Coaching from the Teacher’s Agenda
The purpose of a school’s investment in instructional coaching is increased student learning—student success. That ultimately requires changes in student learning behaviors. Students, not teachers, cause student achievement. Teachers adjust their practices to intentionally produce the student behaviors that lead to increased learning.
When coaches lead primarily from their own priorities—or those of the administration—they may gain compliance, but compliance is rarely sufficient for sustained change. Coaching conversations that uncover, clarify, and allow the teacher’s agenda to develop over time create the conditions for deeper understanding, trust, vulnerability, and professional risk-taking.
This keynote explores how intentional questioning for thinking and deep listening help coaches surface teacher agendas and foster teacher ownership, instructional growth, and meaningful gains in student success.
Ensuring Coaching Impacts Teaching and Learning
You’ve checked the boxes—clear job descriptions, skilled coaches, a coaching program in place. But results? That’s the real win. In this fast-paced, practical keynote, you’ll discover the five essential elements that turn coaching from a good idea into a powerful driver of improved teaching and student learning. You’ll leave with clear insights and actionable strategies for intentionally weaving these elements into your coaching program—so coaching doesn’t just exist, it truly makes a difference.
Coaching Leaders to Help Coaching
Instructional coaches sit in a difficult space. They are expected to support teachers and improve learning, yet frequently lack clarity, direction, or structural support from those with formal authority. Too often, coaching struggles not because of the work itself, but because leaders do not fully understand what coaching needs in order to succeed.
This keynote focuses on how coaches can take greater initiative in their relationships with leaders. Rather than waiting for clarity, protection, or permission, coaches will be invited to think differently about managing up and across their organizations. The session explores how influence is built without authority, how trust is developed with decision makers, and how coaches can shape the conditions that allow coaching to do its best work.
This keynote is about agency. It is about helping coaches move from being squeezed by the system to actively shaping it.
Celebrating 3 Decades of Instructional Coaching Research
With more than three decades studying professional learning and instructional coaching, Jim is celebrating 30 years of research in the field. Jim has written over 14 books, and this keynote will highlight Lessons learned through 30 years of research in instructional coaching.
