Connected Coaching

Last week I began an eleven week Connected Coaching course through Powerful Learning Practice.  Our first week was a "getting to know you" beginning but now we are starting to get into the nitty-gritty of the topic.  It's a very diverse group, from several countries and with many, many different roles in education.

I wanted to take the course because I consult and I also will be teaching an online course this fall.  I felt I should learn more about interacting in an online environment.  I'm already pretty sure I'm too much of a "take charge" type to excel in this model, so I have to start out by accepting that my style will need adjusting to do it well.

We were asked to create a Learning Pledge for the course.  Here is mine:

Learning Pledge

As a participant in the Connected Coaching eCourse, I will be preparing for certification by developing skills in:

A. Strength based facilitation

Connected coaches demonstrate an understanding of, and implement a strength based approach as they interact with those they coach. Connected coaches:

1. Engage educators by requesting stories about their strengths
2. Use paraphrasing and powerful questions to assist educators in realizing previously unrecognized potential.
3. Persevere in exploring ideas and concepts, rethinking, revising, and continual repacking and unpacking as they build upon and assist in uncovering strengths of those they coach.
4. Engage in discussions on difficult or messy topics from an appreciative inquiry perspective to increase confidence and self efficacy.

B. Online learning environments

Connected coaches are educators with significant experience around learning in online spaces. They understand and leverage the uniqueness of online environments to facilitate the coaching process and adapt protocols and activities to best suit their needs and given situations. Connected coaches:

1. Develop an online voice.
2. Recognize and embrace the building of relationships and trust through co creation of content, and avenues other than text—video, audio, images.
3. Remix recognized face to face protocols and activities to use for coaching in online spaces.
4. Explore new forms of collaboration—Voicethread, Mindmeister, Primary pad, Today’s Meet for example.
5. Exploit the affordances of technology – Elluminate, Skype—for synchronous communication.

C. Connected professional knowledge

Connected coaches are accomplished educators who understand, are immersed, and model connected learning.  They demonstrate expertise, skills, and dispositions around TPACK, PBL, action research, adult learning and leadership in particular as they facilitate teams of educators in deepening understanding of / developing units and/or research around their passions. Connected coaches:

1. Use activities to create a connection to the content and context, to oneself, and to those who are part of the learning community at school and online.
2. Engage in, demonstrate, and advocate for educators to become connected and self directed.
3. Update professional expertise in and support educators in developing problem based learning units.
4. Share expertise with and scaffold experiences for educators in developing action research.
5. Understand and assist educators in the development of TPACK.

D. Professional expertise

Connected coaches reflect individually and collectively upon a strength based practice and work together to continually refine and more fully develop their coaching expertise. Connected coaches:

1. Reflect transparently upon their practice in a CoP or a professional blog.
2. Conduct action research around wonderings to improve coaching practice.
3. Review and analyze with an open mind and without judgment all and many perspectives on coaching.
4. Experiment with and reflect upon new strategies.

I plan to accomplish these objectives by completing readings and explorations offered by the course, by participating fully in online discussions and meetings, by reading and reflecting on related material outside the course, and by using what I have learned in my many roles as an educator and reflecting upon my experiences.

Although some of these goals can be completed within the 12 week course, others will continue beyond the course’s end date.  

I will reflect upon my progress during the week 8 and 11 reflections and also on my blog at http://educationandinnovation.blogspot.com/.  My reflections should indicate that I am making specific changes to my practice as an educator that align with A through D (listed above) and demonstrate what effect those changes have had.  I should also be able to describe and explain specific strategies in my own words and be able to explain them to others.  Finally, my reflections should indicate that I am making connections between what I already know and can do and new or different ideas presented in the course.