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 Kerri’s Video

Read Kerri’s Reflection

What goals did you set for yourself at the beginning of the program?

As a group we really wanted to continue to develop our coaching culture.

How did each milestone support you in reaching your goal?

I believe that each milestone helped us develop a sense of what that could look like but also gave us physical artifacts that we could relay the information with – not just through conversation.

Which milestone had the most impact on your professional growth this year & why?

Before creating Milestone one, our district’s vision for coaching in mathematics was “To increase opportunities for success for teachers and students by inspiring excellence in math instruction. Coaches will support teachers by meeting them where they are to build their capacity and effectiveness.” This is a very broad statement and wasn’t shared out among the staff (just the coaches and the math supervisor).

Now that we feel the four coaches have been working together and we were able to narrow this vision down, making it more student-centered. With our vision we have creating for the Milestone 1, we now feel like we will be able to share this out with our administration and staff to help build the coaching culture in the district.

Within Milestone 1, we also created a three column artifact that helps determine the roles of the supervisor, coach and interventionist that can be used for admin and teachers when a question or wonder arise.

Where do you still have room to grow?

I think putting all of the impactful tools and techniques into practice. Not just having them but using them as well.

What surprises and/or challenges have you had along the way? What would you do differently next time? What did you learn?

Unfortunately our district’s internet was down for almost a month and a half. That set us back a lot with this course. Keeping up weekly with this course is absolutely necessary! Catch up has been difficult in addition to all of the work we are responsible for here at school.

How did the Coach support you in your learning journey?

It reminded me to continue to learn and reflect. Our previous supervisor was really big on reflecting. Although us coaches tend to reflect, it doesn’t always happen alongside our admin anymore.

What next for your professional learning?

We just began to incorporate a coaching platform called Steplab. It seems like they will continue to walk us through a coaching cycle with incremental steps to complete with teachers. I think for us learning more about “deep coaching” rather than “surface coaching” will just continue to allow us to grow in our work.

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!