Kathy Perret Shows Us How to be a Connected Educator

February 13, 2020
Written by
Geoff Knight

Kathy Perret Shows Us How to be a Connected Educator

August 1, 2023
February 13, 2020
Written by
Geoff Knight

Kathy Perret began her career in coaching after 18 years as a teacher of 4th and 5th grade. She's always considered herself a connected educator, and from the beginning of her career she has found inventive ways to maintain a vibrant network of coaching and learning. She is the co-creator of an important and active twitter chat forum: #educoach, and the co-author of the book, ​The Coach Approach to School Leadership: Leading Teachers to Higher Levels of Effectiveness.​ ​She is currently working on her next book with Kenny McKee, in which they are compiling compassionate coaching practices to release teachers’ greatest potentials. ​We wanted to share what we have learned from her about virtual coaching, #educoach, and how school leaders can successfully incorporate coaching in their schools. We also want to share a bit about what to expect from her new book.

Kathy Perret TLC presenter

Kathy Perret, TLC 2020 presenter

Virtual Coaching

Kathy's use of virtual coaching as a form of professional development started after seeing new coaches ​​begin their career without having the experience of being coached themselves ​and experienced coaches wanting to strengthen their work as an instructional coach​. She sees it as a vital tool for giving coaches their own coaching experience, and a chance for reflection on their own practice. Virtual coaching allows Kathy to work through a type of cycle with coaches to work towards their goals. Coaches gain the experience of a coaching conversation with Kathy where they can come to their own ideas through reflection.Video is also a key element of Kathy's virtual coaching, and serves to increase a coach's own confidence. Video is easily shared in a virtual context, and it's a great way for coaches to gain confidence in their relationships with teachers. Coaches record their coach-teacher conversations and then analyze them with Kathy as their virtual coaching partner. Kathy has told us that in the same way that teachers find success through differentiation for their students, video helps her give personalized coaching to her coachees. This is especially useful for new coaches who benefit from the first-hand experience of being coached and gain the confidence needed to help teachers make a positive impact on students.

#educoach

Every Wednesday evening ​at 8pm CST​ Kathy and her colleagues moderate a live twitter chat with the hashtag #educoach. The online space started in 2011 and is still going strong to this day. It was developed to create a discussion platform, to share resources, and to ​support anyone interested in instructional coaching. She told us she has been ​participating in ​different online communities​ of educators since she first had a laptop in the 90s! She joined forums and started chat rooms to connect with educators ​around the globe​, and eventually she took that search to social media. ​Each connection has had an impact on her as a person and educator — a happy outcome for which she is very grateful!The twitter chat and hashtag were born out of that search for community, and the chat has grown to connect a global network of coaches and educators. Her search, and the subsequent twitter chat has been wildly successful, as it's grown to include 9 moderators. Kathy has even written one book with the co-founders of #educoach, Jessica Johnson and Shira Leibowitz. She is currently writing another book with one of the #educoach moderators, Kenny McKee.

Principals and the Instructional Coaching Mindset

Co-authored with ​Jessica Johnson, and Shira Leibowitz, T​he Coach Approach to School Leadership: Leading Teachers to Higher Levels of Effectiveness​, is a book that was developed in large part from online discussions about leadership in schools. The book ​addresses a challenge that faces many principals, which is the balance school leaders must strike between evaluating instruction, and being 'learning leaders' for their teachers. Kathy believes that principals can master the art of walking that fine line between supervising in an evaluative role for teachers, and being a partner for teacher growth. Instructional coaching techniques can be used across an entire school; principals specifically can use them to provide high-quality feedback to support teacher and student development.

Compassionate Coaching Practices

Kathy’s work with students, teachers, instructional coaches, and school administrators has always been rooted in kindness and compassion. She remembers reading the book ​The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People ​by Stephen Covey ​​early in her teaching career, which had a profound impact that is carried out in her work to this day. Her recent writing project (ASCD in process) with co-author Kenny McKee, an instructional coach in North Carolina, is based on that same compassion. Kenny and Kathy have noticed in their conversations with instructional coaches some common and vexing barriers at the individual level. Their book is aimed to provide a compassionate coaching focus to several barriers such as low self-confidence, feelings of being overwhelmed, and isolation to name a few. These personalized coaching practices will empower teachers to navigate these barriers and result in transformational change for teachers’ effectiveness and work satisfaction, as well as shifting the learning environments of schools themselves. This work will be the topic of their TLC2020 presentation.

"Everyday the thing to do is learn a little something new."

Kathy has always loved sharing resources and learning from people, and we love a motto of hers: "Everyday the thing to do is learn a little something new." ​You can follow her on Twitter at @KathyPerret and learn more about Kathy on her website https://www.kathyperret.org/

Join the Conversation

Join the conversation

We love hearing how instructional coaching is impacting the life, work, and relationships of people all over the world. Share your story with us today.

share your story

We love hearing how instructional coaching is impacting the life, work, and relationships of people all over the world. Leave a comment below to share your story.

Do you have a coaching story to share?

We love hearing how instructional coaching is impacting the life, work, and relationships of people all over the world. Share your story with us today.