Choice Lit Topic: Leadership
Do you guide teachers, specialists, and literacy coaches? Here are tools, advice, and strategies school leaders need for their daily work in staff meetings, study groups, and one-on-one discussions with colleagues. If you have a leadership role in coaching teachers and designing professional development, you’ll want an upgraded membership with access to our Leaders Lounge.
Results
Notes from the Mad Teachers Liberation Front: Create Your Manifesto
Summer can be a fine time to renew, refresh, and recommit to our passions and ideals. When a group of teachers here in Oregon, who work with children and young...
Introducing the Common Core Standards in Writing (Part 2)
We began our morning with this objective: “We will read, unwrap and reflect on the ten Common Core State Standards related to writing and the first three language standards. We...
Volunteered: What I Learned from Cleaning Out the Barn
Recently my boss “volunteered” me for another committee. At first when I got the email, I was ticked and disgusted. I have plenty on my plate, and finding the time...
Introducing the Writing Common Core Standards: Planning for Professional Development
When I began to plan for how introducing the Common Core State Standards in Writing with a key group of leaders in our district, I kept these words of wisdom...
Energy, Stamina, and Training Wheels for Coaching Teachers
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. Albert Einstein I remember the day I learned to ride a bicycle in vivid colors. The...
Discussing Observations with New Teachers
Jennifer Allen's new teacher group discusses what they learn from classroom observations in this video taped early in the fall.
The ABCs of Literacy Coaching (Part 1)
Summer gifts me time to think about the upcoming coaching season. In particular, I’m thinking about the new coaches: Vikki, Samantha and Meghan that I’ll be mentoring in the fall...
Ask Me – I’m Not the Expert
“If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals. I call this feeling a sense of agency.”...
What is the Content for Small-Group Instruction? (Part 2 of the Grouping Series)
My colleague Pam, who is new to small groups, had a goal of meeting with three groups of fifth graders each day. We had several pieces of information in front...
Voila! Best Writing and Entry Slips in Second Grade
Linda Karamatic leads a small group of second graders who are choosing pieces with the help of their peers to place in their portfolios. After reading and discussing their pieces, Linda shares an entry slip to encourage more careful selection of writing.
Don’t Be a Sneetch
When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball, Could a Plain-Belly get in the game? Not at all. You only could play if your bellies had stars, And the...
Literacy Chats: An Open Discussion Format
Principal Karen Szymusiak and Literacy Coach Pam Hahlen meet with grades K-2 teachers to discuss current literacy concerns. Topics include reading workshop and classroom environments.
Literacy Chats with Teachers: Routines and Guidelines
Principal Karen Szymusiak and Literacy Coach Pam Hahlen meet with grades 3-5 teachers to discuss current literacy concerns. Topics include reading workshop and connections across the intermediate grades.
Talking About Synthesis: Metaphors from 2nd Graders
Principal Karen Szymusiak visits a second-grade classroom in her school to sit in on a discussion of synthesis.
What to Say on Parent Teacher Night
As the school year gets in full swing throughout the country, many teachers and literacy coaches have been talking about and preparing for parent/teacher night or the annual school Open...
Telling Our Stories
We all know that teaching requires constant renewal of the mind, heart, and spirit. How do we find time to truly renew ourselves, to refuel our spirits that get used...
Making Assumptions
It had been a rough morning. I'd spent the last two-and-a-half hours in jaw-tightening silence, watching a novice teacher making misstep after misstep in his classroom. In my capacity as...
Literacy Team Meeting: Focus on Word Work Part 2
In the second part of the literacy team meeting, teachers on the team move from the focus on sharing, to the important phase of where to go next as a...
Literacy Coaching and Student Work with Diane Sweeney (PODCAST)
Diane Sweeney is the author of Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals. In this podcast with Heather Rader, she talks about the dangers of focusing too much on...
Professional Development Openers and Icebreakers (ROUND-UP)
Experts on presentations once said that you had 30 seconds to capture the attention of your audience. Other experts now say you have the attention of the audience in the...
Exit Slips Open Doors
"It doesn't have to end here." So claims the Powerpoint slide at the end of my professional development classes in the past. With this statement, along with my contact information...
