Lead Lit Topic: Tough Nuts
A teacher who refuses to work with her grade-level team to design new units. A principal who is always upending your schedule with new responsibilities. A literacy coach who is in tears because she feels so isolated. A participant who continually interrupts an in-service session with “Yeah but . . .”
Tough Nuts are not easily defined, but you know one when you see it. They are the challenges that sit at the center of your forehead in the dead of night, robbing you of sleep. The stories of how we’ve dealt with these ongoing and immediate challenges are here.
Results
Micro-Wins: The Data Graphs Don’t Show
It can be daunting to look at the data charts and test scores. It is hard to see those red lines and dots running across the page in a straight...
More Than Skills and Scripts: Systems That Lift Literacy Up
“In one ear and out the other” would aptly summarize a lot of my school experience. As a student, I did my best to pay attention during literacy instruction. But...
Notebooking for Coach Wellness
As literacy coaches, we are charged with leading the learning of others, learning that is often embedded in a mesh of additional factors, including teachers' overall health and wellness, stress...
Five Picture Books to Spark Teacher Wellness
How are you…really? Lately, I’ve been asking this question, coined from Jenna Kutcher’s new book, of myself and of the teachers I work with. While we might be tempted to...
Tough Conversations
When I’m frustrated with someone, I tend to have long conversations in my head, picturing all the ways I could explain exactly how this person has annoyed me. I’m looking...
Swarm: Embracing the Unexpected
I left the Zoom session of the virtual writing retreat, took a sip from my mug of tea, and reflected on the thoughtful feedback I'd just received. As I considered...
Thanks for the Feedback: Leaning Into Tricky Conversations
I finally had the class settled. The playground action outside our window had been hard to turn away from and caused playground behavior inside our learning space. After an interactive...
Be Hard on the Systems and Gentle with the People: How a Systems Approach Can Reduce Teacher Burnout and Lead to Better Outcomes
I could predict the hour when I would receive the call. Cameron consistently demonstrated destructive behaviors during writing time—nudging a pencil off his desk, tearing down anchor charts. His teacher...
Work/Life Balance
I love summer. I love the sunshine, late nights, long hours with an old book, fresh air, my favorite soft T-shirts. Most of all, I love the freedom and the...
Sometimes You Have to Grow a New Skin
The school year always seems to start off with a bang! However, it isn’t long before the days are flowing smoothly, one after another, settling into a rhythm that feels...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
