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Jump Right In and Other Lessons Learned from Remote Coaching
Sit side by side. Read the room. Choose a meeting spot that works best for the teacher. All of these practical coaching tips, gathered over the years and put into...
Competitive Comparisons
We’re deep in the brave new world of remote online learning, and it has revealed a long-kept secret about education: Many of us are quietly competitive and make constant, relentless...
Reassuring Worried Children with Picture Books
Some time ago I was asked to attend a parent-teacher conference for my daughter with her team of teachers. She was in seventh grade at the time. I expected the...
Making Paper Packets for Distance Learning
For many districts and grade levels, distance learning is harnessed through recorded minilessons. As coaches, we see many benefits to this. It’s an opportunity for teachers to hone their minilesson...
Investing in Coaching Logs
The first time I was introduced to the concept of a coaching log, I am sure that I rolled my eyes, clucked my teeth, crossed my arms, and sighed, or...
The Power of Teaching Journals
When I was in graduate school, we watched videos (yes, I'm old enough that these were VHS videos) of expert teachers instructing and sharing their thoughts and reflections. I loved...
Journals or Writers’ Notebooks?
I did one of those end-of-the-year PD sessions. You know the type. The school administration realizes that they have money left in the PD budget and need to spend it...
Remote Coaching Videos
We know our subscribers who are literacy coaches have a pressing need for resources to use in remote coaching contexts, as well as in college courses that are being moved...
Find Friends
Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need Somebody to lean on...
Remote Learning for Our Youngest Students
I’ve been reflecting on the events of the past few weeks, a still-fresh alternate reality in which I’d wake up in the morning with one plan and have it changed...
Planting Rainbows
Well, this school year has certainly taken an unexpected turn. As my family has adjusted to the change in schedule and the abrupt change of pace in our daily living,...
Letting Go in the Remote Learning World
Having 72 hours to shift from face-to-face instruction toward online, remote learning challenged me in unexpected ways. Just when I thought I knew how to be a principal, I got...
Book Selection for Early and Emergent Readers
Walking into Anna’s classroom for reading intervention always made me smile. It wasn’t uncommon to see her with a basket of small books, talking with a friend over a favorite...
Solutions to Predictable Problems with Writing in Kindergarten
The kindergarten and first-grade classrooms we visit have moved into their launching units in writing workshop. The writers are working to write small-moment stories across pages of a book. Predictably,...
The Good Part of Tech
I have struggled to accept technology as a part of my classroom. I attend technology workshops with cynicism and regularly bemoan the amount of money that goes into technology purchases...
Interpretation and Comprehension
Teaching comprehension can be overwhelming. It seems as if there are so many skills for kids to learn and there's so much jargon: drawing conclusions, determining the main ideas, putting...
Professional Renewal: Facilitating Change Within Ourselves
One of our friends recently shared that her family wanted to go plastic-free in her household. Naturally, I had lots of questions about how they would accomplish this. “How will...
Building Primary Writing Skills Through Character Study
There is no greater power on this earth than story. Brandon Sanderson We often ask students to write true stories, to look inside their lives and dig up small...
How Am I Doing? One Principal’s Experience with Feedback
In the past, I would ask only for ratings from teachers on my performance. No room for comments. To be honest, I was afraid of character assassination. So for three...
Remembering the Big Picture in Reading Assessments
At bedtime, when reading to my three- and four-year-old daughters, it’s sometimes all I can do just to get through the books. Never mind reading with expression or reacting to...
Making Learning Stick: Learning Progressions and Student-Created Exemplars
As teachers, we have electrifying moments. Those moments when a student shares an interpretation and actually “grows her thinking” right in front of our eyes. We think, My teaching is...
