Lead Lit Topic: Guiding Teachers
Here is where you'll find information on guiding teachers.
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Art as a Restorative Teaching Practice
Art has always been a way for me to express myself. I’m not the best artist, but I enjoy doodling, drawing, and making things with my hands. As a young...
Connecting with the Goals of the School Community
Remember, if people like it here, they'll come back. You treat every customer like a new friend. —Ms. Fortini to Eilis in the novel Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín Background I...
What I Learned About Having a Difficult Conversation
I had wondered about and lost sleep over it for long enough. I was ready to have the difficult conversation. I grabbed my coffee, looked at the clock (still 45...
Navigating Bias and Assumptions in Literacy Coaching
Anxiety always lives in our assumptions. —Steve Cuss One of my first lessons as a principal was this: Never assume. I learned this lesson my first year as an assistant...
The Tension of Perfect Conventions
“My key takeaway is that we are going to continue to celebrate mediocrity in student writing.” This was declared as a bold proclamation during a workshop I led about using...
Book Rationales for Building Trust and Guiding Decision-Making
"Have you read Nightjohn?" The fifth-grade teacher held up a paperback as I was walking by her classroom. "I'm a fan of Gary Paulsen, but I haven't read this one....
Slide Decking: Getting Writing Started
The scariest moment is always just before you start. —Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft The Idea In fall 2023, I was deep into a weekly "accountability"...
Seven Simple Steps to Happier Teachers
For the past couple of years, I have been searching for ways to support teachers and the hard work they do. As a learning support coordinator, my focus is usually...
Scaffolding: The Key to Tackling Big Projects
In the heart of my house stands a two-story staircase open from the floor of the bottom level to the ceiling of the second. The wallpaper is dated and faded,...
Overcoming the Blame Game
Imagine a hard winter in the far north where the temperatures have dropped so low that recess is indoors. Now imagine an entire grade level of kindergartners playing in the...
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...
Ways to Support Colleagues Part 2
Statistics show that teachers are one of the most stressed groups of people. According to a 2022 study by the American Educational Research Association, teachers in the U.S. experienced significantly...
It’s All in the Delivery: Inviting Joy to (Mandatory) Professional Learning” by Mary Brower
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. —William James Ms. Joy, a veteran teacher with two decades of classroom experience, closed her eyes for a...
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...
Small Wins
In the early days of the pandemic, I created a short video about a document camera I created from a stack of bean cans, a pencil, a magnet, and my...
Teacher and Coach, Side by Side: Affirmations for Leaders in Maintaining a Supportive Presence
The pizza oven stood on the pavement at my parents’ house, awaiting the maiden voyage for that first pizza pie to enter the oven. It had been weeks since my...
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...
Multiplier Mindset
"Managers help people see themselves as they are; Leaders help people to see themselves better than they are." ~ Jim Rohn Many of us have a person in our lives...
It All Counts: Getting to Know Your Teacher Candidates
In a spring 2023 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, 34 percent of respondents said professors taking more of an interest in getting to know them...
A Necessary Survey for Your School Community
Authors’ Note: We, Ruth and Becca, have experienced situations with emotional dysregulation of children in a variety of settings. From our homes as we parented foster children who had lived...
Off the Hook: How to Engage With and Reframe Our Obstacles to Reduce Anxiety and Stress
“[W]e are all hardwired to suffer psychologically: to compare, evaluate, and criticize ourselves; to focus on what we’re lacking; to rapidly become dissatisfied with what we have; and to imagine...
