Friday, September 15, 2023
Written by: Rachel Fregien, Education Consultant for Coaching Supports, Special Education Team, DPI
The Coaching Competency Practice Profile is Wisconsin’s definition of coaching. The document contains several core competencies that Wisconsin has identified as crucial components that excellent educational coaches need to possess. It describes in detail what each behavior looks and sounds like. However, it is a lengthy read!
We are excited to announce the rollout of a virtual learning module series that guides folks through the document in a way that is manageable, and engaging! These interactive modules help break down each competency through stories and examples from real life coaching situations - written by your Wisconsin coaching friends and colleagues.
Within each module, you’ll be guided by “CC”, a virtual coach. CC will help orient you to the scenes you are about to watch, alert you to look for evidence of core competencies as they show up in the stories, highlight best practices, prompt you to reflect, ask questions and journal while you learn.
If you’ve already taken the Coach Self Assessment, you might have a good idea of where you want to start. If you’re wondering where to start, the self-assessment is a great place! The self-assessment gives you time to dig into the document as a whole, and will help guide you in developing personal coaching goals to inform professional learning and coaching needs. It will also give you an idea of where to start in the modules.
As you navigate through the modules, you will have access to several resources. The first is the Coach’s Kit - The kit holds many valuable tools and resources that align to the learning in each of the modules. Sometimes, CC, the virtual coach, will nudge you to take a look in the kit at specific times, or, just browse on your own any time you want. All the resources in the Coach’s Kit are yours for the taking! You can copy and save them for later review and use.
There’s also the virtual journal. Throughout the module, CC will ask you to pause, reflect, journal or grab resources from the Coach’s Kit to put in your own personal journal. This virtual journal is downloadable and intended for you to build and grow with you as you learn.
The modules are all connected, but they aren’t linear, so you can jump in wherever feels right for you. Once in the modules, you’ll have options for what kind of coaching you want to see.
A final - and important note - in Wisconsin, we believe that “every coaching conversation is an equity conversation.” That’s why a coach’s equity mindset should always be at the core of all our work.
Coaching starts with developing one’s own knowledge of ourself and working to understand the historical and current context of who has benefited and who has not within our education systems. And then we must work together with our clients to dismantle biases and deficit mindsets and reform educational structures which have been constructed under systems of oppression.
Because a coach’s equity mindset is embedded in all that they do, there isn’t a separate learning module for that competency. Rather, it is embedded into each of the modules you choose! Throughout all the modules, you will be cued to take a deeper dive into equity at certain moments of the stories.