Toni Boer

Canada 🇨🇦

Learning Support Coach

My name is Toni Boer. I live in Prince George, BC Canada. I am a mom to five kids and Nana to two grandbabies. I am a Learning Support Coach for Heritage Christian Online school, as well I help teachers implement Indigenous Education.

I am really excited about taking this course. As a teacher, I really do believe in being a life long learner so taking a course just makes sense. I have been told I am very approachable, as well as a good listener. I also believe in the power of story so those things are going to help me in this course. I want to learn to have the tough conversations in a holistic way. Thanks for reading! Looking froward to learning together.

Elicia Bullock

Bermuda 🇧🇲

Ed Tech and Innovation coach

My name is Elicia Bullock (she/her), and I currently live and work in Bermuda. However, I am originally from Northern BC, Canada. This year I am in a new role as an Ed Tech and Innovation coach, previously I was a middle school science and Chemistry teacher. You can find me online on Insta @achemistabroad or on my blog achemistabroad.com.

I’m excited to be back in a coaching role. When I was living in Beijing, my last year (Covid years) I was a part-time instructional coach and part-time teacher. Unfortunately, due to COVID, I left that school (mostly in China). However, I have a great opportunity again, and I decided to join “The Coach” as this is a new role at my school, and there is real organizational clarity for the role. I want to be successful in my new position and think that having support and guidance will make that difference. So my goal for this course is to develop a framework for coaching at my school to help support my work.

I suppose my special skill is Tech. I have always been a tech user in my teaching and have challenged myself to embrace new things when it comes to tech. I am currently also working on my Master’s in Ed Tech to learn more of the pedagogy behind my use of tech.

Roisin Cu

Canada 🇨🇦

Learning Support Coach

My name is Roisin Cu and I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I recently got married last year and my husband and I are planning to travel while working this year. I have recently stepped into a new role as a Learning Support Coach and I am excited to learn through this course. Before I was working at a brick and mortor school as a high school humanities teacher as well as a case manager. In this role, I was doing very casual teacher coaching, but it was never formally discussed as part of my role. In my new role, In this new role, I have been asked (along with Toni Boer) to take this course that the other coaches took last year! My goal for this year is to better understand the role of a coach and set myself up for success with a toolkit of resources that I can use. A special skill I can provide to others inside “The Coach” is that I have an Inclusive Education background and can support understanding school designations, documentation processes for students to receive funding etc! I am looking forward to learning about the best strategies and methods of coaching.

Linda Eide

Singapore 🇸🇬

Grade Four PLC coach

My name is Linda Eide (she/her). I’ve been living overseas for over 20 years, so home is really anywhere my family is located. I am from the US, my husband is from New Zealand and our kids likely will go to uni in Australia. I am currently working at Singapore American School. This is my second time working at SAS (we spent 9 years in-between our SAS posts at ISB in Bangkok), so Singapore and Thailand also feel like home to me. I am currently a Grade Four PLC coach. That means my role is divided into three parts: Teach, Coach and Lead. I work with another coach at my grade level to lead and coach a team of 15 homeroom teachers, as well as supporting our IAs, learning support and EAL teachers. This is my third year in this role, and I am learning and growing a lot! It’s been a great experience for me. I decided to join The Coach because I have over 10 years of leadership training and experience; however I feel like I want more coach-specific training to support me in that part of my role. My co-coach took this course a few years ago, and I learn a lot from her about different ways to approach coaching. This year I am looking forward to really leaning into the coaching part of my role. The past few years have been leadership-heavy as we helped to facilitate a move into a new campus. Now that we are in and settled, I want to focus on the coaching aspect of my job. A goal I have for myself is to learn different ways of approaching coaching with teachers. I have experience with Cognitive Coaching, Adaptive Schools, and Student Centered coaching, and am happy to share my insights with others.

Alison Ellis

Canada 🇨🇦

Assistant Director for Inclusive Education Program

I’m Alison Ellis from Victoria, BC, Canada. I work with Heritage Christian Online School, where we serve students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 across the province. Most of our learners study from home, but in many locations, we also offer weekly, face-to-face learning experiences that help build connection and community. In my role as an Assistant Director in our Inclusive Education Program, I support a team of Learning Support Coaches who help teachers grow their practice and better meet diverse learning needs. While I don’t coach directly, I’m passionate about building a coaching culture and empowering educators to support every student well.

