Lead Lit Topic: Guiding Teachers
Here is where you'll find information on guiding teachers.
Results
Coaching Minute: Building Coach and Specialist Collaboration
Cathy Mere and Kelly Hoenie talk about the importance of more collaboration between literacy coaches and reading specialists, and how to foster it.
The Power of a Rant
“Teachers work so hard each day. They walk out of school burdened with book bags weighted down with stacks and stacks of student papers to read and respond to at...
What Do We Mean by Coachable?
My youngest son recently tried out for and earned a spot on a travel basketball team. As we mused about what being on the team would entail (how many practices,...
Field Notes: Stories and Courage
When we deny the story, it defines us. When we own the story, we can write a brave new ending. Brene Brown Monon Trail Elementary School built a new...
Identity and Coaching
What happens when you consider yourself good at something and then your skill is questioned? For example, I consider myself a champion chocolate chip cookie baker, but when I brought...
Coaching Minute: Using Video with Literacy Coaches
Cathy Mere shares four quick tips to help literacy coaches use video thoughtfully in professional development and hone their own instructional skills.
Creative Reading Responses: It Begins with You
I am part of a teacher book club where we gather together in person and online to read children’s literature selections: picture books, early chapter books, nonfiction selections, young adult...
March Read-Aloud Madness
I am always looking for ways to introduce teachers to new books to read aloud to their students. I have given book talks, displayed titles, and even created book tastings...
Helping Teachers Use Their Writing in Instruction
Early in my career, Katie Wood Ray offered this advice to a room full of teachers. It changed me. She said, "I believe we all should make a commitment to...
Analyzing Student Work: Beginning with Strengths
“I don’t even know where to start,” she mutters under her breath as her eyes widen at the sight and her shoulders slump. They lie there, a stack of notes...
An Ounce of Doubt
In my daily instructional walks, visiting classroom after classroom and engaging in the teaching and learning, I have started getting more interested in the why behind our practices. One area...
What Happens Next Is What Defines Us
My own children have been my greatest teachers. For me, one of the most challenging aspects of parenting has been to help pick them up after a disappointing event in...
Tackling Coaching Challenges
One of Merriam-Webster's dictionaries defines a nemesis as a "formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent." As a literacy coach, I find that my biggest nemesis is professional development. I...
Open Observations
As literacy coaches, we are always talking about ways to help teachers give ownership to learners. There are constant conversations about opening the door for students to make their own...
Aligning Commercial Practices with Excellent Literacy Instruction
“So, what are you guys using for literacy?” I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked that as a school principal. It’s not a bad question or something...
The Lion Unit
In my first year of coaching, my staff and I spent the fall focused on math instruction. We finally had an opportunity during the last three weeks before break to...
Three Questions to Open Coaching Conversations
The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge. Thomas Berger In an early blog post sharing her ideas for student-centered coaching, Diane Sweeney writes,...
The Hole in Your Swing
I am a baseball fan. I played the sport through high school, spent a couple of years riding a bench in college, and now enjoy it mostly from the confines...
Becoming More Strategic in Coaching Stressed Teachers
Suddenly, I’m a momma to big kids. It caught me off guard and I’m still wondering how it happened, because I'm sure I didn’t blink. In addition to looking up...
Clearing the Plate: Helping Teachers Feel Free, Not Full
“David,” she said, “I’m so sorry. I just can’t do our session today.” Her tired expression, slumped shoulders, and weak voice had told me that already. “Don’t worry about it,...
Word Study PD: Building on Strengths
I enjoy working out. But I have a not-so-secret hatred embedded in those workouts: push-ups. I can run, deadlift, jump, and lunge with the best of them (okay, that’s an...
