Content Category: Lead Literacy
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Coaching Minute: Find a Network of Coaches
Inga Omondi encourages instructional coaches to curate a network of others who are doing similar work.
Coaching Minute: Supporting New Coaches
Literacy coach Jen Court explains how she supports coaches who are just beginning their work.
One Powerful Way to Improve Your Strategic Plan
What would I eliminate if I had a magic wand? Overconfidence. —Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, Nobel Laureate, and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow Strategic plans are as common in schools...
How to Let Go of Outdated Literacy Practices
One of the great misconceptions we often carry throughout our lives is that our perceptions of ourselves and the world are basically accurate and true, that they reflect some stable,...
And Other Duties As Assigned…
One of my favorite lines in my own and many other instructional coaches’ job description is “and other duties as assigned.” It is the gateway and loophole that both expands...
Five Business Books Every Leader Should Read
My reading life consists of an eclectic mix of books, and I have found that business books often provide valuable guidance for my school leadership. These lessons have been applicable to...
A Checklist of Ideas to Support New Teachers
Every year brings grade-level shifts, new agendas, and new and improved ways of doing things in a school. Even though these initiatives and shifts take time and adjustments, we at...
Encouraging Instructional Confidence
Teachers are teachers because they know everything . . . right? Teachers have all the answers. But what happens if we do not? What can you do as an instructional...
Avoiding Burnout
This article is not about using this summer to get reinspired, or about falling further in love with your work, or about the best books to buy for your students....
Choice, Voice, and Rejoice: Looking Back and Looking Forward
In speaking with my colleagues and “teacher friends” these past few weeks, I keep hearing the same thing again and again. After the year we’ve been through, many teachers are...
Ninja Feedback: Empowering Teachers to Reflect
The greatest feedback I've gotten has been feedback I didn't know I was getting. The most effective coaches and mentors in my experience were those who knew how to ask...
A Word to Aspiring Coaches
Not long ago, my district had a few openings for instructional coaches. The openings were an exciting opportunity, as our schools were considering a return to somewhat “normal” instruction after...
Resisting the Scripted Curriculum
During my classroom visits, one of the 4K teachers wanted to share some of her students’ writing with me. “Check out what Brooklyn can do.” She pulled a paper from...
Coaching Minute: Reminders for Facilitating Coaching Conversation
Instructional coach Brian Sepe offers three reminders for facilitating a coaching conversation. Staying focused on action, clarity, and energy ensures that the conversation will be fruitful.
Books Need Space
I’ve always personified objects. I grew up on a farm, and on those stifling hot summer days baling hay, I would beg my father to give the tractor a break....
Coaching Minute: Listen Deeply
Instructional coach Staci Revere shares a key mantra to use when working with teachers, especially those who do not want to work with an instructional coach.
Three Expectations Regarding Grammar Instruction
Anyone who has ever sat at a desk with an open grammar book and 10 sentences to perform a rote task like identifying the subject, the subordinate clause, or the...
Summer Work: Absorb the World
“I feel so much pressure to revamp the curriculum this summer,” one teacher leader said. “I know. I want to throw out what we’ve always been doing and think about...
Have a Little Fun and Encourage Colleagues
Instructional coach Inga Omondi offers wise (and fun) advice on how to uplift and encourage colleagues.
Offer a Mirror: How Coaches Empower Reflection
“I don’t know! It’s just that I get in there and I start teaching it, and then things happen...like someone has a connection or someone doesn’t understand a word and...
How Well Do You Know Your Team? Checking In On Our Relationships with Teachers
It’s all about relationships. Take the time to create and nurture your relationships with teachers. Creating relationships is top priority. I recall words such as these flowing repeatedly from the...
