Coaching, In My Own Words

i think i bring a unique perspective to my job as a athletic coach as well as now, an instructional coach. it's weird, actually. i think of myself as a volleyball coach and with my girls. maybe its because theyre students or because its a sport, but i definitely push them and think strategically of things that would guide them to that place of working as a team effectively, even if i myself may not be able to do it in a superb manner. i definitely feel like i push my teachers in their instruction but im not sure if i push them past their comfort zone and if i push them to integrate practices that i may not necessarily be also a expert in...when it comes to instructional practices and etc. maybe this is part of my job, having to increase my own knowledge in things so as to be able to present them to my teachers. i.e. for volleyball, i know the crazy conditioning exercises been though i may not be regularly doing them or be able to do them flawlessly (i.e. planks, pull ups, etc.) ive learned this bit of what it means to be an instructional coach throughout the year. i think its imperative to more proactively be learning about instructional practices, management strategies, content, etc. so that my teachers can be that much more supported. what do i do? in my own words - support teachers in the classroom so that they deliver the best instruction for their students by conducting formal observations, debriefing with them, co-planning, providing feedback on plans, co-teaching, modeling thinking/instruction... the only other problem is the fact that im also doing 1000000 other things. but in essence, i would define a coach as a person who is supporting the growth of the teacher as a professional, which means essentially everything they do in the classroom. this is important to define because there was a skiff recently about me calling a teacher out about their number of absences and the teacher feeling like that was NOT my place to do so... more on that later. sw.