There are many things to consider before becoming an instructional coach. Coaches need to craft their roles to add specific value to their schools. Once you understand the role to play in buildings, you need to present and pitch your services to your clients (teachers). Ultimately, coaches are change agents. You would not be in schools coaching teachers if there was nothing for you to change and impact.
Please read these articles to learn more about the role and value of instructional coaches.
Five Things to Consider Before Becoming an Instructional Coach by Elena Aguilar for Edutopia
The Many Roles of an Instructional Coach. Blog post by Heather Wolpert-Gawron for Educational Leadership published by ASCD.
Seven Qualities of an instructional Coach. Blog post by Amy MacCrindle and Jacquie Duginske for ASCD
What is the Value of a Coach? Blog post by Jim Knight
Instructional Coaching Works, Says a New Analysis. But There’s a Catch Summary of research by the University of Minnesota.
As you craft your role as an ITC, you will need to sell it to your clients. Read these articles and look at the slides below to learn about storytelling and elevator pitches.
Your Elevator Pitch Needs an Elevator Pitch, Article by Tim David via Harvard Business Review
6 Rules of Great Storytelling (As Told by Pixar) Medium article by Brian Peters
7 Tips on Crafting a Powerful Personal Story Creative strategist Brian Hardwick shares tips with Inc.
Elevator Pitch Hot Buttons
Slide deck by the University of Dayton (includes example on slide 18)
Dive into the ISTE standards, the resources, and the videos to learn more about being a change agent in your schools.
Communicating the ITC’s role will likely look and sound different depending on the stakeholder. How might you differentiate the description of your role as a coach between and among principals, teachers, students, and community members?
Stories can be a powerful way to make connections that inspire change. How might you use a story catcher like “someone wanted something but…” to craft a story to inspire teachers and leaders?
Prioritize your value adds. Using the additional resources provided, identify the most applicable roles of coaching and how each provides value to the school community. Use these roles to choose examples of each from within the context of your work.
Draft your pitch. Work together with members of the ITC team to write an introductory description of the services you can offer a school. Use a Feedback Carousel protocol to ask questions and provide suggestions related to each draft.
Test your approach with different stakeholders. Draft multiple versions of introductions intended for different audiences, and share it with a small number of trusted members of your school community. Request feedback related to clarity, specificity, and any other topics for which you seek to hone the description.
Video Learning Option: Use same story catcher “someone wanted something but…” but capture the components intended to be shared with world with no sound. What might the world learn?