Content Category: Lead Literacy
Results
Where Confidence Begins
Our neighbor Ed is handy. A couple of weeks ago, he showed us pictures on his smartphone of the additional room he created on the backside of his garage. “Yep,...
Nice to Meet You Again
Recently, I went on a weekend trip with two dear friends whom I have known for years. We spent three days doing what we love most: eating and talking. On...
Coaching Minute: Collaboration
In this brief video, Cathy Mere talks with literacy coach Kelly Hoenie about collaboration with reading specialists.
Equitable Coaching
We were meeting as a leadership team to discuss the direction for professional development in the second half of the year. Our team is composed of a representative from each...
Heavy Edits
In college, one of my work-study jobs was in the public communications office. It was my responsibility to write news releases about the goings-on around campus. Various departments would submit...
Helping Teachers Write
Not infrequently, a distant or past friend or colleague will ask me to read something they’ve written. “Will you tell me what you think?” they ask. What they want (what...
I Still Am
When my oldest son was young, he would spend hours rooting through the dirt, inspecting what lived underneath the rocks in our yard and carefully examining every crawling insect he...
Celebration and Reflection for Teacher Growth
The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. —Anna Quindlen We’ve been going about school improvement...
Taming the Voices in Our Heads
Our entire lives, [Eckhart Tolle argued], are governed by a voice in our heads. This voice is engaged in a ceaseless stream of thinking—most of it negative, repetitive, and self-referential....
Staff Retreat
If you’ve ever flattened on the couch with a bad cold or an overload of exhaustion, the last thing you want to hear from someone is, “You really should get...
Ending the Year by Looking Forward
In this short video, Cathy Mere asks literacy coach Kelly Hoenie to think about how she will use learning from the end of the school year to plan for next...
Narrative Mini-Charts
I spend a lot of time making charts. I have multiple sketchbooks that I’ve filled up with charts over the years: anchor charts, strategy charts, learning progressions. These books have...
Closing Out Professional Communities
As I thought about our last meeting together for the school year, I wrestled with how to make it just right. This would be the last time we’d sit down...
A Peek at a Coaching Notebook
Literacy coach Kelly Hoenie opens up her coaching notebook and shares with Cathy Mere what she writes down during observations and consultations, as well as how she uses the information...
Understand, Uncover, and Undertake
The school day was over, and the hallways were that type of quiet caused by the sudden absence of the cacophony of students during dismissal. The silence seemed to fill...
Best Intentions with No Assumptions
I arrived at the high school to pick up my son from maker club. As I was walking toward the front doors, a woman standing in the parking lot asked...
Letting Go: Nurturing Ownership in Writing
Once a month, a group of teachers from across the district gather to take a deep dive into writing instruction. The teachers, a variety of participants from grades K-5 who’ve...
What’s the Temperature?
Recently, one of our coaches was out for an appointment on her building’s data-team day. It was an appointment she couldn’t miss, but scheduling half-day blocks for teams to meet...
Coaching Minute: Principals and Questions
Jen Schwanke explains why one of the most crucial tasks for a principal is to slow down and ask good questions.
Reframing Data Discussions
“Will you lead a meeting going over ELA benchmark data with second through sixth grade on one of the institute days?” “Sure.” (Please no.) “Which day?” (Please say the second...
Coaching Minute: Fostering Team Collaboration
Jen Schwanke talks through the tricky work of making sure literacy specialists, coaches, and classroom teachers have the time and structure they need to collaborate well around students and data.
