The value of building a PLN to "bloom where you're planted" with Jen Clark

For this #coachbetter episode, we have a guest episode from Diana Beabout, one of our amazing mentors inside The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. In this episode, Diana shares the top 10 questions you may want to ask in an interview when you’re recruiting for an instructional coaching position. In our work with coaches in The Coach Certificate & Mentorship Program, and with our Private Mentoring clients, we support educators and experienced coaches interviewing for, and moving into coaching roles (and even creating new positions in the schools they currently work in!), and we know how important the interview process is. Finding the right fit for both you and the school is essential, and being able to figure out if the position is right for you, right now, during the interview process is not easy! This episode will highlight some of the most effective questions you can ask - and if you’re going through this process right now, and you need support, please reach out! This is something we can help you with in our Private Mentoring Packages. Find the show notes for this episode here.

22 Marras 202218min

In this #coachbetter episode, we have a fantastic panel featuring four experienced coaches who have recently been recruiting for coaching or leadership positions! The past few years have been pretty intense in terms of recruiting, and all of our guests today have valuable insights to share from their experience. Annalee Higgenbottom, Ian Craig, Cary Hart, and Jordan Benedict have been through the recruiting process in the last year, and have lots to share about “red & green” flags, in particular for coaching and leadership positions. They talk with Kim about finding the right fit, the interviewing process over the last year or so, how coaching is changing in international schools right now, and one piece of advice for those ready to recruit this year. Find the show notes for this episode here.

15 Marras 20221h 6min

In this #coachbetter episode, Kim shares 7 Strategies to Move from Reactive to Proactive in Your Coaching role. Sometimes as coaches, we get stuck in the mindset that because coaching is based on individual teacher goals, they will come to you to seek support. That would be amazing, but it doesn’t always work that way - for lots of reasons, including everything from how busy teachers are to what they really understand about our role and how they think we can help them. This means we need to shift our mindset from expecting teachers to come to us, to reaching out to them - and, because we know that everyone has a different preferred way of learning, if we can do this in lots of different ways, we’ll be even more successful! Find the show notes for this episode here.

8 Marras 202215min

In this #coachbetter panel episode featuring the Phoenixville Area School District (PA) Instructional Coaches, Kim talks with the team she has been working with for the last two years in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program Ashely, Becca, Tracey, Kelly, and their District Assistant Superintendent Jess, and Kim talk about the evolution of their coaching program: from vision to building the team, to the addition of more coaches, how the program has been refined over time, and where the future may take them. They also talk about the importance of investing in professional growth for coaches to ensure the success of a coaching program, and how working with Kim in The Coach has helped them grow professionally and directly impact their work as coaches.  Find the show notes for this episode here.

1 Marras 202258min

For this #coachbetter episode, Kim was inspired by several previous conversations here on the podcast (if you haven’t listened yet, those episodes are the one with Jen Ricks from this season and the episode with Joellen Killion from season 3). This topic is something that comes up often in conversations with clients in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program, and with my private mentoring clients, too. How do you know if your school is ready for coaching? Find the show notes for this episode here

25 Loka 202219min

In this #coachbetter episode, we have a fantastic panel episode featuring three of our superstar graduates from The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program! Amy, Karli, and Abby have all graduated from The Coach in the last few years. They all came to the program with lots of experience teaching and were new to a coaching role. In the program, they learned the skills they needed to be effective and successful as coaches - and they’re continuing to apply and develop those skills beyond the scope of just coaching now that they’ve graduated. In this episode they talk about how they got into coaching, what surprised them when they moved into coaching, the skills they learned in The Coach that prepared them to be successful as a coach, and how their coaching skills support them well beyond “just coaching” and what they believe all growing and aspiring coaches should do to keep growing professionally. Find the show notes for this episode here.

18 Loka 202246min

In this #coachbetter episode, we have a guest episode from Diana Beabout, one of our amazing mentors inside The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. In this episode, she talks about strategies to get into more classrooms as a coach! We know that teachers are extremely busy, and just finding time to engage in a coaching cycle can be a huge challenge - so physically making time to actually visit classrooms, as a coach is a huge step into making coaching seem achievable for them. Diana is going to share 5 ways you can make that happen!  Find the show notes for this episode here "You Are What You Do" by Kim Cofino

11 Loka 202218min

In this #coachbetter episode, Diana, Maggie, Kristen, and Kim talk about the essentials of Professional Learning for Instructional Coaches. They talk about the gaps in professional learning that coaches may have when moving from a “more traditional role” in education, what’s unique about the coaching role, how coaches can level up once they’ve been in the role for a while, and the kinds of professional learning that instructional coaches need to be successful in their roles. This episode is special because they are talking about exactly what makes The Coach so unique - it’s the long-term, practical professional learning with support through our mentorships that make the program special.  Find the show notes for this episode here.

3 Loka 202255min