AI Coach by Edthena, a TIME Best Invention of 2025 for use of artificial intelligence to support teacher reflection, now offers schools and districts an innovative and effective way to deliver on-demand coaching for all of their instructional coaches and teacher mentors. Co-designed with expert coaches and leaders and available as part of the award-winning AI Coach platform, the new AI Coach for Instructional Coaches module provides coaches with the opportunity to reflect on their coaching conversations and engage in flexible, self-paced professional learning just like their teachers do.
Formats/platforms used:
AI Coach is cross-platform compatible and runs on any device with a modern web browser. It also includes browser-based recording and uploading functionality that works on Chromebook, Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS.
Primary Website’s URL:
https://www.edthena.com/ai-coach-for-teachers/
Problem Solved:
Research shows that instructional coaching is one of the most effective approaches for improving teacher practice. However, schools often face a challenge: who coaches the coaches?
AI Coach for Instructional Coaches solves this problem for schools and districts. Mirroring the same reflective coaching cycle used by teachers, instructional coaches record a coaching conversation with a teacher, then engage in guided self-reflection about what went well and what they’d like to improve. The secure platform then provides personalized feedback and tailored strategies across 13 high-impact coaching skills, such as active listening and synthesizing insights.
Each skill includes detailed reflection prompts that help instructional coaches examine their practice with specificity. For example, when working on pausing, instructional coaches might reflect on questions like “How effectively did I allow silence for the teacher to think before responding?” or “Did I resist the urge to provide answers too quickly?”
Instructional coaches then create a concrete action plan for what they’ll try in their next coaching conversation.
Grade/age range:
The AI Coach for Instructional Coaches module is designed to support all PK-12 instructional coaches and teacher mentors.
Does AI Coach address core/supplemental/special needs/extracurricular/professional development?
Administrative tool for professional development
Subjects:
One of the most significant benefits of this instructional coach PD module is that it works with any coaching methodology or protocol schools or districts have in place now or in the future. This includes Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle, Arthur Costa and Robert Garmston’s Cognitive Coaching, Diane Sweeney’s Student-Centered Coaching, Elena Aguilar’s Transformational Coaching, and Michael Bungay Stanier’s The Coaching Habit.
This model-agnostic approach means:
● Schools maintain coherence in their coaching program. The module enhances rather than disrupts the already-established coaching model in a building or district.
● Coaches using different frameworks can all benefit. School and district leaders don’t need to retrain coaches in a new model or abandon existing approaches.
● The module meets coaches where they are. Whether someone is a novice coach learning the basics or an experienced coach refining advanced skills, the feedback is personalized to their practice.
This flexibility makes the coaching module practical for all schools.
Lesson time needed:
The AI Coach cycle takes an instructional coach or teacher mentor approximately two hours of active-learning time spread across two weeks.
Instructional coaches first spend about one hour analyzing video of their coaching conversations with teachers, reflecting on what they saw, and developing a plan of action to make progress against their prioritized goals. Then, the instructional coaches pause to implement the change within their coaching sessions and collect new data. That data is shared back to Edie, the virtual coach within AI Coach, as part of the final phase of the coaching cycle when instructional coaches determine the impact of their changes.
Pricing model:
The new AI Coach for Instructional Coaches module is available for free within the AI Coach platform.
The AI Coach platform makes it financially feasible for every school and district to scale-up professional learning. For less than the cost of a half-day workshop, a principal can provide the AI Coach platform to teachers—and now instructional coaches—throughout the year. And, unlike a one-time workshop, the AI Coach platform offers ongoing learning by allowing educators to complete multiple coaching cycles.
Additional services:
The AI Coach platform is a standalone online solution. Besides a computer or mobile device with a camera, no additional technology or services are needed to utilize the platform.
What makes AI Coach unique?
With AI Coach for Instructional Coaches, the same reflective coaching cycle that has helped thousands of teachers grow their practice is now available to support the coaches themselves. For the first time, instructional coaches and teacher mentors can continually increase their effectiveness in the same way they support and encourage teachers, without relying on an expensive outside consultant. This is designed to complement, not replace, the support schools already provide to instructional coaches while helping coaches continuously increase their effectiveness.
Courtney Groskin, an instructional learning coach at St. Vrain Valley Schools in Colorado, puts it best: “AI Coach can now support coaches in analyzing coaching conversations, identifying patterns in their mediative behaviors, and refining skills such as paraphrasing, pausing, and posing mediative questions. For us, this just-in-time support will help our coaches clarify goals, examine assumptions, and intentionally move their practice forward.”
Teacher and user reviews:
“Every coach needs a coach, someone who can push their reflection, expand their perspective, and help them prepare for challenging conversations. But in our work, those supports aren’t always readily available. This new module within AI Coach helps solve this problem by providing coaches with a structured space to reflect, refine, and grow their practice in ways that directly benefit both their own development and the teachers they support. It’s going to be a game-changer.” – Courtney Groskin, instructional learning coach at St. Vrain Valley Schools in Colorado
