Lead Lit Topic: Coaching Support Structures
Some literacy leaders receive extensive training for working with adult learners, but most of us do not. As you move between the stances of coach, collaborator and consultant, you’ll need support structures in place for defining your role, communicating with administrators, advocating for your position with a school board and more. Here you’ll find reflections and how-tos that respond to the question, “Who coaches the coach?”
Results
Coaching Minute: Quick Connections
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share the value of informal chance meetings with teachers they are coaching in this three-minute video.
Coaching Minute: Editing
Heather Rader has some quick tips for editing emails and other important writing in this brief video. A transcript is available below the player. I always try...
Making Time for Classroom Visits
“Walk the walk and talk the talk” is a phrase that I have heard again and again as an elementary school principal. At first it may sound kind of cliché,...
From Bootcamp to School: Building Enthusiasm for New Initiatives
Leadership is ultimately about the ability to influence others. Richard Dufour and Robert Marzano I joined a new gym. Part of my new exercise regimen is to attend a...
Quick Check-ins: Touching Base Before Coaching Sessions
Coaching places teachers’ self-esteem and professional respect on the line, because it exposes how teachers teach, how they think about teaching, and how they plan for teaching to the scrutiny...
Coaching Minute: Working with Principals
Ruth Ayres has advice for how literacy coaches can work effectively with principals in this one-minute video.
A Small Group Coaching Cycle in Action
Success! That’s the word that comes to mind as I reflect on a recently wrapped up small group coaching cycle. This particular group consisted of two kindergarten teachers, both new...
Video and the Thoughtful Coach
Three years ago I began video-recording teachers during lessons. It seemed like a win-win. The teacher would reflect on what went well and what needed tweaking inside their lessons, and...
Clarity and Connection: The Language of Change
Effective leaders are able to articulate their most important ideas with clarity, and they use language that emotionally connects with their audience. Connection creates meaning, and change will not occur...
Picture It: Pinterest for Professional Development
This fall we are trying a new way to organize how we share professional readings and videos for our professional development sessions. We are creating text sets of professional readings/videos/blog...
Coaching Minute: Wait for the “In”
In this brief video, Heather Rader shares her strategies for getting into classrooms of teachers who may be hesitant about inviting visits from coaches. A transcript is available below the...
Picture It: A Soothing Workspace
This year I want to be more mindful about my workspace -- to use the space to help my work instead of hinder it. In my job as a principal,...
Collaborating with My Principal on Student-Centered Coaching
It is the beginning of a new school year, and I am tucked in a small private meeting room with my coaching colleague Heather, drawing timelines and outlines. I’m shifting...
Dear Teacher, Dear Principal
Often there is confusion about the role of an instructional coach. These letters are intended to clarify the position, as well as reveal the genuine desire of a coach to...
Curriculum Work: Making Meaning Together
To make dreams apparent to others and to align people with them requires not just mere explanations or clarification but the creation of meaning. ...
Introducing the Writing Common Core Standards: Planning for Professional Development
When I began to plan for how introducing the Common Core State Standards in Writing with a key group of leaders in our district, I kept these words of wisdom...
Picture It: Increasing Comfort with Technology
We know that technology has changed the way we access and use texts in our daily lives. Here you see both teacher- and student-generated ideas for future blog posts in...
Ask Me – I’m Not the Expert
If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals. I call this feeling a sense of agency....
Coaching Minute: On the Go Follow-Up Tip
In this Coaching Minute video, Heather Rader shares advice for dealing with teachers who need support when you are in the midst of other responsibilities. A transcript is available below...
Common Core Standards: Spreading the Word
As a district-level literacy coach in California, I've been given the task of helping move our system toward implementation of the Common Core Standards. We are a large urban district...
Planning for a Demonstration Lesson
Clare Landrigan takes a team of grades 3-5 teachers through the steps of selecting a book for a demonstration lesson.
