Teachers are coaching worldwide, collaboratively. This compendium facilitates global connections. It uncovers the hidden coach within every teacher and brings them together to share their strategies for building coaching cultures in learning organisations. The teachers in this edition of Teachers who Coach are: Paul Mitchell, Viola Auma, Erika EngelbrechtAldworth, Sonia Singh and Terence Tong. There are hundreds more in the Strategic Mutual Support Group. More information on the final pages of this book. Text (c) Martin Richards, Sweden 3
Born and educated in England, trained to become a teacher and taught for 11 years in the English National Curriculum, Coaching Sports teams up to county level, with both Head of Department and Assistant Head of Year responsibilities. Moved to Denmark in 2002, to get married to his Danish wife and they have 4 children. Worked for over 20 years in International schools with a variety of different responsibilities including, Athletics Director, Dean of Students, High School Grade Coordinator. Worked for Henley Business School Denmark as the MBA and PCEC Program Leader and Academic Tutor. Has his own firm that provides educational and leadership development workshops as well as individual and team coaching. Currently Business Management teacher at International School of Hellerup, Denmark 5
by Paul Mitchell Even as a child I had a strong desire to help others succeed. Being lent out from a young age by my parents and Maths teacher to help other children with their mathematics. This developed into Teaching and Coaching swimming, and then lifesaving, before training to be an Educator through doing my PGCE. Whilst teaching in the English system my sports coaching developed into other sports as well as helping individuals within the pastoral systems. As much as I enjoyed teaching, well most of it, it was always these other parts, not in the job description, where I felt most fulfilled. Moving to Denmark (for love, my wife is Danish) and moving into International Education and the IB, I was immediately struck with the different approach to teaching, through concept based learning, drawing connections across the curriculum and with life in general to deepen their learning. I found that the students were much more inquisitive/ curious and open to answering questions instead of learning skills! It was when I was given the role as Dean of Students that I started to realise some of the bigger challenges that these students were facing and in my desire to help them to succeed, I would spend time with 6
them overcome these challenges. At this time I did not realise that what I was doing was starting to coach, however at this time I did not have the coaching toolbox nor the coaching mindset as I was looking to solve their challenges for them, more as their School Dad than a coach. I first was introduced to coaching when selected by the International School I was working in, to be part of a small group, to be trained in Cognitive Coaching by Bill and Ochan Powell from Thinking Collaborative. This was a 4 x 2 full day workshop over 4 years with peer support and practice in between. Here we were equipped with coaching skills and pathways. We learnt to read another person's unspoken language, listen deeply, which I found that I was really good at, and to craft open questions with positive intent. Although this was designed as a peer on peer support system, with one person from each department or Primary grade level being trained to work with their colleagues with planning, reflection and overcoming problems, it changed my way of working, and learning these skills opened up a new way of supporting students and also impacted upon my teaching. I happily applied my coaching to support individual students with their DP Extended Essays and MYP Personal Projects. As well as working with the 7
ideas and empowering them to plan and execute different activities. I found my way of teaching changing with me asking more questions rather than being the font of wisdom that the students came to get answers. This for me was the greatest revelation. The students were also often pleasantly surprised. Maybe a bit frustrated that they did not get their questions answered, but most often left our conversations feeling more empowered to solve it themselves. As a sports coach I was trained to focus on skills and strategies, would analyse players and the teams performances and then instruct them how to perform better. After receiving my Cognitive Coaching training I found that by questioning, listening, summarising what they said, reflecting this back to them, that they then got better at analysing themselves, the situation and each other, finding their own solutions and then more readily applying them, which ultimately lead them to performing better. The students also noticed a difference and would describe me as the ´Philosophical PE Teacher`. Having a coaching approach to teaching definitely improves the learning for most students, although the greatest benefit for me has been the benefits of working with students outside of the classroom situation in a pastoral way. I therefore sought to 8
Justice Facilitator certificate to help with conflict resolution between students, although it also worked with colleagues. I found that my desire to coach and become a better coach was developing stronger than my desire to teach! I left teaching to train as an Executive Coach through Henley Business School, and was then employed by Henley Business School in Denmark to support their MBA students through their Executive Masters course as their Academic Tutor. This training was to such a high level, introducing several different forms of coaching and increased my toolkit considerably. I enjoyed working with these executives and managers as they fought to balance their work and family responsibilities with the additional commitment to a 2 year Masters course in Business Management. I realised here that people at all stages of their lives face challenges and need a good support network and a safe place to be able to look at these challenges in a different way, be guided through the thought processes that empower them to make changes, and take steps towards where they want to go. This is the power of coaching. For me the greatest gift of coaching comes through listening. Listening to understand, listening to the tone, and what is not being said. When someone listens with full focus, non judgmentally, without 9
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