Content Category: Lead Literacy
Results
Coaching Minute: Keep a Meeting Journal
Curriculum director Inga Omondi spends a lot of time in meetings. To make connections, remember next steps, and stay organized, she keeps a journal with all of her meeting notes.
Getting to Know You . . . More: A Midyear Idea for Helping Kids Tune (Back) In to Each Other
Our social life is a living system, and it needs exercise . . . It’s a choice you make to invest in, week by week, year by year—one that has...
Coaching Minute: What Makes You Come Alive?
Howard Thurman said, "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."...
Coaching to Empower
I always have a soft spot for new teachers. I remember my own first few weeks of teaching and the dizzying reorientation of my brain with new details and nuances...
Coaching Minute: Tough Meetings
Curriculum director Inga Omondi understands the tension that can build in meetings. She offers advice for instructional coaches on what to do after a tough meeting.
Let Poetry Be the Leader
Communication and motivation are the keys to strong leadership. I learned this quickly as a young teacher. One of my directors would leave little notes periodically in faculty mailboxes. I...
Coaching Minute: Coaching Groups of Teachers
Ruth Ayres offers a useful tip when planning your coaching calendar: Create groups of teachers.
Maintaining an Inquiry Stance: Seeking to Enhance the Practice of Questioning in Leadership
A person who asks questions is more helpful than the person who offers advice. —James Clear "What should I do?" The classroom teacher turned her face toward me with a...
Picture It: Planning Ahead
Christy Rush-Levine is prepared for a day of back-to-back middle school classes. The opening slide is displayed on the large smartboard, and her slide deck is prepped for her lessons,...
Picture It: When Material-Use Goes Awry
I was leading a demonstration lesson for 40 middle school teachers when I looked across the classroom and saw that one of the students had lined his hands with stickers....
Play to Your Strengths
When I taught freshman English, we had a brand-new freshman social studies teacher next door. Right away, it felt like we were total opposites. I was an introvert, and he...
Redesigning Experiences for Parent/Guardian Conferences
October and February are usually the months for parent-teacher conferences in most schools. I admit that at the beginning of my teaching career, I never questioned any aspects of these...
35 Ways Leaders Can Improve School Culture
When the principal sneezes, the school catches a cold. —Todd Whitaker The school culture is defined as the school’s unwritten rules and traditions, customs, and expectations (Deal & Peterson, 2016). ...
A 30-Day Coaching Challenge
Instructional coaching can feel a bit like a roller coaster. Some days feel like we’re sailing through the day with the wind in our face and our arms outstretched with...
Classrooms as Spaces of Identity Development
“The classroom environment serves as a space for identity development where children learn about their humanity, strengths, and justice,” Erica Buchanan-Rivera writes in her book Identity Affirming Classrooms: Spaces that...
Investing in Our Collective Humanity: Nurturing an Intentional Cultural Life
The African philosophy of Ubuntu teaches us a remarkable lesson: that we are human only through the humanity of others. Ubuntu means I am because you are, or We are...
Building Consensus Through Connection
Imagine: A school’s ELA committee has been tasked with creating a list of instructional agreements that will be used in each classroom to guide what is expected of literacy instruction....
The Power of Using a Viewing Lens
Here is the definition of lens from Merriam-Webster: Something that facilitates and influences perception, comprehension, or evaluation Last June, I visited Rocky Mountain National Park with my family. We hiked...
Putting Together Powerful PD
Early in my teaching career, my dad and I taught in the same school for several years. We were both English teachers, and PLC meetings and faculty meetings were always...
Constantly Evolving Toward a Stronger Practice
When Serena Williams was interviewed by Vogue magazine about leaving the game of tennis, she commented, “Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution. I'm here...
Coaching in Community: Co-Creating Learning Spaces (Part I)
People whose teaching lives have been positively impacted by coaching know that coaching can be transformational. However, the other side of the narrative holds just as much truth: Some teachers...
