to be an instructional coach. I felt that this might be a way to make more of an impact on student learning.
How did each milestone support you in reaching your goal?
As I am still an aspirational instructional coach and because I am the only Digital Learning Coach in our school, I did choose to apply three of the four milestone projects in a way that helped me at my current position while also helping me learn about how to think about a possible future position as a full time instructional coach. I found each of the phases to be helpful as I progressed through the program and I am happy that we were given the challenge to take action on what we learned in meaningful ways for our schools. I also benefited from the feedback of peers and those in my PLN as we were asked to share both within The Coach community and publicly on professional social media platforms.
Ultimately, my goal was to start coaching conversations as an Digital Learning Coach, but while doing that successfully, also extend the invitation for instructional coaching in general. I feel that my Milestone Projects will continue to help me do that.
What has been your biggest area of growth in the program?
My biggest area of growth during the program was the ability to recall, apply, and adjust the different frameworks, protocols, and tips that were introduced in The Coach program. Even things that seem trivial like where to sit – precisely so that your coachee can see your notes as you talk is something that I never thought about before.
I think that the readings and conversations really helped me think about the required repeatable steps that would be needed to create a sustainable coaching program at any school.
Where do you still have room to grow?
I think that I have two needed areas of growth. First, I need more repetitions. I will continue to grow each month with practice. The second is that I use many great strategies, but I can’t say that I have an excellent system yet. With time and more practice, I will be able to more smoothly transition from one strategy to another strategy as I hear something in a response that should lead to a changing of strategies. This will come with time and I feel like I am equipped for these next steps.
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!
What surprises and/or challenges have you had along the way?
I can’t say that there are a lot of surprises, I guess I would say that I am quite surprised at just how much the experts all agree on some fairly consistent behaviors, habits and attitudes that coaches should possess to best help students learn via working with coachees.
What would you do differently next time? What did you learn?
Of course I would do my best to keep up with the lessons. With that said, I have had some large opportunities and some large challenges this past year that were outside of my expectations and control when I signed up for the class.
For example, I did not know that I would be selected for the Google Certified Innovator program; it is also an overlapping year-long program. Some of my challenges at work this school year would set the most seasoned professional off course. Yet, in the end, I am thrilled that I did not give up and completed this course. It helped me make an impact this school year and I am excited to continue to apply what I learned.
How did the Coach support you in your learning journey?
I think the most valuable aspect for me is the frameworks of what to look for and how to plan. I really learned to appreciate the prescriptions that Jim Knight provided as a blueprint for success. The whitepaper about transforming a school through the lens of collaboration as well as the framework of how to look at a school to determine if it is fertile for a coaching program were both valuable.
How has your learning inside the Coach impacted your coaching practice & program in your school setting?
Although we do not yet have a coaching culture at my school, I feel that The Coach program has really helped me in many of my roles. I find myself thinking more systematically that I did at this time last year. As a teacher, I ask myself many of the coaching questions when I am preparing for lessons or reflecting.
When designing whole school activities, I feel that I have more confidence in navigating through the many nice options and choosing one that will work great. This shows that The Coaching Program has some transferable skills that can help people of various roles in their schools.
What next for your professional learning?
My next steps for professional development include my heavy involvement in the Apple Distinguished Educator program. I was selected to be an alumni ambassador to welcome in the new class of 2023 this summer in Australia. The ADE Institutes are usually the highlight of my year for professional Development.
Last October I was invited to join the Google Certified Innovator program. That program kept me very busy from October through December with the course and the remainder of this year until September. I am leading a beta launch of the program at my school this term. After making adjustments based on feedback and observations, I will be complete and publicly launch my project this coming fall semester .
I also plan on completing the Google Certified Coach program and I am awaiting for the Apple Coach program to be released in Malaysia. One remaining program that I participate in year round is on-demand learning from EduSpark. Clearly, I truly enjoy pursuing continued professional development. The Coach program was among my most rewarding PD experiences in my 14 years of teaching and learning in Asia.
Level Up Your Coaching with The Coach!
If you are ready to develop your coaching practice over the next academic year, and explore topics like transitioning your work from individuals to teams, 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.
Registration for our next global cohort opens once a year – check the website for details!
Find out more at: https://edurolearning.com/coach/
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