Put me in coach!
The Importance of Mentorship and Coaching
through UW ECHO -How to truly build capacity
Presenter Information
• Gayl Bowser, Lead Assistive Technology Trainer
Project ECHO in AT
• Adjunct Faculty, University of Wyoming
• Independent Consultant: Assistive Technology
Collaborations
The New Teacher Project (August, 2015)
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Mirage Report
Our research suggests that, while understandable
and well-intentioned, layering on more support is
not the solution. Instead, we believe school systems
need to make a more fundamental shift in mindset
and define “helping teachers improve” not just in
terms of providing them with a package of discrete
experiences and treatments, but with information,
conditions and a culture that facilitate growth and
normalize continuous improvement.
The New Teacher Project, page 35 (August, 2015)
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facilitate growth
• Facilitate growth
• Normalize continuous improvement
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When we take on the responsibilities
and issues to be solved by others, our
real message may be that we do not
fully trust them to have a good
solution or that we know a better way
to handle challenges.
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Empowerment
Whenever people are asked to
change without their buy-in, we
create resistance.
Dale Carnegie Institute
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My goal is not to get you to think
the way I think, but to think more
than you thought before.
Coaching
• Active
Listening
• Reflective
Feedback
• Dialogue to
Empower
Cheliotes & Fleming-Reilly (2010), p. 10
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I think I'll learn more from
listening. Anything I would
say I already know. —
Anonymous student explaining while she
did not wish to participate in a discussion
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Can you be still
enough to let
the muddy
waters clear?
Tao Parable
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Feedback
–Appreciation
–Coaching
–Evaluation
What do you need?
What does the other person need?
Coaches are skilled at constructing and
composing questions with the intention
of engaging and transforming thought.
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Let’s practice!
Practice isn’t the
thing you do
once you’re
good. It’s the
thing you do that
makes you good.
Malcolm Gladwell
What about the
situation has left you
puzzled?
How do you describe
the participants in this
situation?
How do you describe
yourself?
One person will be the story teller.
– The listener will let you know through body
language, eye contact and other non-verbal
cues that they are listening
– The listener will restate the situation with
phrases like "Let me see if I understand the
situation....“
– The listener will ask open-ended Coaching
questions.
– You may add or clarify anything that the
listener has missed or misunderstood.
Do not try to solve the problem!
What was it like
• For you as the listener?
• For you as the story teller?
“If you enter conversations with the positive
intent that those with whom you speak are
competent, dedicated and want to have a
constructive influence on the world, the other
person is much more likely to hear your
message and respond in a positive manner”
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To strengthen others, leaders place their
constituents, not themselves, at the center
of solving critical problems and contributing
to key goals. This is not always easy to do:
leaders must deliberately back off so that
others can figure out for themselves what
needs to be done.
James Kouzes and Barry Posner (2002)
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