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Changing Roles: From Teacher to Coach and Back Again

By Kathie Marshall and Cindi Rigsbee

What’s it like to move from being a teacher of kids to a teacher of teachers? And what’s it like to move back?

Literacy teachers Cindi Rigsbee and Kathie Marshall are both members of the Teacher Leaders Network and both middle school veterans with three decades experience. Cindi, who teaches in a diverse school in the Raleigh area of North Carolina, took on a teacher-coaching job this past fall. Kathie, who teaches in an inner-city Los Angeles school, left her coaching job of six years in the fall of 2008 to become a full-time teacher again.

Earlier this school year, John Norton asked Cindi and Kathie to reflect on their coaching experiences in an e-mail conversation. What they had to say will be of interest to any teacher thinking of becoming a peer coach—and anyone who supports peer-coaching programs.