Last time, I recognized that it was difficult to define the term “coach” because most of the people I spoke to and most of the research articles I have read do not have a single unified conception of what an educational coach might be. There are very few well- defined models of coaching based on research. Additionally, there are quite a few people within agencies having at least part of their job description including the term ‘coach’. So, I thought perhaps I might have better luck if I started to think about what the role of coaches were in schools. Of coarse there are athletic coaches, but beyond that, I wanted to examine the role of instructional coaches within schools. 
Many of the different people who I have spoken who are identified, in part, as coaches within their district were able to agree on the fact that the role of the coach is to help provide on-going, embedded, professional development for teachers. The goal was to help teachers to improve their practice so that they can provide better learning environments for their students. In a few cases, the coaches I spoke to felt that they too were receiving professional development thought their interactions with teachers, while others felt that their role was that of an expert and that they were to provide information, support, and guidance to teachers and help build the teachers’ skills in certain areas.
In most cases the coaches I have spoken to had specialties. 
For example, I have chatted with quite a few literacy coaches who helped teachers plan lessons, try new strategies and assess students in the area of literacy. There seems to be quite a few technology coaches or mentors, who help teachers to effectively utilize technology in their classroom. I have also spoken to some behavior or classroom management coaches, who help teachers organize their classrooms and try to assist teachers in meeting their students’ social and emotional needs. Recently I have spoken to curriculum coaches that are helping teachers plan for, develop lessons, and use the new BC curriculum. The roles of these helper teachers range from online support answering questions, to providing small group in-service training, to on the ground support co-teaching with teachers. It seems that the role of each coach was flexible and was dependent on the specific needs of the school.
So what do coaches do? After speaking with teachers and reading the research, coaches can do many things. Some of these activities include, but are not limited to, observing lessons, providing feedback to teachers, modeling effective strategies, helping design lessons, assisting with using technology, assisting in implementing lessons, helping teachers work with data, problem-solving with teachers, conducting workshops, leading teacher study groups, helping teachers with classroom management, monitoring school improvement goals, supervising staff, and evaluating staff. This is a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. I started to wonder what types of support these coaches were receiving to allow them to help teachers do all of these ways.
So who coaches the coaches? Coaching adults is very different from classroom instruction. Some of the coaches I spoke to did get professional development workshops on coaching, some cited the UBC program, some stated that they had a Masters in leadership, and others felt like they were not really supported at all. 
When Deussen and colleagues (2007) interviewed literacy coaches in the Northwestern American States on this topic, some said that their first experiences felt as if they were “building the airplane while flying”. I fear that many coaches have the same experience.
When you think about it, very few teachers have had training on consultation or collaboration with other teachers. Remembering that this is quite different from the ability to lead or supervise. It seems to me that an effective coach must have expertise in a specific teaching area, but they must also possess a skills set that will enable them to work collaboratively with their peers. I don’t think that years of experience teaching will automatically ensure that an individual will have either the expertise in a teaching or collaboration skill required to be an effective coach.
Teacher Professional Development 