Can we keep the term coach?

In the past year, my colleagues and I have struggled with whether or not we should use the term coach. The idea of a coach, for some of us, seemed to conjure up very negative images--say, angry men throwing chairs across the court. However, if you go to the NBA website and watch this clip of Maurice Cheeks, you might get another perspective on the concept of what a coach can be. I'm grateful to Anita Friede, a great professional developer from NYC, for pointing out this clip to me. Maybe coach is the right term for the work we do in schools.

Comments

[Colleen]

A few years ago, I thought I wanted out of education. I started looking around for alternative careers. I decided to look at coaching as an add on to my training business and took a two year course from an accredited coaching school(by the International Coaching Foundation-kind of a coaching industry watchdog.) Somewhere along the way I decided to take the ICF coaching frameworks and combine them with education's best practices. I used the resulting frameworks as a basis for improving instruction in the classroom by coaching my students in setting goals, gathering data to prove they met their goals etc.. Great results. This year, I have been hired to be a literacy coach to help teachers improve instruction in writing. I will also be teaching teachers this coaching model for coaching students. Is there anyone out there interested in this and in any data I gather?

[Jim Knight]

Hi Colleen,

I'd love to hear more about how your year progresses. Why don't you email me at jknight@ku.edu

Thanks,

Jim

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