My goal was to learn how to do my new role of ES Tech Innovation Coach. This role was given to me in August somewhat unexpectedly. In my project I talk about how I grew in the role over the course of this year, but I don’t know that I addressed what worked well and what was a challenge. What has worked well this year was being given then time to prototype and test ideas. Ideas for both the role and the physical space that the role manages. As far as challenges the biggest one so far is trying to work out when to approach teams to have them begin the skills building process for using the physical space. This is something that I have prototyped a few ideas for but have not found the winning solution yet, though I may never find a solution.
My Greatest Learning:
I think that my greatest learning is that everything I am doing and experiencing is “typical” of what new coaches and sometimes experienced coaches go through when a new role is set up in a school. That the steps that I am taking are all leading me towards improvement of my skills so that I become a better coach. I think I have learned as well that there is no end goal in coaching, no point where I will go “Okay I am a fully developed coach”. I will always be growing and learning and tweaking depending on the school, teachers, and students. I think there will never be a point where I will go “okay I know 100% of what to do as a coach”. I will instead feel comfortable coaching and asking to be coached to continue to improve the coaching process in any school that I am in.
For this year I don’t think that I would do anything differently, though had this school year been a non pandemic school year I think I would have pushed a bit more to work with more teachers over the course of the year.
The Coach Support:
I think that the things that were the most helpful for me were the 1:1 mentor sessions with Kim and equally the group face to face meetings that we were able to have. Those two things were powerful tools in helping me understand that I am on the right “track” as far as my growth. They also helped me realize that my frustrations on the limits of the role were similar to every other participant’s frustrations.
Thank you Kim and Eduro Learning for offering such a great course to help me grow as a coach! https://edurolearning.com/course/the-coach-ca/
Sweet Tea and IT 