How are you Coaching?

Photo by Nirzar Pangarkar on Unsplash

This week our coaches explored the question: What drives you as a Coach?  What do you believe is your role as coaches?  What affects a teacher-coach relationship the most?  Trust? Credibility? Acceptance?

Using the article, “Are you Coaching HEAVY or LIGHT?” by Joellen Killion, our coaches had the opportunity to take a stand for what they believe their roles truly are.  After reading and discussing the article, some of us had our beliefs challenged.  What resulted was a thoughtful discussion around our identity as a coach. 

Photo by Debra Barry

Using the dots strategy, coaches took turns commenting on the article and their beliefs on heavy or light coaching.  Each coach was given a handful of dots and as they speak they put a dot on an index card.  The coach then needs to listen to other responses and cannot speak again until others have put a dot on the card.  This strategy allows each person a voice and helps all participants focus on listening set-asides.  Instead of formulating your next response, you are focusing on the speaker and what he or she is connecting with in this article.

 Sometimes what we think we value, and believe is true to the core, and other times the swords we pick to fall on are the wrong swords.  I’ve often felt this way as a parent.  Does my child need to eat all the food on his plate, or is it a victory, if I get him to try one bite of everything.  I think it depends on the child, the parent, and your values, beliefs, and the situation.  Coaching is the same.  How we coach is tied to who we are and what we believe.  Sometimes those beliefs can interfere with what we hope to accomplish. As a parent I have learned to pick my battles, and swords carefully.  In coaching, I’m working on it.  

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

We have to master the art of coaching and find the delicate balance of coaching heavy, versus coaching light.  By utilizing our cognitive coaching skills and asking deep, mediative questions, teachers will reflect on their current teaching practice and explore new learning.  A coaches’ primary responsibility is student learning.  How they impact that learning is through coaching and adult learning.  The challenge is to not lose sight of the students in this equation. 

"Coaching heavy holds all adults responsible for student success and engages them as members of collaborative learning teams to learn, plan, reflect, analyze, and revise their daily teaching practices based on student learning results."

                                                                                 ~Joellen Killion