Meet Our Instructional Coach

“I love sharing ideas and helping teachers to improve their practice.” - Heather Maxted, Instructional Coach

The role of an Instructional Coach is to mentor colleagues in solution-focused coaching conversations. Instructional Coach Heather Maxted describes it as an opportunity to observe and learn from colleagues through classroom visits and to help plan and develop a teacher’s professional development. Heather has been part of the Greenwood community for over 12 years, and moved into the Instructional Coach role in 2018. 

Heather recently has recently completed the Applications of Solution Focused Coaching course through OISE which is the second part of a three-part certification. This certification focuses on building solutions rather than seeking advice and solving problems. She is learning how to teach others about exploring future goals and past successes and discovering the skills, knowledge and abilities teachers already have to help them get to their solutions. 

Heather regularly hosts individual Professional Development (PD) sessions for Greenwood teachers. A recent session focused on the topic of differentiation (tailoring instruction to meet different students’ learning needs) and what that may look like in the classroom. She talked about small changes teachers can make to the content or process of their lessons based on students’ various learning needs.

Heather finds her position extremely valuable because she learns so much from working with her amazing colleagues. She sees her role as an opportunity to help others while enhancing her own skills as an Instructional Coach.