Lead Lit Article Type: Try It
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Drop the Rope
Change is hard. Coaching change is even harder. Those moments of tension we experience can be brutal. We feel defensive, hurt, or even useless. How do we find the strength...
Is the Pain Worth the Gain?
As any teacher knows, the way to internalize standards is to use them in the classroom. We can read, unpack, dig into, compare, and “essentialize” the new Common Core standards...
Writing Conference Role-Plays: Learning to Listen In
In the writing process, the teacher and student face the task of making meaning together. They start on a trip of exploration together. They find out where they are going...
Classroom Visits for Professional Development Insight
Have you ever seen the people at the mall with clipboards, pestering every person who walks by, asking them for five minutes of their time to take a survey? Have...
Changing Focus with New Teachers
I push together two tables, set resources out, and adjust a dish of seasonal treats in the center of the table. Soon six “new” teachers will hustle in for our...
Find the Common Ground
I knew I was going to fail. It was inevitable. The school was going through a state-sanctioned improvement process, and part of their plan for improvement was for grade-level teams...
Forming a Partnership with a New Coach
My first years of coaching came at a time when our district began a five-year literacy initiative which brought the workshop model into every classroom for reading and writing. In...
Texts to Teachers
As we deepen our understanding of the Common Core, we are realizing more than ever that the texts we use matter. Finding just the right text or set of texts...
Leading a Multi-Day Curriculum Meeting
Twenty-four people. Six and a half hours a day. Four days. Two curricula to write. One coordinator to facilitate it all: me. All school year, I heard other coordinators...
Educating Parents on Supporting Boys
Working as a principal in a large suburban K-12 district that serves more than 9,000 students, we offer a lot of staff development for educators. In our desire to strengthen...
Match-and-Move in Coaching
As I was closing the trunk on my last-minute camping groceries, I got my child’s “Please get me underwear” text. I sighed and returned to the store. If she needed...
Book Shopping as a Literacy Coach
On a gorgeous June day, a few days after our school year finished, I went to our local independent bookstore, Cover to Cover, with friends. This is always a dangerous...
Pits and Peaks
One night, soon after we sat down for dinner, I was surprised when my husband announced that we were starting a new family tradition. He explained that every night at...
Digital Clutter and Being Present with Teachers
With all the technology and interruptions in our lives today, it’s easy to be distracted during a conversation. I pride myself on multitasking and being efficient in my work, but...
Getting Instructional Practices Up and Running
How long does it take to get an instructional practice up and running? A week? A month? A semester? A year? Is there any such thing as too much support?...
Pushing the Pause Button for Reflection: Literacy Chats
Days at school are busy and filled with nonstop commitment to our students. Rarely are teachers given the opportunity to pause and reflect on learning and teaching. Equally challenging is...
Teacher Evaluation: A New Role for Coaches
To make dreams apparent to others and to align people with them requires not just more explanations or clarification, but the creation of meaning. Warren Bennis Like many districts...
Operation Classroom Library
One, two, three, four crates of books were stacked against the wall, standing taller than any kindergarten student in the class. The stack was teetering, in danger of abruptly crashing...
Interviewing a Coach
Almost every year I get the opportunity to participate in interviews for elementary or secondary instructional specialist positions in our district. Spots open up because of a coach heading back...
Coaching in the Moment
Recently we have noticed that some of our best coaching moments are happening outside of our coaching schedule. These on-the-go conversations in the photocopier line, in the parking lot, or...
Using Meeting Minutes as a Reflective Tool
A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome. —Michael...
