Two Ways To Reflect on Your Year as an Instructional Coach

As we wrap up this academic year and transition into school holidays, now is the perfect time to reflect and set intentions for the next academic year. While this academic year is still fresh in your mind, you can look back and see what worked, and where you might have room to grow. Taking the time to review and reflect on any data you have collected about your practice will also help you take a break over the summer, knowing that you are prepared to begin the next academic year with clear intentions and focus.

As coaches, we are so busy working with teachers that we rarely stop to reflect on:

• our achievements and obstacles over the course of the year, 
• what data we’re collecting about our work, and 
• how that data can inform our next steps. 

Collecting and reflecting on coaching data is an essential part of continuous growth. By having actual data to reflect on, you can make better decisions about your practice, rather than relying on memories, feelings, or an instinct. By building in a practice of reflection, you’ll be able to see the impact of your work over time, so you can refine and adjust your practice as a coach.

One of the keys to making good use of the data you collect is to check in on how you’re doing at multiple points throughout the year. Even if this is the first time you’re trying to look at your coaching practice objectively through a data review process, you will still be able to gather good insights to inform your practice in the upcoming school year.

Reflection:  Two Ways

When you’re thinking about reflecting on the year, as a coach, you’ll likely want to consider two facets:

1. The amazing work your coaching partners have achieved, and how coaching has supported them.

2. Your own growth as a coach.

This article will unpack the two ways you can reflect on your year, as well as some reflection prompts you can apply in each situation.

1: With Your Coaching Partners

 One of the wonderful things about coaching is that it provides our coaching partners with space and time. We need this time to review our experiences, process our learning, and identify how we can apply both to our next steps moving forward. Offering your coaching partners an opportunity to use this time to reflect on the year can help them feel a sense of accomplishment, as well as clarity in their intentions and goals for the next academic year.

We can use this time to create positive momentum so our coaching partners want to continue to grow. In structuring your conversation, you might want to consider starting with success by bringing a lens of appreciative inquiry to the conversation. At this point, you might want to ask:

• What were the successful experiences we had together this year? 
• What went well?
• Where and when did we make the biggest jump together?

Once you have highlighted the successes, you can dig a little deeper into questions that focus on potential growth, questions like:

• What was our goal for working together?
• What did we observe the students doing? 
• Where was the gap? Where are we now?
• Where do we want to go next?
• What might be some next steps to help us close that gap?
• How can we work together next year to make progress?

After having that reflection conversation focused on successes and areas to grow, you might also want to prompt your coaching partner to be reflective about how they can use these kinds of practices for their own growth throughout the year. You may wish to ask:

• What reflection practice do you have in your classroom? 
• How can you reflect on data you collect on a regular basis over the year?
• How can you help students look back over the year?

This kind of reflective conversation provides an opportunity to pause and appreciate the moment you’re in, so you can move forward with clarity and purpose. 

Even if you don’t have time to have a full reflective conversation like this, you can consider sending a quick email to your coaching partners saying something like, “You’ve had such a great year (or semester), what’s one big highlight or takeaway for you this semester – hit reply to this email and let me know, and while you’re at it, what’s your next step, when would you like me to check in with you to get that started next semester.

2: Independently Reflecting on Your Own Work

When you’re thinking about reflecting on your own work as a coach, it’s important to think about the data you have collected on your coaching practice over the course of the year. Without data, you will be left making decisions based on instinct or intuition. Data allows you to reflect on your practice based on evidence.

Some questions you might consider asking yourself are:

• What data do we have to review?
• Does the data give us the information we need?
• If not, what data should we collect in the future?

Based on the data:

• What worked?
• What could be improved?
• What can be carried forward to the next opportunity?
• What needs to be removed/refined/adjusted/added?
• What are our next steps forward?

The best thing about looking at data as a tool to inform your practice is that you’re thinking about data as information – this is not an evaluation. This is simply information that you’ve collected to help you make the next decision. When you look at it that way, you’ll likely realize that having check-ins like this more frequently throughout the year will be helpful.

Regular self or team check-ins throughout the year also support the development of data collection as an iterative process. Regular data collection and reflection lead to refinement of the data collection process, so you are continually collecting better and better data over the course of the year. Even if you don’t have the data you want from earlier in the year, the best time to start is now!

To grow into this iterative process, you might consider starting with quarterly (or marking period) based reflections, and over time develop your reflective processes to be more regular (even down to a monthly or weekly level). Reflecting on the data you collect will help you inform the next steps you take as a coach and with your coaching partners. Taking the time to track and reflect on your progress over time will be validating for you and a great way to share the success of coaching with others. Taking the time to reflect on the year, both with your coaching partners and independently about your coaching practice, is an important way to value the time you spend working together. 

If we just continue to move on to the next thing it can feel like we’re on a never-ending hamster wheel always running and never knowing where we’re going. Taking the time to reflect allows us to:

• solidify what we’ve accomplished, 
• to feel a sense of pride and completion in the work we’ve done, and 
• set better goals for the upcoming year.

If you can make data collection and reflection part of your regular routine as a coach, you will essentially be coaching yourself on how to grow, making more intentional choices, and documenting the impact you’re making as a coach! 

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Kim Cofino has been an educator in international schools since August 2000. Having lived and worked in Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan, Kim has had a variety of roles in international schools, including (her favorite) instructional coach. Now based in Bangkok, Thailand, Kim is the Founder and CEO of Eduro Learning, author of Finding Your Path as a Woman in School Leadership (Routledge), host of the #coachbetter podcast, and the creator of the Eduro Learning The Coach, Women Who Lead, and COETAIL certificate programs. Find out more about Kim and Eduro at: https://www.edurolearning.com.