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Tough Nuts

A teacher who refuses to work with her grade-level team to design new units. A principal who is always upending your schedule with new responsibilities. A literacy coach who is in tears because she feels so isolated.  A participant who continually interrupts an in-service session with “Yeah but . . .” Tough Nuts are not easily defined, but you know one when you see it. They are the challenges that sit at the center of your forehead in the dead of night, robbing you of sleep. The stories of how we’ve dealt with these ongoing and immediate challenges are here.

Latest Content
Thanks for the Feedback: Leaning Into Tricky Conversations

Giving feedback is a skill you can grow with time and practice like any other skill. It is not judgmental when you stick with a clear and concise format, avoid emotions that may lead to feelings of blame, and offer the other person a chance to share any additional thoughts and feelings. Gwen Blumberg shares how to lean into these potentially tricky conversations to help everyone work better together.

Be Hard on the Systems and Gentle with the People: How a Systems Approach Can Reduce Teacher Burnout and Lead to Better Outcomes

This article makes the case that schools can be more intentional about interrogating the practices and policies that may be contributing to some of the very problems we attempt to prevent in the first place. Put more succinctly, Matt Renwick advocates for being hard on the systems and gentle with the people.

Work/Life Balance

In this thought-provoking essay, Julie Cox considers ways to bring a more relaxed mindset into the busyness of school.

Sometimes You Have to Grow a New Skin

Mary Brower gives a practical approach to testing and deciding whether a new approach is something to embrace or question.

What I Learned About Having a Difficult Conversation

Hannah Tills writes an authentic reflection of a difficult coaching conversation that did not go well. In this must-read for all leaders who have wished a conversation had gone differently, Hannah shares reminders of how to approach the tough conversations so they will be effective.

Navigating Bias and Assumptions in Literacy Coaching

Matt Renwick helps literacy coaches and leaders recognize and navigate their assumptions and biases when working with teachers. He provides a helpful checklist as a practical place to begin.

Book Rationales for Building Trust and Guiding Decision-Making

Matt Renwick shares a wise and helpful response when a teacher is looking for support for using a text with mature content in her classroom. Learn about book rationales, how to find them, and how to create one of your own with ChatGPT. More importantly, consider how to engage in conversations rather than offer blanket mandates about whether a book is allowed in classrooms.

Seven Simple Steps to Happier Teachers

Joanne Emery offers seven simple ideas to help teachers feel seen, heard, and valued. Classrooms are more joyful and engaging when teachers are uplifted and refueled.

Overcoming the Blame Game

Ruth Ayres and Becca Burk consider the nuances of the aftermath when dysregulation happens and how members of a school community can avoid blaming one another for the situation and instead work together.

Using Metaphors and Analogies to Help Educators Shift Their Thinking and Change Their Practices

Matt Renwick shares the power of using metaphors and analogies during coaching conversations.

Ways to Support Colleagues Part 2

Ruth Ayres and Becca Burk share ways to strengthen our teamwork and help lower the stress levels of adults in the school when students exhibit dysregulated behaviors. This is the second installment of a two-part series.

Ways to Support Colleagues, Part 1

Ruth Ayres and Becca Burk share ways to strengthen our teamwork and help lower the stress levels of adults in the school when students exhibit dysregulated behaviors. This is the first installment of a two-part series.

Small Wins

Gwen Blumberg shares the struggle that since the pandemic fewer people are showing up for professional learning meetings. She helps us flip the potential negativity by encouraging us to look for small wins. Small wins are a simple way to bring joy to your work and the work of others—and that is in fact a very BIG thing.

Teacher and Coach, Side by Side: Affirmations for Leaders in Maintaining a Supportive Presence

Heather Fisher helps her father create a pizza pie in his new outdoor pizza oven. Through trial and perseverance, they finally taste success. Heather connects this experience to the importance of encouragement and presence as instructional coaches.

A Necessary Survey for Your School Community

Ruth Ayres and Becca Burk share a necessary survey for your school community to begin engaging in conversations about managing emotional dysregulation in students. Drawing on their extensive experiences with managing emotional dysregulation as foster parents and educators, they make a case for beginning conversations among your faculty with this simple survey.

Off the Hook: How to Engage With and Reframe Our Obstacles to Reduce Anxiety and Stress

Obstacles are a part of literacy leadership. Matt Renwick offers three steps to reframe our obstacles to reduce anxiety and stress.

The Joyful Toolkit for Literacy Leaders

Vivian Chen is inspired to create a joyful toolkit for educators. While there can be a certain draw to wallowing in killjoys in education, ultimately, we need to disrupt the downward spiral for our own mental wellness.

Examining (and Changing) Our Literacy Beliefs over Time

Changing one’s mind in today’s educational world can feel risky. We fear looking incompetent or like we don’t know what we believe. Matt Renwick learned firsthand that when leaders share how their thinking and beliefs around literacy instruction has changed, it increases the level of respect from others.

Quiet Coaching

Matt Renwick offers insightful ideas about reaching colleagues who are resistant to coaching. Matt offers three steps and practical ideas to “quietly coach.”

Ways to Make Positive Momentum Happen in Sticky Situations

Instructional coach Paula Fiscus finds ways to establish positive momentum in a season of combining two schools into one.

How to Manage Our Frustrations in Difficult Times

Matt Renwick offers an insightful perspective on how anger arises in educators, where it comes from, and what to do about it.

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