I was recently asked to answer that question in a 90 minute session for principals. What follows is the direction I took: I opened with a piece that I thought set a pretty compelling reason for principals to explore their plans for working with coaches. On average, a principal accounts for 25 percent of a […]

In many of my presentations and work sessions I discuss the importance of teaching as a “team sport’ and  the critical role of collegiality in teaching. Often if I ask participants to assess the current degree of team, I’ll get a comment like this: Our department is a strong team. We are always sharing. Or […]

The September 2013 issue of Educational Leadership, titled Resilience and Learning, has several thought provoking articles. Two of them connected with the work I am doing with a few districts examining grading, motivation, and engagement. A Conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth (pages 14-20) explores the significance of grit (earlier blog).  She states that “grit and […]

As this school year has gotten underway I have been working in several systems with principals and instructional coaches to prepare their plans for the professional learning of staff that is focused on increased student achievement. Sometimes this work produced a principal/ coach partnership laying out the roles that each would take, resources that might […]

I am a strong advocate for the Principal Coach Partnership  (see earlier blog). Agreement defining student learning outcomes (vision) builds trust and focus among the leadership team at a school. An administrator can build increased shared leadership knowing that time the coach spends with teachers and decisions made in PLCs will focus on the shared, desired […]

Feedback was the focus of my research and reading this week as I worked to design a presentation I was asked to do for middle and high school teachers. I first turned to Dylan Wiliam’s work which I had remembered from earlier studies. Among five elements for assessing student learning he includes this: Provide feedback […]