Content Category: Lead Literacy
Results
Reshaping Data Stories
In the game of data analysis, success is crossing home plate. Grade-level standard is achieved, growth happens, learners progress… and everyone cheers. The thing is, some are starting the game...
Re-energizing Norms with Mantras (Part 3)
Brain fog is a real thing. Although it’s not a medical condition, it’s also not a myth. Brain fog happens when the brain is overworked. If you're a school leader,...
Nuances of Norms (Part 2)
To grow, people need to be challenged. —Adam Grant “I’m so tired of being treated like a baby,” one teacher whispered to her colleague. She wasn’t as quiet as she...
Shaping the School Culture to Encourage Professional Growth
Shaping the School Culture to Encourage Professional Growth While our tai chi group was going through our flow practice, raising our arms slowly up and down, the front door to...
Teacher and Coach, Side by Side: Affirmations for Leaders in Maintaining a Supportive Presence
The pizza oven stood on the pavement at my parents’ house, awaiting the maiden voyage for that first pizza pie to enter the oven. It had been weeks since my...
Are Norms the Problem? Part 1
When I became the leader of a well-established professional learning network, one of the first things I was curious about were our norms for working together. I was a member...
Making a Case for Leadership Coaching
“Every man should have someone they look up to, and every man should have someone who looks up to them.” — Robert Bly, Iron John Every professional—not just teachers—can benefit...
Multiplier Mindset
"Managers help people see themselves as they are; Leaders help people to see themselves better than they are." ~ Jim Rohn Many of us have a person in our lives...
Not-to-Do-List
As the new school year approached, I found myself reflecting on the past year’s successes and areas for growth and trying to decide what I should do differently this year....
It All Counts: Getting to Know Your Teacher Candidates
In a spring 2023 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, 34 percent of respondents said professors taking more of an interest in getting to know them...
A Necessary Survey for Your School Community
Authors’ Note: We, Ruth and Becca, have experienced situations with emotional dysregulation of children in a variety of settings. From our homes as we parented foster children who had lived...
Principals Are People, Too!
Headed to the office for my weekly meeting with the principal, I found myself replaying my list of discussion points. I knocked on the office door, and after a moment's...
Beyond the Books: A Tale of Empowerment, Influence, and Agency from the School Library
The fourth graders hurried back to the library and circled up with the school librarian, Micki Uppena. “What did you want to share?” she asked. The students had just completed...
Five Questions to Ask When Reviewing Literacy Curriculum
Selecting a curriculum resource is not as simple as previewing a book. As a building administrator and former curriculum leadership instructor, I find that these decisions are complex and multifaceted....
Off the Hook: How to Engage With and Reframe Our Obstacles to Reduce Anxiety and Stress
“[W]e are all hardwired to suffer psychologically: to compare, evaluate, and criticize ourselves; to focus on what we’re lacking; to rapidly become dissatisfied with what we have; and to imagine...
Lifting Teachers by Lifting a Teacher
Moving in and out of classrooms all day brings a wide perspective on school culture. I get to experience teachers growing the minds of their students firsthand. Their craft as...
The Joyful Toolkit for Literacy Leaders
A few years ago, pre-pandemic, I came across this TED Talk from Ingrid Fetell Lee. In it she describes her 10-year quest to figure out where joy comes from. The...
Fixer of Everything
Fixer of Everything. This is what the nameplate reads on the cabinet behind my small-group desk. I placed it there after a colleague gifted it to me on a random...
Examining (and Changing) Our Literacy Beliefs over Time
Our beliefs construct what we notice, which constructs what we believe. So noticing on purpose and questioning those beliefs is pure genius. —Jennifer Garvey Berger and Carolyn Coughlin, Unleash Your...
Engaging from the Start: Considering Accessible Professional Development Experiences for a Range of Educators
Accessibility allows us to tap into everyone’s potential. —Deborah Ruh "B doesn’t belong because it is the only blue shape." "C doesn’t belong because it is the only shape that...
Developing Transcripts of Classroom Teaching with AI
I see AI as an additional tool, but a very powerful one. —Sal Khan in The Courier (2023) The Idea If you had a co-teacher who was experienced, well educated,...
