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Auditing Your Literacy Leadership: Introduction
Principals, instructional coaches, and curriculum leaders are by nature confident and courageous people. We find it easy to build relationships with teachers, students, and parents. We know how to communicate...
Flipping Negative Teacher Emotions
I am generally a happy person. I am content in my home and work life, I usually look on the bright side, and I try to find the humor in...
Three-Word Meditation
Meditation is the clearing of the mind so you can proceed at your best. Many years ago, I was in my car listening to public radio on the way to...
Recharging with My Tribe
Being able to express myself is a huge part of my self-care routine. Cleo Wade When I reach the final days of the school year, I know I’m not...
You’re New to Coaching. Now What?
I’ll never forget my first year as a coach. My position was in a district new to me where I would be teaching kindergarten for half of the day and...
You’ve Done It. What Happens Next?
You’ve done it. You’ve flexed your educational muscles and potificated upon your beliefs and perspectives. Sent the thank-you cards or emails.Then spent the next few days waiting, checking your phone...
Getting to the Heart of Theme
When I was in junior high way back in the day, the biggest and most important papers we had to write about the books we read all focused on one...
Splashing Around to Find Themes
I discovered by accident a new approach to teaching students how to determine the theme of a text. After the study of any story or poem, I was accustomed to...
Writing Routines: Drafting Autonomy
This past year, I've taken time to evaluate my role in the writing workshop. One question I’ve asked myself is Am I interrupting students writing by continually conferring with them?...
Refugees: A Children’s Booklist
How could I ever forget her? Her eyes were full of hope. Her smile had shadows behind it, but I didn’t know her journey. She seemed happy at times. Other...
Comics and Graphic Novels for Tweens
My 10-year-old grandtwins, Molly and Jacob, are officially tweens, and I see it in their reading tastes. They devour chapter books and picture books, still love read-alouds, appreciate good joke...
Conference Records That Stay with Kids
As I waited for the transition to writing workshop, I looked around the kindergarten classroom. It was packed! Not only were class sizes large—34 five-year-olds had prepared their desks for...
Conferring Notes
I have a crazy, multifaceted system for keeping track of our grocery list at our house. My system is part digital, using the Google Keep app on my iPhone. I...
Resisting Traditional Definitions of Productivity
The first day back at school after spring break felt like stepping on a treadmill that was going full speed. Testing season was upon us, a school recognition application was...
Old Technology for New Engagement
In a world with so many connections, is there still room for learning that is untethered? My son recently found my 35 mm camera. He was playing with the lens,...
The Instagram Project
“So, what have you been reading lately?” I have learned the power these seven words hold to invite readers to share their reading lives with others. As a literacy coach,...
Time to Plan
It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? —Henry David Thoreau I’m a mom to four active teenagers. Our...
Personalizing Professional Learning Opportunities
Planning the professional learning for the coming school year is a tightrope walk. We want to honor teacher autonomy and choice, yet be vigilant in keeping the focus on literacy....
Helping Teachers Develop Their Own Chartbooks
As a coach, I am in many classrooms, and I am constantly reevaluating and restocking the contents of the bag I carry with me whenever I am working with students....
Launching a Historical Fiction Genre Study
History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity. ...
Student Centered and Teacher Driven: Coaching and Instructional Assessment
As I reflected with Joy about our recent coaching cycle, we looked back to our original goals and the pre- and post-data on her students' work. We had seen more...
