Practical coaching clarity for school leaders.
#coachbetter focuses on the working realities of school-based instructional coaching: role clarity, leadership partnership, teacher trust, and program sustainability. Its conversations turn coaching theory into examples that school leaders and coaches can actually use.
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#coachbetter is a school coaching show with a strong bias toward implementation. Its central question is not simply whether instructional coaching matters, but what has to be in place for it to last. Episodes focus on the practical architecture of coaching programs: definitions, vision, data, leadership support, role clarity, and trust with teachers. The show often starts with a broad coaching challenge, then narrows it into examples from real schools and coaching relationships. That gives it a useful rhythm. Big ideas are welcomed, but they have to earn their keep in meetings, budgets, teacher conversations, and program decisions. Recent conversations consider how leaders decide to fund multiple instructional coaches and how schools can gather evidence of coaching’s impact without pretending cause and effect is simple. Others examine coach-principal partnerships, including the importance of giving administrators space to think rather than treating every meeting as a request for approval. The show also returns to the difference between a coaching vision and a coaching definition, arguing that shared language is necessary before shared practice can develop. Leadership is another recurring thread. Coaches are treated as leaders even when they do not hold formal authority, and several episodes explore how that kind of influence can feel awkward, quiet, or underrecognized. Case studies give the feed a grounded feel, especially when guests describe developing a coaching mindset from a classroom role or building clearer agreements with school leaders. The audience is educators already close to this work: instructional coaches, teachers moving toward coaching, principals, middle leaders, and program designers. The show’s warmth matters because the subject can be vulnerable. Coaches are often asked to influence culture without evaluation power, formal authority, or perfect clarity from the system around them. #coachbetter meets that tension with practical language and steady encouragement. It is not flashy. It is a working room for people trying to make coaching understandable, sustainable, and useful in their own school context.
Made for: Designed for instructional coaches, teachers moving into coaching, principals, middle leaders, and school teams building coaching programs. It best suits educators who want usable language and examples rather than broad encouragement alone.
What sets it apart: The show connects coaching ideals to school-level mechanics: staffing, principal meetings, stakeholder buy-in, evidence of impact, and role boundaries. Its case-study format keeps the advice grounded in actual coaching contexts.
Building community in schools through instructional coaching. Wherever you are in your coaching journey, we can support you! Hosted by Kim Cofino, the #coachbetter podcast features inspiring interviews; case studies with coaches; real-life coaching calls; and quick strategic tips that you can put into practice immediately. We turn inspiration into practical reality so you get the clarity you need to move forward confidently - for you as an individual coach and for your coaching program in your school. New episodes every Wednesday!
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Kim Cofino makes school leadership concrete by tracing how role clarity, trust, and carefully designed coaching practices shape organizational culture.
#coachbetter follows Kim Cofino into the working relationships that determine whether instructional coaching gains traction in a school. Through interviews and case-study conversations, the show treats leadership as practical organizational work: clarifying a coach's role,…
The principal's decision pile can wait while you give their thinking ten minutes of air.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A principal's limited thinking space becomes the coach's most practical opening.
School coaching comes across as a matter of organizational leverage: a coach can ask a principal for backing outright, or shape the moment so that backing is easier to offer.
A reflective episode on the quiet confidence and clear boundaries that help school leaders grow others.
School leadership often starts with a quieter test of confidence: whether someone believes they have enough authority, judgment, and permission to act.
A practical conversation about using Lego Serious Play to build participation, relationships, and room for creativity at work.
Play becomes a practical leadership habit in Kim Caffino's conversation with Joel Birch, a certified facilitator and pro trainer of Lego Serious Play.
A grounded look at why trust and clarity need to come before a coaching program can do its best work.
Melissa Carr's move from grade one classroom teacher into instructional coaching gives #coachbetter a clear school-workplace lens. The episode is most useful when it stays with the conditions that make coaching possible in the first place: trust, clarity, and a shared sense of…
Odd questions, followed patiently down to the incentives.
Family grief, public questions, and the responsibilities of care.
This case study features Melissa Carr, a first-grade teacher at St.
Kim Cofino interviews Joel Birch, a certified Lego Serious Play facilitator, about integrating play into professional learning.
Kim Cuffino interviews Lana Yashchyna, a fourth-grade teacher, about building a coaching culture in her classroom and team despite obstacles.
Kim Caffino interviews Elin Kelsey and Ivy Yan about spreading hope in educational communities through emotional contagion, understanding seasonal cycles, and shifting narratives from doom to hope.
Kim Caffino interviews Kim Porter about the unique challenges and cognitive load of instructional coaching in international schools, highlighting the Thrive Model for sustainable coaching programs.
School leaders discuss using data to justify investing in multiple instructional coaches by showing positive impact on teacher retention and satisfaction.
A principal may make 1,000 or 2,000 decisions.
Diana Beabout explains the crucial difference between a coaching vision and a definition, emphasizing that schools need a clear definition of coaching to ensure stakeholder buy-in and program success.
Kim Cuffino celebrates the two-year anniversary of AAICIS by discussing the organization's functional, collaborative culture with team members.
Instructional coaches are encouraged to recognize their informal leadership roles within the school community to increase their impact.
Clarity comes first.
Kim Cuffino and Diana Beabout examine how instructional coaches manage cognitive load, emotional labor, and the hidden work of supporting teachers, leaders, parents, and school staff.
Fran Perlman and Kim Cofino center this Coach Better episode on "sliding door moments," informal leadership, and coaching in schools.
Sarah Tudge, curriculum coordinator at the International School of Manila, compares instructional coaching with a formal school growth model through action research involving three teachers.
Kim Cofino, host of Coach Better Quick Tips, separates a coaching mindset from an intentional coaching program, calling the mindset "a wonderful foundation" that is not enough on its own.
Kim Cuffino interviews Andrea Goodrich, a grade four teacher in Hanoi, about her journey from classroom teacher to instructional coach and the impact of the Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program on her school's coaching culture.
A coaching case study featuring Nikki Hume and Amber Shortridge discussing their coaching cycle and its impact on teaching practice.