6 Things I Wish I’d Known As A New Coach

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6 things I wish I’d known as a new coach

Instructional coaches play an integral part in job-embedded professional learning. We help teachers understand how to meet the specific needs of their student populations while implementing their district’s high-quality curriculum resources and instructional strategies. It’s our work with teacher teams and individuals that transforms information learned during a workshop from cognitive understanding to real-world strategies that make a difference for students. But the coaching role is not always clear to those just starting out in the position, or to the people they work with. Coaches often cite being of service to others and making a meaningful contribution as strong personal values. Many have been encouraged to become coaches by people who have praised their helpfulness or their heartfelt desire to be useful. This is where

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Sharron Helmke

Senior Vice President, Professional Services at Learning Forward | + posts

Sharron Helmke, senior vice president of professional services at Learning Forward, designs and manages the organization’s consulting service programs that support state, regional, and local organizations in translating their improvement and learning goals into custom-designed high-quality professional learning programs that result in scalable and sustainable change. During her twenty-plus years in education she has served in a variety of roles at the campus and district levels, including teacher, instructional coach, and district-based program administrator. She is an international coaching federation certified professional coach, a Gestalt professional coach, and a trauma-informed care provider, all of which inform her approach to supporting educators. She is the author of numerous professional articles, including “To make a difference for every student, give every new teacher a mentor” in the August 2022 issue of The Learning Journal.