Coaching and induction
Support that arrives in October,not at the exit interview.
Coaching for new teachers, paraprofessionals, instructional staff and emerging leaders, while they are in the work. Most support arrives after somebody has already decided to leave, which is the one moment it cannot help.
Why the timing is the whole thing
A first year teacher decides in the autumn.
Schools tend to notice a struggling new teacher in the spring, when the evidence has accumulated and the decision has usually been made. The weeks that actually decide it are earlier, quieter, and rarely observed.
Coaching is scheduled against those weeks rather than against a calendar of convenient dates. That is most of what makes it work, and it is why an induction program that runs three sessions in May is a gesture.
How coaching runs
A fit conversation before anything is agreed.
- 01
A fit conversation
Who is being coached, what is hard, and whether coaching is even the right instrument.
- 02
A recommended model
How often, for how long, one to one or a cohort, and what the coach will and will not do.
- 03
Intake and a baseline
Where this person actually is, agreed with them rather than about them.
- 04
Sessions and practice
The work between the sessions is the work. The sessions are where it gets looked at.
- 05
Reflection and completion
What changed, what is still open, and whether continuing is honestly worth it.
Where we are strict
A coach is not an evaluator.
Coaching only works when the person being coached can say what is actually going wrong, and nobody says that to somebody who reports it to their principal. What a coach shares, and with whom, is agreed in writing before the first session.
Tell us who is struggling, and when it started.
We will say whether coaching fits, what model we would recommend, and what it would cost, before anything is scheduled.