Coaching Retrospective: What impact have we had in five years? A little over five years ago, I sat across the table from seven or eight of our school’s senior leadership team to be interviewed for a newly-created position: Teaching and Learning Coach. “Tell us about a time you helped others be reflective.” “What do you think about when you are planning instruction?” The questions weren’t hard to answer, but I had no idea what they thought of my responses. At the time, I really didn’t have a clear concept of what the role of Teaching & Learning Coach would entail or whether I would be a good fit. I went home thinking I had quite possibly embarrassed myself in front of the whole LLT. I guess I did okay in the interview though, because eventually I was offered the role, and became part of a cross-school team. The team has ebbed and flowed a bit over these five years, but one thing has been very consistent: the group of people I’ve been privileged to work with has been amazing. Th
Do you know how da Vinci became the Renaissance Man? Of course, genius is a large part of it but it was also his growth mindset to seek out information from those who knew better than him. If you take a look at his journals he actively sought out experts to learn from - he leveraged his renaissance learning network to its fullest. I’ve told a version of this story dozens of times in my classroom and to my own kids. I was reminded of it as I was talking to a colleague about how over the spring break I’ve been watching lectures about blockchain and crypto currencies from MIT and learning from people, in this case the new SEC Chair Gary Gensler, that I would have had zero opportunity to learn from if I lived in a different time and place and I was commenting on how amazing it is to be a learner today. Our conversation quickly turned toward the near future of education in an environment where access to information is no longer an issue as the traditional barriers have been taken dow