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Lead Literacy Articles & Videos (formerly leadliteracy.com)

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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Learning from Lasso: Cultivating a Coaching Mindset in New Literacy Coaches

Gwen Blumberg is inspired by Ted Lasso to consider intentional mindsets to foster success as a coach.

Coaching Minute: Change Can Be Rewarding

Instructional coach Paula Fiscus shares the notion that change is a catalyst for growth. Although change can be difficult and challenging, it is also rewarding.

Reclaiming What It Means to Flourish

Stella Villalba reclaims what it means for students to flourish by crafting a guidepost and action steps as a path to overcoming the deficit mentality that is too often part of conversations about learning.

How Do You Show Up?

Brian Sepe encourages instructional coaches to engage in self-reflection to better meet the needs of teachers. Using a simple matrix, Brian leads us to powerful realizations for showing up in meaningful ways.

Purposefully Plan PD to Support Transformational Change

Ruth Ayres thinks about intentionally designing professional learning experiences to support transformational change by recognizing and lifting the heavy load many educators carry.

Shopping in Your Own House: Searching Our Own Teaching Practice for New Ideas 

Heather Fisher explains how to lead colleagues to look for what they need within their own teaching practices before turning to Google or other sites for the answers.

Coaching Minute: The Risk of Vulnerability

Instructional coach Jenn Ross explains the importance of being vulnerable. By modeling the expectations for phonics minilessons, she risked failure in front of her colleagues and was reminded of a powerful way to build strong relationships.

Coaching Minute: Encouraging Teacher Leaders

Instructional coach Jonathan Winslow shares how he intentionally creates leadership opportunities for the teachers he works alongside.

Feedback Is Overrated: Focus First on Building Positive, Trusting Relationships

Matt Renwick gives three tips to build relationships that will open doors to receive feedback.

Five Classroom Design Ideas for Supporting Readers and Writers with ADHD

Matt Renwick encourages five classroom design ideas for supporting readers and writers with ADHD.

Using a Checklist for Powerful Post-Conferences

Lisa Mazinas gives a structure for post-conference conversations. These talking points are the perfect place to begin.

Coaching Minute: Taking Time to Plan

David Pittman encourages the importance of instructional coaches taking the time to plan.

Creating a Culture Where Everyone Leads

Ruth Metcalfe shares four ways to develop shared efficacy and leadership.

Coaching Minute: Creating a Sign-Up for Coaching

Kate Mills and Tara Barnett streamline the sign-up system for working with a coach.

Capturing Classroom Currents

David Pittman shares how to capture the current of energy from teacher to student and student to teacher in this guide to make the classroom currents visible to teachers.

Give Yourself Time to Prepare

David Pittman encourages instructional coaches to take time to prepare for the day and then to reflect at the end of the day.

A PLC Planning Template to Help Focus Work with Teachers

Tara Barnett and Kate Mills share a PLC planning template they created to help focus their meetings to be relevant and clear. Included are links to download the template plus two completed templates to see how they worked in action.

Stay Sharp with Professional Reading

Kate Mills and Tara Barnett share ways to stay sharp with professional reading.

Yes, and . . . A Collaborative Philosophy

David Pittman explains the improv roots of the phrase “Yes, and . . .” and applies it to a coaching conversation that will lift professional conversations to a new level.

Let’s Upskill: How to Revive and Transform Instruction to Serve Today’s Learners

Jen Schwanke offers clear and practical steps teachers can take to modernize how to meet the needs of today’s students. Following these steps will help ward off the risk of being too comfortable in old routines.

Coaching Minute: Creating Conversations to Anchor Professional Relationships

Instructional coach Jen Court takes advantage of the early days of a school year to be present with classroom teachers and create conversations that begin to anchor meaningful professional relationships.

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