Instructional coaching came to me by accident. I never truly prepared for the role. One day I applied for a district-level instructional coach role, and the next day, I had the job. Upon hiring, I thought I would receive some form of onboard training or the opportunity to shadow an experienced instructional coach. Instead, what I received was a list of failing schools that were my responsibility and the direction to “go coach.” I had to figure out what instructional coaching was on my own.
Although in previous roles I had worked with new and experienced teachers in a variety of situations, going out to schools to support instructional coaches in their roles was a new experience for me. My brick-and-mortar instructional coaching experience was limited. At the time I was hired as a district coach I had taught literacy and literacy in the content areas of Science and Social Studies, been an instructional support teacher, a Title I facilitator, and an assistant principal. All of these experiences were in K-5 schools and none of those roles had provided the experiences needed to be an effective instructional coach from the get-go, and I had no knowledge of the curriculum in secondary schools.
Those first few months as a district coach were incredibly hard. I was supporting the school district’s differentiated accountability schools: one elementary school and five middle schools. The needs were great. Due to my previous experience as a school administrator, I defaulted to that role. I would visit classrooms with the evaluation rubric in my mind. I examined what was instructionally effective or ineffective and came up with recommendations to improve teaching practice and student engagement. My reports dealt with the positives and the negatives I had observed in the classrooms, the traditional pluses, and deltas.
Instead of coaching support, I gave action steps for the school-based coaches to implement. In truth, I failed at supporting the school-based coaches that looked to me for guidance. Instead, I was evaluating their coaching effectiveness. I was pointing out issues they, in most cases, already knew.
Since I launched into the career in the middle of the school year, by the time I realized that I was supposed to be coaching, modeling, and supporting coaches and teachers, the testing season was upon us and the school year ended. This experience was an awakening. I found that it was time to reflect on the scope of my role as a district coach and the roles of the school-based instructional coaches.
My perspective, my mindset as an instructional coach needed transformation.
That summer, I studied the art of instructional coaching. I researched journal articles, books, blogs, and websites about instructional coaching. It was important to me to transform as an instructional coach so that I could effectively serve the school-based coaches that looked to me for leadership and guidance. Throughout the summer I did not know which schools I would be supporting in the coming school year. Not leaving anything to chance, I created an action plan for my coaching which foresaw several possible coaching scenarios. Having a flexible plan was important so that I could adjust my coaching as needed to enhance the practice of the school-based coaches I would be supporting.
When the new school year started, I thought I was ready. However, I had much to learn from the team of coaches I coached, some of which became close friends. I realized that instructional coaching is different in every setting, that no two coaches are alike, and that coaches need coaching too. As coaches, we go through cycles of learning and growing our capacity.
The idea for the course The Transformational Coaching Mindset (which was originally meant to be a book) came as a result of the mindful examination of school-based coaching and my own experiences with coaching at the district level. The ideas you will find in this course come from conversations with school-based coaches as well as the research I completed through my doctoral work in curriculum and instruction.
For the development of this course, I partnered with fellow coach Brieann Peterson. Collaborating together to give space for our different perspectives and expertise as we designed this instructional workbook is an example of the transformative process that we hope the reader engages in.
I look forward to your comments.
