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This episode is all about one of Kim's favorite tools to facilitate professional conversations - Protocols! If you listened to last week’s episode with Michele Mattoon you’re probably already curious about how to use protocols in your coaching practice - and that’s exactly what we’ll be digging into today, in this short practical episode. We’re talking about the What, Why, How, and When about protocols. If you’re ready to have more intentional conversations with your colleagues, and start structuring professional learning for equity, this episode is for you! Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Clint and Kim chat with Michele Mattoon, Executive Director of the National School Reform Faculty. Michele is a master facilitator and coach. As Executive Director of NSRF, she works with school leaders, coaches, and educators around the world to help them have better, more intentional, and more meaningful conversations through the use of the Critical Friends Group Protocols & Communities. This conversation clarifies what a protocol is, why they work so well, how to use them effectively, and how to start bringing them into your school culture. If you’re ready to have more intentional conversations - with individuals, teams, divisions, or a whole school, you don’t want to miss this conversation!  Find the show notes for this episode here.

 This is a guest episode from Diana Beabout, one of our amazing mentors inside The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. In this episode, Diana is sharing some guiding questions to help you prepare to lead a professional learning session.  Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Kim chats with Kawai Lai about what it means to be a leader today, how we can create responsive teams, use visual facilitation to prompt courageous conversations, find comfort with ambiguity as a leader, and how polarity management can help us manage organizational challenges. Kawai’s work focuses on helping teams and leaders rethink culture, strategy, and leadership using the power of visuals. She has worked in both corporate and educational spaces, and she shares so many unique and insightful strategies today, to teams and leaders to take action and find purpose in creating a more equitable world. If you are learning to leverage your influential leadership as a coach or moving into a formal leadership position, this conversation is full of inspiration to get you thinking! Find the show notes for this episode here.

This #coachbetter episode highlights 5 ways that you can demonstrate (and build) your leadership capacity at any level of the school. Instead of getting stuck in the mindset that you’re “just a teacher” (or “just a coach”), when you can see the work you’re doing as leadership, you can start recognizing and owning your leadership. If you’re ready to step into formal leadership, or you’re working towards a new informal leadership role, this will help you articulate your experience that way in the job search, and you’ll be able to own your skills in the interview process. Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, we have a fantastic panel featuring graduates of our first cohort of Women Who Lead! Maki, Cary, and Terea were all part of our very first global cohort of Women Who Lead. Although each of them came to the program with different professional backgrounds, they were all seeking clarity, confidence and community around their leadership capacity. In this conversation, we talk about where these women started in terms of their leadership journey, what held them back from moving forward, and how the Women Who Lead experience helped them take the next step professionally. Find the show notes for this episode here.  

