In the past year of participating in the coaching sessions I learned that coaching

is a place for interpreters to brainstorm and focus on their work and ethics. These last

several months I have developed skills that were planned to improve in the areas of

weakness I had in some of my interpreting skills. Coaching benefited me as I also have

learned more from assignments that I was able to learn more about ethics by analyzing

them. Whether it was a teamed assignment or with consumers, Deaf or hearing.

Another benefit for coaching is learning how to apply the CPC to former assignments

and understand why or how the assignment became that way. I appreciated coaching

because my coach would check in with me about my progress with the ideas I came up

with when setting goals for the next time we would meet for coaching.

I advise coaches to keep their students accountable by making a plan with them

to use and then follow up with that in the next meeting. Additionally, asking them how

they are benefiting from supervision. Maybe even giving them some tips to follow for

supervision whether they are leading it or participating in it. Those two roles as leader

and participant are different from one another. Some interpreters are unfamiliar with

supervision, as I was, but with the guidance and support from my coach I applied what I

learned from them on how to navigate and utilize the group.

Interpreters need to keep in mind that coaching and mentoring are two different

groups. Mentoring has the time to sit down and review work with you while taking notes

on your data. The coach guides us in skill by coming up with a plan that too can be

continued with a mentor. In coaching we check in, go over data, discover strategies, and

come up with a plan for the next meeting.

 Through the coaching sessions I learned about myself being comfortable with

sharing my assignments, experiences, and becoming vulnerable with colleagues. I

learned it is okay to trust interpreters in the interpreting field. As we all have similar

experiences with assignments, teaming, and ethics. Another thing I learned about

myself is how to be time manageable and create a plan of action for collecting data. And

how to review that data whether with a mentor or myself.