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Guiding Teachers

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Coaching Minute: Tech Tools

Cathy Mere shares two tech tools that are invaluable resources for her coaching.

Personalizing Professional Learning Opportunities

Matt Renwick considers how literacy leaders can help teachers tailor professional development to their individual needs.

Fail to Learn

Which grade level would you least like to teach? Matt Renwick explains why you need to confront your fears and do a demonstration lesson with those students. In Matt’s case, the lesson involved entering the wonderful world of kindergarten.

Helping Teachers Weed Libraries

It is difficult for teachers to discard or recycle books they spent years acquiring, yet this is essential end-of-year work in many classrooms. Stephanie Affinito explains how a literacy coach can turn this challenge into an opportunity to build community and professional development plans.

That Student: Ending the Year with a PD Celebration

Melanie Quinn shares a simple professional development activity that helps teachers focus on growth through the year, based on their experiences with one child.

Talking in Front of Peers

Jennifer Schwanke realizes it is never easy to talk in front of adults. She explains how she helps teachers accept the challenge of speaking to colleagues in professional development settings.

A Change in the Weather: Moving from Teacher to Coach

Ruth Ayres finds that coaches can't help but feel a little ambivalent about losing their teaching role, but it's important to embrace the changes in responsibilities if you want to coach well.

Coaching in Proximity: The Sherpa Mind-Set

David Pittman finds that a sherpa analogy helps him adjust his role as a coach—moving closer to teachers without taking over instruction.

The Coconut Wireless

Suzy Kaback finds that a novel take on community communication changes her outlook on how to reach teachers through informal networks.

Embedding Reading into Staff Meetings

Matt Renwick shares how he elevates routine meetings by embedding discussion of professional reading into them.

Team Meeting: Next Steps

Kathy Provost closes a third-grade team meeting with a discussion of next steps, ensuring everyone is on the same page with plans before the next month's meeting.

Professional Learning Beyond PLCs

Matt Renwick shares three alternatives to PLCs that are less time intensive and can be integrated into existing meetings and routines.

A Book Tasting for Teachers

Stephanie Affinito shares the steps for hosting a book tasting for teachers, with everything from creating a splashy invitation to fostering a fun atmosphere included.

Leadership Shifts

This is the time of year when principals and literacy coaches are weighing which teachers might take on leadership roles next year and which teachers in leadership roles might be relieved of these duties. Jennifer Schwanke shares her process for this delicate work.

Not All Superheroes Wear Capes

Stephanie Affinito shares a professional development activity to celebrate teaching strengths and help teachers through the doldrums of this time of year.

Never Too Late to Get to Know You

Melanie Quinn shares two rituals for staff meetings to build camaraderie and community.

A Third Way

Matt Renwick is asked to intervene by a group of teachers with a support staff member who isn't meeting their expectations for working with students. And then things get complicated.

To Celebrate or Not

One parent is adamant that Black History Month should be celebrated. Another parent is adamant that observing Black History Month trivializes blacks. What's a literacy leader to do? Jen Schwanke brings up the thorny issues involved during a staff meeting.

Using Padlet in Coaching

Stephanie Affinito shares the many ways in which she uses Padlet to enhance her professional development offerings and showcase the great teaching and learning in her community.

Science and Literacy Units

Heather Fisher takes a group of elementary teachers through the same science learning process they will use with their students, integrating reading, writing, and talk throughout the professional development session.

The Intersection of Social Studies and Language Arts

No time for social studies is a common lament. Melanie Meehan helps teachers find ways to integrate reading and writing into social studies instruction.

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