Lead Lit Topic: Getting Organized
Getting Organized
Results
The Confident Coach: Seven Competencies to Empower Your Practice
As a systems coach for a regional education agency, my primary role is to help school districts develop the processes and practices that support more equitable outcomes for students. My...
The Digital Declutter: Developing a Life Beyond Distractions
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is...
Using Metaphors and Analogies to Help Educators Shift Their Thinking and Change Their Practices
Any assessment can be used both formatively and summatively, but usually one function interferes with the other, so it is generally best to decide at the outset about the purpose...
Transforming Our Own Professional Learning
If you want to thrive as a Transformational Coach, you need to be prepared to engage in a lot of practice and refining of your skills. I’ve also learned that...
Ways to Support Colleagues, Part 1
It didn’t take long for Ruth to want to avoid her daughter’s Sunday school teacher. When our daughter arrived in our home at age four, she had a difficult time...
Capturing Meeting Notes to Boost Accountability
You leave a teacher meeting with an extra pep in your step. The conversation flowed, you both seemed energized, the teacher’s goal was determined, next steps were established, and you're...
Help! I’m a New Coach
As the school year came to a close, the air buzzed with talk of change. The middle school was set to undergo departmentalization, a major shift that meant a significant...
Humanizing Data
Data days are a responsibility that often falls to instructional coaches. We spend time analyzing data, soliciting teacher feedback, crafting an agenda, and planning a launching activity. It’s hard to...
Reshaping Data Stories
In the game of data analysis, success is crossing home plate. Grade-level standard is achieved, growth happens, learners progress… and everyone cheers. The thing is, some are starting the game...
Nuances of Norms (Part 2)
To grow, people need to be challenged. —Adam Grant “I’m so tired of being treated like a baby,” one teacher whispered to her colleague. She wasn’t as quiet as she...
Shaping the School Culture to Encourage Professional Growth
Shaping the School Culture to Encourage Professional Growth While our tai chi group was going through our flow practice, raising our arms slowly up and down, the front door to...
Are Norms the Problem? Part 1
When I became the leader of a well-established professional learning network, one of the first things I was curious about were our norms for working together. I was a member...
Making a Case for Leadership Coaching
“Every man should have someone they look up to, and every man should have someone who looks up to them.” — Robert Bly, Iron John Every professional—not just teachers—can benefit...
Not-to-Do-List
As the new school year approached, I found myself reflecting on the past year’s successes and areas for growth and trying to decide what I should do differently this year....
Principals Are People, Too!
Headed to the office for my weekly meeting with the principal, I found myself replaying my list of discussion points. I knocked on the office door, and after a moment's...
Beyond the Books: A Tale of Empowerment, Influence, and Agency from the School Library
The fourth graders hurried back to the library and circled up with the school librarian, Micki Uppena. “What did you want to share?” she asked. The students had just completed...
Five Questions to Ask When Reviewing Literacy Curriculum
Selecting a curriculum resource is not as simple as previewing a book. As a building administrator and former curriculum leadership instructor, I find that these decisions are complex and multifaceted....
AI in Teacher Prep
A just machine to make big decisions Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision We'll be clean when their work is done We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young...
You’re Not There—Yet!
We have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation. —Brene Brown You’re not there… yet! We throw this term around with...
Visual Data for Literacy
It was two weeks before our winter data review, and my grade-level PLCs were beginning to prepare for these meetings with a new set of data. Given that our teaching...
Coaching Up: How Teachers Can Support School Leaders ’ Capacity for Positively Influencing School-wide Instruction
“The importance of school principals may not have been stated strongly enough in prior work, particularly from the perspective of state and district leaders and policymakers seeking to move the...
