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Our lounge is your home for exploring hundreds of articles and videos for literacy coaches and school leaders. Our contributors share their best advice for working one-on-one with teachers in coaching cycles, hosting professional development sessions, and designing demonstration lessons and study groups.

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A Writing Marathon for Teachers

Sunshine, multiple venues, and a writing marathon give a group of teachers led by Heather Rader many insights into the needs of writers of all ages.

A Quilters’ Workshop

Terry Thompson leads a quilters' workshop for teachers on a lark over the summer, and everyone makes some powerful connections to reading and writing instruction.

Loaf and Invite Your Soul

Kim Campbell finds a snippet of Walt Whitman's poetry is just what students and teachers need to pause and to refresh their intellects and energy levels.

Three Little Tweaks for More Effective Communication

Ruth Ayres realizes that the sheer volume of information teachers receive each day overwhelms any attempt at real connection. She explains some simple changes she made to improve her communication skills.

Closing the Year Strong: Leveraging Technology When Time Is Short

Matt Renwick shares some strategies for connecting with teachers during the stressful last months of school.

Becoming a Literacy Coach: Principles and Mission Statements

Brian Sepe thinks about what has influenced his coaching, and through that process develops a mission statement and a vision statement to guide his work.

Meeting Snapshot: Sharing Resources

Jason DiCarlo explains the importance of previewing resources and not just giving them to teachers, as well as linking the text directly to current work. In this video example, Jason distributes copies of Debbie Miller's Reading with Meaning during a first-grade lesson study of fiction and nonfiction text features.

A Test Run for Difficult Decisions

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan describe a four-part protocol they use for working through their most challenging decisions.

Starting with Core Beliefs and Values

Jennifer Vincent shares some of her favorite strategies for helping colleagues describe their core beliefs and values.

Conflict: A Coach’s Perspective

Julie Johnson gives a coach's perspective on conflict with a teacher and how it was resolved.

Conflict: A Teacher’s Perspective

Scott Jones shares his experience of being in conflict with a coach. After an uncomfortable 24 hours, he ends up with some insights about the value of the teacher-coach relationship.

The Importance of Creating a Literacy Room (Instead of a Tiny Office)

Melanie Swider finds that her first task in moving from teaching to a coaching role at her school is to think through how she will organize and share resources with teachers. Scratch that—her very first task is convincing her principal that a large room needs to be set aside for professional development resources.

Coaching and Tracking Conferences

Melanie Meehan shares some of her favorite prompts, strategies, and tools for effective conferences with students.

Coaching Minute: Baggies

Melanie Meehan shares her bedraggled baggie—the essential tools she carries with her when she confers with students.

No Cutting Corners in Coaching

A home renovation project gets Kathy Provost thinking about what's essential in coaching well.

Coaching Tool: Presentation Binders

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain how they organize on-the-go resources for presentations in this second installment in the coaching tools series.

Coaching Tool: Digital Books

In this first installment in a series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share one of their favorite coaching tools: digital books.

Picture It: Student Mentor Text Bulletin Board

Heather Fisher shares an example of a craft resource—a bulletin board highlighting student writing choices that can help peers hone their craft.

Coaching Minute: What’s in My Bag

Melanie Meehan opens her coaching bag to share her favorite on-the-go resources.

Autobiographical Listening

Jennifer Schwanke realizes too often that in attempting to connect with others, we shift the focus away from the person we're listening to. She explains why feedback based on autobiographical listening may be problematic.

Improving My Feedback

Brian Sepe explores the difference between appreciative and coaching feedback, and why both are essential for literacy coaches to give to teachers.

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