Fiona Robertson
Coach, Curriculum Leader, and Consultant
After over 20 years of teaching, coaching, and consulting on 5 continents, I've never been more sure that the power of education lies in its ability to connect, challenge, and inspire. And whilst the human aspects of our work are often the hardest, they are also the source of the largest rewards. Throughout my career, these have been my priority when working with students and colleagues to reach their full potential. And the impact it has is what continues to drive my passion for this work.
Fiona is currently the School-Wide Curriculum Team Leader at Hong Kong International School, where she advises and aligns instructional coaches’ roles and responsibilities across divisions
It's the human aspect of our work that matters most:
Because every great change involves connection.
In my first two years of teaching, my classroom had a connecting door to the neighboring classroom, much like a hotel connecting room. Little did I know that this door would become a metaphor for my future in schools.
The teacher next door, Bron, and I met throughout the day in that connecting doorway, talking about what we were noticing with the students we were teaching, sharing strategies that were working (or crashing), and questions we had as students were trying things out. As weeks passed, we crossed the threshold, and began moving between our classes: swapping to teach the other class, pulling classes together for direct instruction, and at other times watching each other confer and the impact it had on students. We began planning and assessing together, and drove a systemic change for middle schoolers to have transdisciplinary courses and specialised pastoral experiences based on what we were experiencing and learning from the students we worked with. It was exciting stuff.
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During those first two years I taught English, Social Studies, Geography, Drama, Dance, PE, and even Science. -What I learned was that my primary role was teaching students, not just subjects. And that having a 'Bron' - a coach - fast-tracked my teaching expertise in ways I could never have achieved alone.
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After 12 years in the classroom, I became a learning coach, which ended up being so much more than a career change. Being a coach means shifting your mindset about the way we work together. It shuns the idea of competition, and champions curiosity and teamwork. It demands a heightened awareness of how we communicate, and prioritises understanding over quick-fixes. And it shifts culture, because it presumes that everyone wants to be their best for the students we teach, and that because of that we all want to grow. And most importantly, that we do this best when we work to improve, together.