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Old Technology for New Engagement
In a world with so many connections, is there still room for learning that is untethered? My son recently found my 35 mm camera. He was playing with the lens,...
Helping Teachers Develop Their Own Chartbooks
As a coach, I am in many classrooms, and I am constantly reevaluating and restocking the contents of the bag I carry with me whenever I am working with students....
Fail to Learn
We perform for ourselves, often the harshest of audiences. Thomas Newkirk I think every teacher has a grade level or subject area they would prefer not to teach. I...
Helping Teachers Weed Libraries
I am a book collector. I love seeing books on my shelves, books in baskets in each room, book stacks on my desk, and books beside my bed. When I...
Observing Colleagues: Leading Successful Classroom Visits
As coaches, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to be in many classrooms and learn from a variety of teachers. Classroom teachers, however, do not always have this luxury....
Classroom Observation Etiquette
As a classroom teacher, I would occasionally have visitors observe in my classroom for the day. Some people host visitors with the greatest of ease, but I had to work...
Developing a Principal and Coach Partnership
One of the most welcomed changes I have experienced as the principal in my new elementary building is having an instructional coach. In my prior district, there were coaches assigned...
How Principals Can Help Build Teacher and Coach Connections
Today I visited a classroom because I needed to talk to a student about something that happened at recess. I walked up to him and whispered, “Hey, can I talk...
Breakthroughs and Barriers: Going Schoolwide with a Literacy Initiative
In our move to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, we purchased an old home in very good condition. It’s a four-square home, built to last. The previous owner was diligent about improvements...
One Teaching Point at a Time
Whenever we are learning a new skill, regardless of the content, regardless of our age, it helps when we break it down into steps. No one can jump on a...
Not All Superheroes Wear Capes
Doldrums. One of Merriam-Webster's dictionaries defines doldrums as "a spell of listlessness or despondency; a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump." Inevitably, we all get the doldrums at...
A Third Way
“Matt, would you have a minute to come to our next PLC meeting to discuss something on our minds?” My principal radar immediately registered a ping: something is not going...
Speech/Language Pathology and Literacy: Making Connections
Throughout the course of a school year, teachers who have some concerns about a particular student often approach me to talk it through. They may tell me they feel something...
Preparing Teachers for Reading Over Breaks
I have been following the clean eating trend for quite some time and finally took concrete steps to clean up my diet to better protect my health and well-being. I...
Making Meetings Purposeful
We’ve all heard the jokes and complaints: When I die, I hope it’s in a meeting. That way, the transition from life to death will be barely noticeable. I just...
The Children Are Communicating. Are We Listening?
“Look at this photo of Cutie Jarius!” Erin’s email read. And there he was, standing proudly in front of “Morning Message” scrawled in a kindergarten hand. Robert Fulghum says all...
Coaching in Classrooms with English Language Learners
Dear Stella, I’m struggling to find ways to help ELLs in the classroom. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. I know best literacy practices, but is that...
When Teachers Design the Professional Development Calendar
Sometimes professional development creeps up on us. All of a sudden, we have a three-hour chunk of time with a group of teachers, and we grapple with how to plan...
Purposeful Post-Its
As teachers and literacy coaches, we love sticky notes, but we don’t love seeing them overused with no purpose. For example, we may have what I call “sticky-note queens and...
Conferring Matters: A Principal’s Perspective
I remember a particular conference I had with a student in which the value of conferring clicked for me. We were in the drafting portion of our personal narrative unit,...
Bonding with a Collective Biography
This is the time of year when literacy coaches and school leaders bring together groups of teachers and specialists to work on collective projects all year long. If you want...