Darcy Estes

USA 🇺🇸

Instructional Coach

I have been in education for over 30 years, mainly as a classroom teacher. Several years ago, I completed a four-year position as a PAR (Peer Assistance and Review) coach. The purpose of the program was to provide tenured teachers who had received an unsatisfactory evaluation with a year of intensive coaching to help them exit the program successfully. That work was primarily focused on 1:1 coaching. Once that position concluded, I returned to the classroom as a 2nd-grade teacher. 

Last year, my school district created the instructional coach position and placed one of us at each of our 72 school sites to support teachers with the rollout of several newly adopted curricula. As a coach, this is the first time I have been responsible for leading groups of people, such as grade-level teams and the instructional leadership team. Although the district provides instructional coaches with twice-monthly, all-day trainings on the new curricula and coaching skills, I need more education and support on the aspects of coaching that I am unfamiliar with. 

I came across The Coach while preparing for the interview for the coaching position I currently hold. I wanted to sign up then, but did not have the financial means to do so. At the end of last school year, I asked my principal if there were funds available for me to enter the program, and luckily, she was able to secure them! Over the next year, I am looking forward to deepening my ability to coach individual teachers and enhancing my skills in leading and coaching teams. I want to feel and be successful in balancing the various roles and responsibilities that comprise my position. I value personal relationships/connections and am looking forward to getting to know everyone!

Erin Foley

Germany 🇩🇪

IB MYP Coordinator/Instructional Coach

Hi everyone!  I’m Erin Foley (she/her). I suppose I would consider Indiana, USA home, but we have been in Munich for almost 16 years and our children are all going to university/graduate school in Europe.  I am currently the IB MYP Coordinator/instructional coach at Bavarian International School just north of Munich.  

We are working towards building a coaching culture at our school, and I have decided to make that a big focus for myself this year, as that is the half of my dual role that I would like to continue with going forward. I am still teaching a 50% courseload split between MYP Chemstry/Biology and DP Biology this year, and I hope to take advantage of that to  understand the perspective of a coachee as well.  

I am really looking forward to developing my coaching practice and strengthening my skills over the next year.

Timothy Hatcher

Côte d’Ivoire 🇨🇮

Instructional Coach

My name is Timothy Hatcher. I grew up in a small community in Gulf County on the panhandle of Florida. However, I have spent the past 24 years working as an educator on the continent of Africa, including living and learning for 12 years in Uganda. For the past year, I have called Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire “home,” where I work as an instructional coach at the International Community School of Abidjan.

This is the second year that I am a full-time coach. I am the only coach at my school, and I am building on a foundation laid by the coach who preceded me. As an inquirer, I spent my first coaching year finding out more about my role and experimenting with strategies to improve my understanding of what coaching is and is not, as well as models of coaching cycles to use within my community. I read books by Elena Aguilar, Jim Knight, and Michael Bungay Stanier, and I attended online and in-person learning events.

I came across The Coach following a recommendation from a colleague who recently did some professional learning facilitated by EduroLearning. I was already a little familiar with Kim because I am a member of AAICIS. After reading more about The Coach, especially its strong connection with international schools, I decided that this was the correct program for me. Why now? Well, I set a goal for myself to do some kind of coaching certificate program this year, and I strongly wanted to follow through with that.

Over this academic year, I am really looking forward to building my coaching network with others who are in my cohort; I am sure to gain from their expertise and support. I also want to take the learning I did related to coaching and go further, dig deeper, make future connections that will help me strengthen the coaching program at my school and further embed it into the school’s culture.

A special skill or support I can provide others inside The Coach is my curiosity – my drive to understand why things are the way they are and why people think what they think. I am also adept at looking at the big picture and then figuring out the “next right step” to take.

One thing emphasized at the beginning of The Coach is that one should not wait for “perfect” to begin. This strongly resonates with my philosophy of “This might fail,” an idea that is important to me. We just have to try it and learn from it.