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 Kira’s Video

Read Kira’s Reflection

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

At the beginning of the program, I was looking for strategies and approaches to deepen my coaching work and shift myself out of staying in a consulting stance or resource provider role. I tend to lean towards being an “Accomodator” and don’t always push my coaching partner to a reflective process. This is what Joellen Killion refers to as “coaching light” versus “coaching heavy”. I also wanted to create a bank of coaching strategies and questions along with a way to collect data and reflect on my impact as a coach.

How did each milestone support you in reaching your goal?

The milestones I created were designed to prompt the shift from “coaching light” to “coaching heavy”. The coaching menu and coaching conversation template that I created move through identifying goals, taking action and reflecting on student learning which leads to a deeper coaching engagement, or “coaching heavy”.

As a coaching team, we also developed a variety of milestones to track our coaching data and reflect on our impact. We used this data to develop an action plan and yearly calendar to help set direction for our future coaching work.

What has been your biggest area of growth in the program?

My biggest area of growth has been developing an awareness of the coaching stances and the importance of shifting between these stances. Now I strive to stay in a coaching stance which is where the deepest impact for growth occurs, Being aware of what stance I am working in as a coach has led me to making coaching moves that are purposeful and supportive. I am also noticing when this shift is happening so I can make attempts at deepening the coaching engagement as much as possible. Coaching with consciousness and understanding states of mind and coaching into these is another area that I grew in this year.

Where do you still have room to grow?

I think I will always be growing. Every coaching engagement is different and will allow me to continue to stretch my coaching skills. Specifically, I still need to grow into having a natural coaching flow and feeling confident with my questioning and paraphrasing skills.

What surprises and/or challenges have you had along the way?

I think a surprise is how important it is to have clarity. It became evident that our school doesn’t have a clear understanding of coaching and how to utilize a coach and this was an area that our team worked on a lot on this year. I also realized how important it is to be strategic and take time to plan coaching engagements rather than coach on the fly. This will always lead to a deeper and more meaningful engagement.

How did the Coach support you in your learning journey?

I appreciated the content in the course and the way it was organized. I don’t take enough time in my busy days to synthesize my learning and reflect. I know I will keep coming back to my workbook as a very valuable reference. The artifacts were also useful to build my coaching toolbox.

How has your learning inside the Coach impacted your coaching practice & program in your school setting?

I am much more purposeful and directive in my coaching. I feel more confident leading a coaching conversation and trying to push deeper into a reflective coaching cycle. I also feel that our coaching team has developed the clarity and consistency needed to continue to grow the coaching culture in our school.

What’s next for your professional learning?

I am moving to a full time coaching role next year so I look forward to more opportunities to dive into coaching cycles and continuing to apply my learning from this year. As a team, our next step is to look at the impact of coaching in our school. We have been tracking important statistically data this year but we need to find more ways to collect qualitative data on our impact not only for teachers but on how coaching directly impacts student learning.

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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!