Lead Lit Topic: Getting Organized
Getting Organized
Results
Coaching Minute: Student Work Form
Melanie Meehan talks about the importance of developing assessment forms for coaching cycles that focus on student work and integrating analysis of the work into plans for instruction.
The Students Behind the Numbers
Data is everywhere. From the digital speed displays as we drive our vehicles, to the number of calories for each option at a restaurant, we are immersed in information. This...
The Evolution of Data Meetings
Years ago as a reading specialist in one building, I began the data-wall journey with a giant data wall made out of pegboard with hooks and different-colored shapes for each...
Voice Notes
As coaches we plan so many professional developments sessions that it is difficult to remember the content we discussed, the things we decided to skip, the opportunities we noticed for...
The Power of Sketchbooks for Coaches
I used a variety of sketchbooks as a classroom teacher to brainstorm possible charts to create for read-aloud, minilessons, and small-group instruction. However, I never really found one I loved...
It’s All About Perception
Life is all about perception. Positive versus negative. Whichever you choose will affect and more than likely reflect your outcomes. Sonya Techlai The blessing of first-of-the-year assessments is that...
Taking a Literacy Temperature
I am the principal of a different school this year. Although I was devastated to leave my previous building—I loved it, and it truly felt like home to me—part of...
One Task Fits All
Teachers, often and with good reason, get exasperated by all the demands on their time that don’t connect with their daily work in the classroom. The day-to-day planning of instruction...
The Common Core and Parents: Building Bridges, Not Walls
One of our challenges at our school is parent involvement. We are paying particular attention to the feel and tone of our parent conferences. Holding up the mirror is not...
Coaching Basics: Routines
“I can’t take it anymore!” When conversations start like this, I perk up and listen closely. It’s critical to be an active listener as the teacher elaborates. The listening becomes...
Goal Setting with Google Spreadsheets
Early in the school year I was contacted by a fifth-grade teacher asking for a way to help her students keep track of their own learning and to set goals...
Cultivating Natural Mentors
When I was hired as a junior high English teacher, my principal was just one year from retirement and had the proverbial “one foot out the door.” He spent his...
Coaching Logs and Daily Reflective Routines
As a classroom teacher, I was intentional—one could even say obsessive—about reflecting on the effectiveness of my work. Almost nightly, I would spread a pile of work across my living...
Transitioning from Teaching Children to Adults
This past year, I stopped working as a middle school teacher to stay home with my new baby. I wanted to stay involved in education, so I worked part-time with...
Sign-In Sheets, Professionalism, and Being Human
You could feel the tension in the air as she quietly slipped in, trying to find her place without disrupting the session. Many of the professional development sessions we facilitate...
Getting Organized with Google
I find myself doing a lot of traveling as a literacy coach—not only between classrooms, but also between multiple schools. Some hard copies of papers are unavoidable; I always have...
Matching Resources to Teachers: Tools for Coaches
Talking with a teacher who has a long-standing coaching relationship with me, I was surprised when she said, “I guess I keep Googling to find the latest and greatest. I...
My New and Improved Writing Toolkit
Over the last couple of years, I have been developing a toolkit that I can take along with me when I am working in classrooms with teachers. One of the...
Systems for Keeping the Bookroom Organized and Manageable
A place for everything and everything in its place. Ben Franklin We know Ben Franklin wasn’t referring to bookrooms when he said these words, but we think his wisdom...
Working Together to Expand the Bookroom
The process by which decisions are made is even more important than the actual decisions. We've never found a source for this quote, but it has helped us countless times...
Organizing Mentor Texts
If you are a coach like me, you have several hundred picture books and other mentor texts you use as coaching tools throughout the school year. Over the years, I've...
