The Current Landscape of Coaching - An Interview with Barbra Blender

Barbara Blender, is currently a master coach from San Francisco, has had years of experience coaching early childhood professional and supervising coaches in the field. She is an independent coach working with First 5 of San Francisco. She will share her current experience of what is currently working for and supports coaches, the challenges coaches face, and what she sees as the necessary shifts in perspective, and the additional support needed at the front line.  She shares the power of using 'learning stories' as a way to support reflective practices with early childhood providers and how to collect meaningful qualitative evidence of quality care and education.  She will also discuss ways coaching practices have modified and adapted over the years and mentions the challenges during this turbulent landscape of COVID 19.

Barbra was the Coaching Manager at San Francisco State's Gateway to Quality for 10 years and and before that held jobs directly in the field as a preschool director, teacher and within various social service agencies. a particular passion for striving towards equity so that all children, and particularly those furthest from opportunity, get the education they justly deserve. In service of this, Barbra believes that ECE educators, when given meaningful support, can evaluate their teaching and identify ways to strengthen their practice.