Lead Lit Topic: Guiding Teachers
Here is where you'll find information on guiding teachers.
Results
Conflict: A Coach’s Perspective
“But that isn’t my vision!” The teacher I was working with was getting more and more frustrated. I was serving as the editor of a book being collaboratively written by...
Starting with Core Beliefs and Values
Working with a leadership intern this year brought back memories of student teaching, working with a mentor my first two years of teaching, and hosting practicum students. I’m thankful for...
Conflict: A Teacher’s Perspective
Feedback is an essential part of learning. As a teacher, I give and receive feedback. I give feedback to my students so they can reach their learning goals. I receive...
Coaching Tool: Digital Books
Responsive is the first word that comes to mind when we think about what it means to be an effective coach. We want to listen and be responsive to what...
Improving My Feedback
I’ve spent most of my career dreading the feedback portion of my relationships. It felt as though my actions were just being checked off of a list. The feedback always...
Unintended Benefits of Recording Minilessons
During a coaching cycle with one of our second-grade teachers, I worked on teaching students how to access prerecorded minilessons on iPads. We planned out upcoming lessons, and either she...
Persevere
When farmers dig trenches, they always have a spotter outside of the trench. This person is watching the dirt, in case it shifts. If they see the dirt move, they...
Bounce-Back Spirit
In the 2008 Big Ten Women’s Indoor Track 600-meter race, Heather Dorniden was favored. The runners ran closely, in a pack for the first two-thirds of the race. If you...
The Importance of Encouragement
Like many school districts around the country, we have been cultivating a learning culture, and instructional coaches are playing an increasingly important role. In our district, instructional coaches make up...
Coaching Collaboration: Visual Note Taking in First Grade
Entering a new coaching cycle with teachers is an exciting time. Teachers bring eagerness and a willingness to try novel ways of teaching skills and strategies, and collaboration is at...
From Worksheets to Workshops
At the beginning of my time at Miami Elementary School, I sent my teachers an email with my calendar and a list of ways I could support them. One item...
Helping with Management Challenges in First Grade
One of the first-grade classrooms I have been working in is particularly challenging because of the students' overall attention span. It's one of those classrooms where it's hard to complete...
Ending Coaching Cycles with Reflection
I am approaching the end of a coaching cycle with a fifth-grade teacher with whom I've been working throughout her information-writing unit. Her students are highly engaged, so we have...
Better Meetings Through Reflection
Think of the hours most of us spend in meetings. There are professional learning community meetings, staff meetings, grade-level meetings, curriculum meetings, data meetings, student intervention meetings, study group meetings,...
A Coach’s Toolbox: Transcribing Talk
Most of my time in classrooms is spent coteaching or teaching a demonstration lesson. My role as a literacy coach is a nonevaluative one, so I aim to be actively...
What’s in Your Bag?
What's in your bag? We are asked this question often. It may not always be organized, and you might find tea bags or candy wrappers in it, but there are...
Picture It: A Mentor Text Is Like . . .
Looking for a way to assess the effect of your professional development sessions on teachers? Try having them compare your area of focus to an everyday object. This picture is...
Professional Development Planning
Many times after a professional development session, I find myself playing a rewind game in my head—thinking about what I would have done differently, what I forgot to do, or...
Coaching Basics: Choice
My father-in-law taught me to drive his new fishing boat. It is unlike any fishing boat I’ve ever seen. Sparkles and speed combine to make me feel like a character...
CoffeeEDU
One thing we are all searching for is “on-demand” professional development that is relevant and timely. Twitter is a great platform for getting this form of PD. The concept of...
The Power of a Hashtag for Districtwide Reading
We’ve all seen them, the “#” sign with some words behind them. Maybe you’ve seen them as part of a television show or part of a skit from Jimmy Fallon...
