Student-Centered Coaching: The Podcast

You know that feeling you get when you see something successful and you just have to tell others about it? That's how we feel when we partner with Brittany Gonser and her team of instructional coaches in the Shawnee Mission School District. Join Brittany, Director of Professional Learning at SMSD, as she sits down with us and discusses so many factors, from a systems point of view all the way down to how her past experiences shape the decisions she makes, that has led to their team being what it is today.  We hope this episode finds you well as you enter the holiday season! Enjoy!

As the school year is getting underway around the world, many of you are entering coaching partnerships with teachers who are in year one with a new resource/curriculum. As instructional coaches, do we need to alter what we do or how we exist within our coaching work? Sarah Auld (teammate of the beloved Ben Scott from Ep. 1), from Battleground, WA joins us to talk about coaching in a resource adoption year. Through her reflective nature, she shares so many insights that will be beneficial to all coaches, not just those with a new resource.  Don't forget to join the conversation on FB: "A Community for Student-Centered Coaching www.dianesweeney.com  

We've talked about measuring the impact of coaching using the Results-Based Coaching Tool (RBCT), but we've never talked about it like this! Joining Diane and Brandon on this episode is Chris Cutrona, CEO of EdSightful to discuss how he has taken the RBCT and transformed it into an amazing dashboard for coaches to utilize to measure their impact. Chris and Diane also just released a blogpost on the same topic that includes links to demos, where you can see it in action as well. We hope you enjoy this conversation! EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!! If you're interested in purchasing the RBCT dashboard, you can now contact the EdSightful team directly on their website or by emailing them at chris.cutrona@edsightful.com. Diane also referenced a previous blogpost (Student-Centered Coaching Cycles) in the episode. For all blogposts, don't forget to check them out at dianesweeney.com!  

And we're back!!! Spring has been busy, but we wanted to get this out to you all before the end of the year. Tiffany Dowling, a K-3 Reading Specialist in Enterprise, AL, joins Diane and Brandon to discuss how she utilizes the Results-Based Coaching Tool to enhance her coaching partnerships with teachers (and maybe even students?)! While the RBCT was the topic of the conversation, it is full of words of wisdom that Tiffany shares about coaching and learning. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it!

Happy New Year to everyone! Join Diane and Brandon as they discuss a very popular topic this time of year, goal setting! While the "new year" for educators is late summer to early fall, ringing in the actual new year on January 1 can be a great time to reflect, recalibrate, and set goals moving forward. We hope you enjoy the discussion! As mentioned in the episode, you can find Diane's latest blogpost on this topic by clicking here.

In this episode, Diane and Brandon are joined by Azra Bosnjak from Boise Schools. As a middle school learning coach, Azra discusses one of the Core Practices of Student-Centered Coaching, co-teaching. In just year 2 as a coach, it's pretty evident that she has a bright career ahead of her!  Don't forget to join the conversation on our Facebook Community and Instagram!

In Episode 16, Diane and Brandon discussed the idea of planning then (May) for "Launching the New Year." Now two months deep into the current school year, they are joined by Rachel Court, an Elementary Instructional Coach from Sioux Falls, SD to discuss the approaches she took to launch her year of coaching!    At the 23:20 mark of the episode, Diane references a list of questions from Moves for Launching a New Year of Student-Centered Coaching (Sweeney, Harris, and Steele, p. 24). They are included for you here. 

It's that time of the year again! As we enter the season of kicking off a new school year, many coaches find themselves navigating newly formed partnerships with a different administrator. Brandon jumps to the other side for this episode, alongside Rachel Hill from Tuscaloosa, AL, as they discuss their relationships with their building's newly hired principals. Diane offers many questions to consider and reflect upon, as well as her own nuggets of advice. Whether you have a new admin or not, the conversation is worth the listen. Hope you enjoy!

The school year is quickly coming to a close. What better time to start conversations for the start of next year than right now? Diane and Brandon discuss what these conversations can sound like, as well as potential ideas for coaching that will start in classrooms on the first day of school next year. Please join us for more conversations around the topics from each episode. Click here to join the Facebook group! And don't forget to follow us on Twitter @SCCoachingPod. We appreciate you all so much! -Diane & Brandon

Listen in as Diane and Brandon open up the mailbag! Questions were gathered from listeners and conversations around coaching ensued. Thanks to all that sent in questions...hope you enjoy!

