An open form of coaching consists of you observing other teachers, administrators, mentors, supervisors or other coaches within your school building and then throughout other schools in a district or organization. So much of effective coaching is finding a coach that is the “right fit” to provide you with guidance and insight to improve your professional practice. After you have observed other educators, select those individuals who will benefit you the most. As a result, you will establish a strong relationship with the ones who demonstrate the skills or behaviors you would like to emulate or improve in yourself. Barkley (2010) has suggested that there is a coaching continuum that illustrates those involved in the coaching process and the roles that they play in supporting the educator that is being coached.

The Evaluator: The role of the evaluator is completely distinct from a mentor or a coach. The criteria by which an educator is evaluated comes from outside the relationship of a teacher and a principal. Very commonly, evaluators work for a school district, organization, or state. The evaluator is tasked with the responsibility of shielding the system from ineptitude. The evaluator ensures that the educator meets the competencies and criteria developed and determined by the system.

Supervision: The supervisor lies in the middle of the coaching continuum. Typically, this could be the principal of a school. However, there are other individuals who can fulfill this role. The supervisor is responsible for evaluating using the criteria or competencies such as state guidelines, school board policies, and other contracts. In addition, they are also committed to supporting educators to meet goals in order to promote teacher growth. Very often, supervisors can play all of the roles on the coaching continuum. An administrator can conduct an evaluation, supervise, mentor and coach other colleagues.

Mentoring: The approach that a mentor takes is assistance. Mentors assist colleagues who may not have as much experience or knowledge as a well-seasoned educator with many more years of experience working with students. This person is essentially an apprentice to the mentor as guidance and help are provided to increase effectiveness in the classroom. Barkley (2010) comments, “...the role of mentors is to guide, teach, tutor, and help mentees-showing them the ropes and imparting their own knowledge and experience” (44).

Coaching: While a coach may do some of the tasks of a mentor, a coach is typically chosen by the educator who wishes to be coached. The difference between a coach and mentor is that a coach’s abilities, knowledge, and professional experience may not differ from the person being coached. Barkley suggests some ways in which coaching opportunities arise and the distinction made between the roles of a mentor and coach when he writes:

1. A distinction between mentor and coach often shows up in subtle ways. Let’s say a new teacher brings  questions to a more seasoned teacher early in the year. Since this is not an official mentoring arrangement, the teacher with experience would probably offer willing assistance, in essence, coaching the new teacher. Now let’s say this same experienced teacher becomes the other’s official mentor. In their first official meeting, the mentor mentions to the new teacher that he or she has been arriving at school too late in the morning. The mentor has been aware of this, but in her thinking as a coach, she never mentioned it, as the new teacher never brought it up. As a mentor, she has a responsibility to share that observation-she has moved to the left on the continuum (46).

Regardless of the role, evaluators, supervisors, mentors, and coaches all have the same underlying goal in mind: to provide assistance and support other educators to improve instructional effectiveness. Ultimatley, student achievement will increase as each person is held accountable for certain responsibilities.