A little over a month ago, I started taking an online course called “Connected Coaching” offered by Powerful learning Practice- Professional Development for 21st Century Educators. I discovered this learning opportunity in a tweet posted by Caren Levine (@jlearn20). It’s making quite an impact on me because when I started the course I had no idea what I was getting myself into. For the past 5 weeks it seems as if I’ve been learning a new language. As I’ve passed the halfway mark in this 8 week course, I’m discovering that actually it’s not so foreign after all.
When I began I had no real idea what the words “Connected Coaching” meant. I figured that it involved learning how to teach in online settings. That what I gleaned from the course description. I thought I would be learning Professional Development models that utilize online platforms, like Blackboard or Moodle or Elluminate. I expected to learn how to best utilize these programs to create connections with and between teachers in a virtual professional development environment. And I am. But not in the way I expected.
Connected Coaching is about Professional Development. But it’s more about creating links between students and teachers. It’s about changing our frame of reference when it comes to the craft of teaching. It’s about creating a context (not necessarily cloud based, I’ve realized) that empowers learners and instructors to experientially, collaboratively, and reflectively create create new, and build upon existing, knowledge. One of the concepts that I discovered was “Knowledge in Practice”. As opposed to traditional learning where the instructor, in an authoritative manner, provides information to the learner, knowledge in practice is experiential, interactive, and collaborative. The relationships between the instructor and learner are based not on a leader-follower dynamic, but on a more authentically human level. The instructor, the “coach”, fashions a supportive and constructive climate that enables the learner to build upon innate strengths as their understanding is deepened. It is an inspirational model, where the learner’s potential for excellence is recognized and acknowledged. I can’t help think of Vicki Halsey’s Brilliance by Design, in which she writes “Every teacher needs to find a way to reach joyfully into the soul of learners and facilitate their brilliance so that they can make their contributions”.
Now that I think of it, this concept of Connected Coaching, of Professional Development, based not just on showing but on listening and questioning and innovating, isn’t too foreign. I’m thinking of Joshua ben Perachyah, that second century B.C.E scholar of the Mishnah who taught: “Get yourself a teacher, find yourself a friend/companion, and judge everyone favorably”. When we teach and learn from one another, we need to embrace it as an act of joy. Learning is transformative. When we study together, our souls change, as well as the way we interact with one another. Study is not an isolated act. Whether we are in a physical classroom or in some virtual space, when we learn, we are creating a community. We are touching each other. We are connecting.
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