The Technician’s Journey
Guest Post by Kelly Patterson
Kelly Patterson is a Design & Technology Technician at City of London School for Girls in the UK.
Just over a year ago I was given the opportunity to sign up for this new and exciting coaching course that everyone was talking about and numerous emails had been sent around to rustle up interest.
I have been a Design and Technology Technician for over 10 years now and as a member of support staff this was quite a rare opportunity, as most CPD is geared towards teaching staff. CEGs and inset days mostly mean an opportunity to deep clean the workshops or play hide and seek with numerous tools that have been missing for months. And so of course, I jumped at the chance to learn something new, to add something above and beyond the obligatory H&S accreditations.
So if you are reading this you may already have some knowledge of coaching and The Coachee’s Journey. This is the journey that a coachee goes on when they are being coached, it starts with increasing awareness, then shifting of lenses and finally taking action.
This is also the journey of the coach when being trained to facilitate.
My coaching journey very much embodied raising my awareness about coaching and the massive potential it brings—I started to see an opportunity to widen my role within the school and that led me to applying to be part of the coaching team that will eventually facilitate The Anatomy in house.
As we all know, 2020 has been a very difficult year for so many and we have all had to be adaptable and make a lot of changes. Luckily for the coaching team at City, Graydin was able to offer us the opportunity to continue our learning journey and complete The Art and Observation online. Having done The Anatomy and The Journey together in person, this was to be an experience like no other.
I have now been coached and coached people from all over the world, shared vulnerabilities with complete strangers and have learnt so much about myself, despite the course being online. Quinn and McKenzie have still managed to create a space that was just as safe and open as if we had done it face to face.
This was a truly unique and special experience that I have had the privilege to be a part of and as with every ending to a Graydin coaching course, there is a gratitude circle. I’ve always taken something significant away from any gratitude circles I have attended. You quite often hear the appreciation from attendees of how sharing a space with others and going through an experience together can be so very powerful. It gives you an opportunity to be authentic and know you have all the answers whilst still being able to learn from each other. This is one of the most impactful and positive things that comes from coaching. I am very thankful for the opportunity to have spent so much of this year getting to know my colleagues better and to have met so many amazing people from so many facets of education and beyond.
I am proud to say I am now seen more than just a Technician. I am a coach and facilitator, part of an amazing coaching team and starting a very exciting journey together.
Through all the amazing courses I have done with Graydin (and thanks to the wonderful Quinn and McKenzie for their endless support and wisdom), the most important thing I have come to understand is that once you are given space to understand yourself, it effortlessly gives you space to understand others…. and what a gift that is.