Lead Lit Article Type: Read It
Results
Professional Reboot
Last year, my assistant principal and I had a conversation in which we talked about ways we could both grow as administrators. I recommended that he seek out a way...
School Leaders and Written Communication
For several years now, I have taught a graduate class for aspiring school leaders. My students are practicing teachers and counselors who have their eye on being principals someday. As...
A Better Hiring Process
Hiring great faculty is one of the most important and rewarding jobs for a principal. We can shape the future of our school with a lot less effort than it...
Paraphrasing to Let Teachers Lead
There was a diamond in the rough in the teacher’s lesson. Overall, it was a good lesson. She had provided choice in how students could respond to the whole-class reading...
The Thin Line Between Mentoring and Coaching
The teacher came in to see me, disappointed in his midyear results. “My students aren’t progressing like I thought they would.” His goal: provide more authentic literacy instruction so students...
Improving Professional Learning for All
In my early days as a school leader, I could count on one hand the number of times a staff member personally told me how much they enjoyed the professional...
Building Self-Evaluation Skills: What’s Your Signature Move?
Flowers are blooming, temperatures are rising, and school calendars are ticking toward closure. Although this means many things for schools, it also means one significantly noneducational thing in particular: it’s...
Word Study Kick-Off
One of the biggest struggles teachers share is that getting word study off the ground is tricky. It should be no surprise to know, then, that many teachers admit that...
Planning Next Year’s Professional Development Offerings
I woke in bits, like all children, piecemeal over the years. I discovered myself and the world, and forgot them, and discovered them again. Annie Dillard It’s easy to...
Benched
We’ve all watched games in which players have been benched. In my own house, we have all kinds of experiences with “riding the bench.” One of our kids isn’t athletically...
Finding a Coaching Model That Works
Our district coaching team is made up of four literacy coaches, each of us based in our own school. Although we are responsible for many aspects of literacy instruction in...
Unspoken Leadership
I once attended a student recognition event at a local high school as a community leader. Students from various pathways were nominated by one of their teachers in their respective...
Sustaining Trust While Maintaining High Expectations
As a principal in a new school, I have been hesitant to start observations of teachers. My big goal this year is to build trust and develop relationships with staff,...
No More Whack-a-Mole Coaching
When I was a kid, one of my favorite games at the arcade was Whack-a-Mole. There was something about having a giant club that seemed empowering. Little plastic moles would...
From Somewhere to Somewhere
It’s been said that people can be only where they are and that everyone is on a path from somewhere to somewhere. When we are working with our colleagues, however,...
Making the Most of Monthly Common Planning Times
We were about to enter a new year, a time for a fresh start for meetings with grade-level groups. Heather (my coaching partner) and I put ourselves in the shoes...
Teachers Who Write
I always wanted to be a writer. As a little girl, I kept notebooks and folders filled with loose-leaf pages of my latest novel. I wrote a lot of haunted-house...
Stop Paying in Quarters: Changing Thinking and Practice
In my drive to La Porte, Indiana, for a writing retreat, I was prepared for the interstate tolls. Sitting on the seat next to me was a small pile of...
Reigniting Your Coaching Schedule in December
It happens. That moment when you glance at your calendar and current cycles of coaching are ending and there isn’t much scheduled in the way of new work. This is...
The Failures of a Doughnut
A good doughnut can do a lot of things. Good things. It can improve a lousy mood, take care of a craving, or jump-start a great day. What can’t doughnuts...
Making Standards Work for You
Like anything adopted wholesale in education, I approach the Common Core State Standards with trepidation. Yes, the expectations for what is to be learned at the end of each grade...
