Lead Lit Topic: One-on-One
Just as one-on-one conferring in the classroom impacts student learning, individual coaching has the potential to significantly grow a teacher’s practice. With a foundation of trust and solid communication skills, coaches and teachers collaborate to improve curriculum and instruction. Not that it’s easy. It’s not. Teaching is personal; it’s who we are. Here you’ll find support from experienced coaches who have been there and attend to teachers’ learning styles, teaching styles, communication preferences and more on the imperfect journey of working intimately with adult learners.
Results
Helping Teachers Weed Libraries
I am a book collector. I love seeing books on my shelves, books in baskets in each room, book stacks on my desk, and books beside my bed. When I...
Coaching in Proximity: The Sherpa Mind-Set
Standing in the back of the room, I could see and feel the building anticipation. There was the wild-eyed look of a teacher who is no longer sure what question...
More Productive Workshops
As we turn the corner from the beginning of the year, many writing workshops become humming hives of productivity and progress, and some don’t quite get off the ground. What...
Who Are “They”? Word Choice and Student Learning
Like many of us, I first became a student of words with Peter Johnston’s Choice Words; he taught me how even subtleties in language have powerful effects. More recently, my...
The Children Are Communicating. Are We Listening?
“Look at this photo of Cutie Jarius!” Erin’s email read. And there he was, standing proudly in front of “Morning Message” scrawled in a kindergarten hand. Robert Fulghum says all...
No Substitute for Owning the Learning
I love weekends when I’m not in school because I am able to attend a water aerobics kickboxing class. The instructor is knowledgeable, she keeps the class up-tempo, we focus...
Be Someone Who Writes
At a recent roundtable presentation, the facilitator asked us to think about our core beliefs when it comes to literacy, teaching, and learning. Although I agreed that everything I was...
Kid-Watching as a Coaching Move
“So, what do you do, exactly?” people outside the field of education often ask me when I tell them I am an instructional coach. I have been answering this question...
Starting a Coaching Cycle: The First Meeting
First impressions are everything. As an instructional coach, half the battle is getting teachers interested in coaching cycles. The other half of the battle is making a good first impression....
Authentically Curious
When I first received the note from a member of the staff, my initial reaction was shock. "I feel like I don't really know you, nor do you really know...
Coaching Purposeful Classroom Design
Candace scrolled excitedly down the page of the website filled with colorful stools, crisp conference tables with charging stations, and nifty caddies. “Ugh—I could spend my entire paycheck here!” she...
Paraphrasing to Let Teachers Lead
There was a diamond in the rough in the teacher’s lesson. Overall, it was a good lesson. She had provided choice in how students could respond to the whole-class reading...
Rocking the Boat
When I was in high school, I attended ARC camp. The acronym stood for Advanced River Challenge. It was a weeklong canoeing adventure camp. I had never canoed before. It...
The Thin Line Between Mentoring and Coaching
The teacher came in to see me, disappointed in his midyear results. “My students aren’t progressing like I thought they would.” His goal: provide more authentic literacy instruction so students...
Grammar Instruction in Fourth Grade
Melanie Meehan coaches a fourth-grade teacher who is trying to improve his grammar instruction.
It’s Not About Us
One of our teachers scheduled an appointment with me. Assuming she wanted to discuss her midyear professional goal, I was surprised when she came with guided reading resources. “I wanted...
Choosing Our Words Carefully
At the start of our collaboration session, Kathy shared, “I have really been thinking about the word unfortunately and how I have seen it being used lately.” She proceeded to...
Learning Through Listening
As we read Marie Clay’s words, we thought about how this quote pertains to coaching too. The more years we work in schools and coach alongside teachers, the less we...
No More Whack-a-Mole Coaching
When I was a kid, one of my favorite games at the arcade was Whack-a-Mole. There was something about having a giant club that seemed empowering. Little plastic moles would...
Maintaining Teacher Ownership in Coaching Conversations
I was sitting across from the literacy coach when I said, “Thanks for taking the time to meet this morning. Since I missed the post-conference you had with your teacher,...
Making Classroom Visits a Habit
In a previous article for Lead Literacy, I outlined my plan for becoming more organized and intentional as a school principal. I will check email only at certain times of...