Diane and Brandon were joined by Brett Twiss, Learning Coach at Capital High School in Boise, ID. Fresh off the heels of a massive investment in student-centered coaches (50 new hires in the district for this past fall), Brett shares about his early successes, his desire to amplify the great things that are taking place, and his desire to coach from the role of a learner. After hearing the conversation, it's not shocking that he has had a very successful first semester as a coach. 

Amanda Brueggeman joined us for a very insightful conversation on the partnership between the coach, the mentor, and the mentee. Her new book, Student-Centered Mentor, focuses on how to shape that partnership to make it student-centered. Amanda is also a member of Diane's consulting team, where she gets to partner with coaches around the country. Hope you enjoy it! 

Diane's new book (or maybe we should call it a "resource" - you need to listen to better understand that reference), Moves for Launching a New Year of Student-Centered Coaching, is now available for preorder! They will arrive on August 1...just in time for the start of school. While you're waiting for it to arrive, we hope you enjoy our conversation with the other two co-authors, Leanna Harris (@leannaharris22) and Julie Steele (@JulieTier1). They discuss the structure, new thinking that is included, and ways that coaches can utilize this to make their start to the year the best one yet! Hope you enjoy, and click here to grab your own copy!

Robin Blair is the Director of AMSTI (Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative). She joins Diane and Brandon this episode to discuss leading teams of coaches and the impact this work is having in the state of Alabama.

Everyone can use more clarity! Kara Vandas, practitioner, consultant, and author of Clarity for Learning, joins Diane and Brandon for an important conversation for all to hear. If student learning is the goal, there needs to be clarity for both the teacher and the student to make that happen. Hope you enjoy the conversation! 

Part 2 of our series with Diane focuses on the ins and outs of Student-Centered Coaching. Hear about some of her new thinking as well. For more info on that, check out her blog post on Mini Cycles. As always, thanks for listening and being a part of our community of learners! Hope you enjoy!

Ever been curious about Diane's early years and everything that led to Student-Centered Coaching? This is the first installment of a two-part series focused on the Student-Centered Coaching model. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it for you!

Diane and Brandon are joined by Joy Casey, an instructional coach from Denver, CO. Joy discusses her role this year in a brand new building. While Joy is a very experienced coach, she has the opportunity to share with our listeners what it's like to be somewhere new again. Whether you're a first year coach, in a new building, or a coach with many years of experience, there are a lot of tangible things to take away from this conversation. Hope you enjoy!

After a short summer break, Diane and Brandon are back with leaders from the Fort Dodge Community School District in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Stephanie Anderson (Director of Elementary Education) and Kirsten Doebel (Director of Secondary Education) oversee the coaching team in Fort Dodge, and they join the podcast to discuss their past year, setting and measuring coaching goals, as well as their continued focus to grow Student-Centered Coaching in their district.

We all knew this year would be different. We also knew that educators would do anything and everything they needed to do to continue impacting student learning. In this final episode of the 2020-2021 school year, Diane and Brandon are joined by three coaches as they discuss their journey through coaching this year. Amy Garrett, Mary Loeffler, and Rachel Jenner, all contributors to Diane's most recent book, Student-Centered Coaching From a Distance, reflect on this unbelievable year of learning. Enjoy!

Arthur Mola and Tierra Ingram, Cardozo Education Campus in Washington D.C., join Diane and Brandon for an inspiring conversation around student learning, their passion for ALL students, and how they work together in their respective roles as principal and coach.

Diane and Brandon are joined by Dawn Shannon (Innovation & Learning Coach) and Matthew Krohne (Assistant Principal) to discuss the dynamics and benefits of a successful coach/building leader partnership. They also dig into their unique relationship as Dawn coached Matthew in a coaching cycle. To read Matthew's reflections about a unique coaching experience discussed in the episode, you can check out his blog here.

Sasha Robins, an instructional coach from Kuwait, sits down with Diane and Brandon to discuss the art of questioning and her love of learning. 

Ben Scott, an instructional coach from Battle Ground, WA, joins Diane and Brandon for their first episode of Student-Centered Coaching: The Podcast to discuss coaching in a pandemic. While not shying away from discussing the struggles he is having, Ben's passion for student learning is on full display.