Lead Lit Topic: Getting Organized
Getting Organized
Results
Coaching Minute: Professional Development Matters for Us
In this brief video, Ruth Ayres explains why professional development is important for all of us, no matter your leadership role.
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...
Picture It: Binder Full of Coaching
Heather Rader keeps her binder with her as she moves between the 13 elementary schools in her district. Each tab belongs to one of the educators with whom she’s currently...
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...
Intentional Agendas: Planning for Teacher Learning
When I stepped out of the classroom seven years ago and into a professional development role, I felt like a first-year teacher all over again. The only difference: my “students”...
Puppies and Babies and Kittens, Oh My! Support for Maternity Leaves
Spring is in the air, and at my school, teachers are having babies and taking leave. If you’re the coach, that means you have teachers to support before they leave...
Coaching Minute: Celebrations
Ruth Ayres talks about the importance of celebrations for coaches, teachers, and students in this brief video.
Planning Classroom Visits: Organizing Purposefully
For instructional coaches and principals, opportunities to visit classrooms and observe learning and teaching are critical. As a principal, I knew I needed a plan so I could make the...
Welcome Visits
Finding the right entry in professional development can be tricky. We never want to waste teachers’ time by not gauging the focus or pace of our sessions. We want our...
Coaching Minute: Principals and Professional Development
In this brief video, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan talk about the challenges of getting busy principals involved in professional development given how packed their schedules are.
Taking a Fresh Look at PLCs
These days, the initialism PLC is so common in teaching vernacular that it is almost to the point of being cliche. But what does it really mean? What does a...
Cultivating Teacher Leadership
The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. Harvey S. Firestone For the past year I have been entrenched in curriculum development with grade-level teams...
Coaching Minute: Pinterest
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share the many ways Pinterest has enhanced their professional development with teachers. Here is the link to their Pinterest boards: http://pinterest.com/tammyandclare/
Literacy and Technology: Changing Structures
Thirty years ago, in the cracked cinder-block rooms of my small, rural elementary school, the teaching protocol was standard and simple. We walked into school. We put our backpack where...
Infusing Technology into Writing Celebrations (Grades K–2)
I understand that I am fortunate to work in a building that has a 1:1 iPad environment in grades 3–8. However, this hasn’t stopped some of our younger students and...
Aligning Coaching and Teaching Teams
The most empowering condition of all is when the entire organization is aligned with its mission, and people’s passions and purpose are in synch with each other. Bill George...
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...
Slow Down: The Power of Two-Word Goals
For the past few years, I’ve made a simple two-word goal for myself. Last year, it was “Talk Less.” I established the goal because I had become irritated with my...
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,...
