by Emily Cowan

We had a blast running our recent Tough Talk Lab with the EDU Coach Network Live Event on September 23rd. I put on my (not so good) acting hat to play that skeptical veteran teacher, dialing up the resistance while my colleague Grace stepped into the coach’s seat. Grace masterfull...

by Jill DuBois

I still remember the exact moment my PD imposter syndrome gave me an out-of-body experience. 

It was an October afternoon - I was an intervention specialist at the time in a K-5 elementary school.  I was standing at the front of a crowded media center, waiting for 31 tired teache...

 by Emily Cowan

When the podcast got started, it came from a very real, personal need. In education, there’s endless professional development for teachers, but when you step into an instructional coaching role, training for the trainers is surprisingly hard to come by. Coaching can sometimes feel l...

by Emily Cowan

Transitioning from classroom teacher to instructional coach brought a wave of uncertainty. Beyond wondering if I was truly qualified or how colleagues would view me in this new capacity, my biggest apprehension was the responsibility of designing professional development.

Through...

by Grace Brown

“The Advice Trap: We keep giving advice even though it doesn’t work that well.” 

This summer the Edu Coach Network Summer Book Club read The Advice Trap by Michael Bungay Stanier, and we had the chance to confront our Advice Monsters. Our purpose in creating this book club was to...

by Emily Cowan

It’s that time of year again. Inboxes are filling up, classrooms are buzzing, and goal-setting deadlines are looming. Across most schools, teachers will soon be kicking off their annual evaluation cycles and drafting mandatory growth goals. 

As instructional coaches, our initial ins...

written by Tracee Keough 

The final weeks of the school year are a strange, beautiful, and chaotic paradox. One moment, you’re high-fiving a teacher who finally nailed a student-centered engagement strategy; the next, you’re staring at a stack of data reports wondering if you have enough caffeine t...

 *Written for Coaches, by Coaches

In our last post, we talked about shining a light on “Dark Data”—those hidden gems of information living in your LMS and apps. But let’s be honest: once you turn that light on, the sheer amount of information can be overwhelming.

If “Dark Data” is the goldmine, th...

 Written for Coaches, by Coaches

When we hear "data," we usually picture massive spreadsheets and high-stakes test scores. It’s exhausting. But what if the most powerful data for day-to-day coaching is hiding right under your nose?

Welcome to "Dark Data"—the goldmine of untapped insights quietly s...

by Tracee Keough 

There is a unique energy that comes with the fourth quarter. We can finally see the finish line, and as coaches, our biggest goal is helping our teachers finish the year with the same passion they started with. But in the rush of spring, it’s easy to fall into the 'Coach Nice' tra...

by Tracee Keough

Let’s be honest: it’s spring. State testing schedules are looming, the weather is teasing us, and if you are anything like me, your desk is currently buried under a mountain of chaotic, pastel-colored sticky notes. You’re likely running on a potent mix of lukewarm coffee, soda and ...

by Tracee Keough 

Let’s set the scene: You walk into a planning meeting with a fantastic, time-saving strategy, but before you can even finish your sentence, you hit the wall.

"We don't have time for that." "The kids are already too checked out." "I'm just trying to survive until Friday."

Sound f...