Article Content Type: Article
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Maintaining Teacher Ownership in Coaching Conversations
I was sitting across from the literacy coach when I said, “Thanks for taking the time to meet this morning. Since I missed the post-conference you had with your teacher,...
From Somewhere to Somewhere
It’s been said that people can be only where they are and that everyone is on a path from somewhere to somewhere. When we are working with our colleagues, however,...
Meeting with Principals
During a recent meeting I was having with a principal in our district, our superintendent stopped in unexpectedly. “What are you working on?” he asked. He was impressed when we...
Making the Most of Monthly Common Planning Times
We were about to enter a new year, a time for a fresh start for meetings with grade-level groups. Heather (my coaching partner) and I put ourselves in the shoes...
A Timesaver for Coaching Cycles
Time is a precious resource in schools today. As coaches we want to support the individual interests and needs of each teacher. To do that, we need time to connect,...
Data Mining Before a Coaching Cycle
Over the course of my coaching, I have become more and more student-centered. Whenever I embark on a formal coaching cycle, I do some data mining before I even meet...
Teachers Who Write
I always wanted to be a writer. As a little girl, I kept notebooks and folders filled with loose-leaf pages of my latest novel. I wrote a lot of haunted-house...
Making Fiction Writing Come to Life
We need to find a way to get our writers talking more. We need to get our writers elaborating in their stories. We need a way to make fiction writing...
A Chartbook Tour
During my years of working with teachers, one of my most valuable tools has been the sketchbook that contains my charts. I’m actually on my third rendition, not because I...
Visual Essays
We had just read a series of short stories in class, and I had intended for my high school students to write an essay comparing and contrasting how a certain...
Getting Started with Voice Recorded Responses
Reading and writing float on a sea of talk. —James Britton “How is your class?” is a common question we teachers ask each other throughout the school year. It...
Getting Started with Student Podcasting
My wife started playing the next episode of The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified on her smartphone for the kids in the backseat as we drove to our destination. It...
Everybody Wants to Be a Hero (and Needs a Guide)
Every story has a hero. The Princess Bride has Inigo Montoya. The Wizard of Oz has Dorothy. Star Wars has Luke Skywalker. Everyone wants to be the hero of their...
Supporting Brave Writers
Say what you wanna say, and let the words fall out. —Sara Bareilles, "Brave" Usually, when we look at the on-demand writing prompts that we give our fourth graders as...
Teaching Students How to Give Revision Suggestions
I discovered the video Austin’s Butterfly a few years ago through a Twitter post. This amazing video shows the power of a learning community and how learners can grow with...
Why I Don’t Like Erasers
I recently visited a second-grade classroom as a teacher was administering a preassessment. As I walked around the room, I jotted notes about some of the behaviors I was seeing...
Story Maps for Reflection in the Midst of Drafting
“I’m done!” I heard from several students in unison on day two of writing workshop. I thought to myself, How are they finished? They’ve only just begun. I get it,...
Student (and Teacher) Risk-Taking
In my school district there is a focus on risk-taking for teachers. What does that mean? Essentially, not to be afraid to try something new and perhaps even totally different...
Reigniting Your Coaching Schedule in December
It happens. That moment when you glance at your calendar and current cycles of coaching are ending and there isn’t much scheduled in the way of new work. This is...
200 Feet
It was a personal mission at my previous school to provide students with as much access to books as possible. Two hundred feet from a book at any one time...
Recipes and Lesson Plans: Process and Practice
Fitness and cooking are the interests I most often use as analogies when I work with new teachers. Nothing original there, I admit. It’s almost too easy to compare interval...