This is a #coachbetter guest episode with Diana Beabout, one of our amazing mentors inside The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. In this episode, Diana is sharing two ways that instructional coaches are leaders in their schools! If you don’t see yourself as a leader, yet, as an instructional coach, this episode will help you uncover how coaches are leaders.  Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Kim talks with Ange Molony, Secondary School Vice Principal at Discovery College in Hong Kong! Ange has been teaching internationally since 2003, starting in Bangkok, moving to Brazil, then Brussels, and now Hong Kong. She stepped into leadership early in her career, and then after graduating from COETAIL, she started coaching, and later bringing her coaching experience to additional leadership roles.  This conversation focuses on how she found her voice as a leader, how we can recognize and support women leaders, how we can advocate for equity in our schools, and what it’s been like leading through crisis. If you’re curious about growing your leadership, this episode is for you! Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode we’re talking about the ways that you are a leader, as a coach. Many of the coaches we work with in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program, think of themselves as “just another teacher” or “just a coach” and while it’s true that you may not be a formal (or positional) leader in your school, you are an influential (or relational) leader in your school community. Recognizing and embracing your leadership, as a coach, is a key step to building a coaching culture in your school, to working with more coaches, and to ensuring that your coaching program grows and thrives. Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Kim talks with Dr. Rania Saeb, Assistant Professor at West Coast University & Lecturer at Cal State University San Marcos! As an experienced international school educator, and now professor, Dr. Saeb has an amazing wealth of experience working towards equity in schools. Her research is focused on the lack of visibility of Arab American students in American schools. This conversation focuses on creating an equitable school experience for all students, beginning with the outcomes of her research, and broadening to how we can apply that learning in context in our individual school environments. We talk about why it’s important that all students are seen and what that looks like, how teachers can get started, and how Dr. Saeb found her voice as a leader in conducting and then sharing the outcomes of her research. If you’re working towards creating a more equitable school environment, or you’re curious about developing your leadership voice, this episode is for you! Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, we have a guest episode from Kristen Moreland, an experienced coach and school leader who works with us in The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. She’s talking about how to build a coaching culture, and how to get teachers and your community members excited about coaching. If you’re dealing with reluctance on the part of teachers, how do you help them shift their beliefs on the value of coaching? In one of our recent episodes with Jen Ricks she talks about how every teacher should want a coach. How do you build that community in your school setting right now? Listen to this episode and find out! Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Clint & Kim chat with Kristine Mizzone, Curriculum Director, BFIS (Benjamin Franklin International School), Barcelona, Spain & Jenny Derby, Learning & Innovation Coach, ACS (American Community School) Abu Dhabi! They chat with Kristine and Jenny together because they were part of the team that built the coaching program at BFIS in Barcelona. In this episode, we get to see the power of partnership between the Curriculum Director and Instructional Coach through the development of a strong coaching program. We talk about what coaching looked like prior to their arrival at the school, how they started the program, what they wish they knew before they started, how they got their colleagues on board, and how this experience has prepared them for the next steps in their professional careers. If you are in the process of building a coaching program and culture in your school, this episode is full of practical advice you can apply immediately!  Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter guest episode, we hear from Diana Beabout, one of our amazing mentors inside The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. Diana shares the top 10 questions for recruiters to ask instructional coaches during the interview process. If you haven’t seen it yet, on her last guest episode Diana shared the top 10 questions for coaches to ask in an interview. These two episodes are a perfect pairing for instructional coaches going through the recruitment process! Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Kim takes a deep dive into the experience of the Innovation Team at Keystone Academy in Beijing right after they finished their custom cohort with Eduro Learning's The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. You’ll hear how the school began developing the coaching program, the impact of having a cohort of coaches participate in The Coach, and the next steps for each individual team member and the school as a whole. Designing a coaching program is no easy task, but you don’t have to go it alone! You can get the support you need inside The Coach, or have us create a custom cohort just for your school! You’ll hear a lot about the learning that happens within The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. 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. Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Kim takes a deep dive into the experience of the Innovation Team at Keystone Academy in Beijing right after they finished their custom cohort with Eduro Learning's The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. You’ll hear how the school began developing the coaching program, the impact of having a cohort of coaches participate in The Coach, and the next steps for each individual team member and the school as a whole. Designing a coaching program is no easy task, but you don’t have to go it alone! You can get the support you need inside The Coach, or have us create a custom cohort just for your school! You’ll hear a lot about the learning that happens within The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program. 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. Find the show notes for this episode here.

In this #coachbetter episode, Kim talks about the importance of effectively communicating your role, as an instructional coach. We know that teachers are busy people, and yet, we want them to invest their time and energy in coaching. We know our colleagues want to be the best teachers they can be, but sometimes they still don’t choose to engage in coaching cycles with us. Why is that? Oftentimes it’s because they may not understand exactly what the coaching process looks like, exactly how it can support them, and what we as coaches can do with them that would be any better than what they can do on their own. Communicating (or “marketing”) all of those services is part of YOUR job as a coach.  If we want our colleagues to engage deeply in coaching cycles with us, to see us as an asset to their professional learning, it’s important that they understand what coaching is - and how it can work for them. Find the show notes for this episode here

In this #coachbetter episode, Clint & Kim chat with Becky Green, Associate Director of Professional Learning at Global Online Academy! Becky has been working with GOA almost since the very beginning of the organization, and prior to that in public and international schools for many years - which is where we crossed paths! This conversation is absolutely essential for all educators because it helps clarify why we need to engage in online learning experiences for ourselves, what makes them relevant and engaging for students, and how we can build equity and empathy in our digital and physical classrooms by better understanding what online learning has to offer. Find the show notes for this episode here.

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.

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. 

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.