This summer I am having several opportunities to provide training to educators who are entering a new phase of their career as an instructional coach. I am also working with school based administrators who are responsible for coaching teachers as part of their leadership role and supporting the work of instructional coaches in their schools. […]

I am excited to announce that the revision of my book about Wow’s is nearing printing (available in an ebook version, too).  Several years ago Tom Peters’ book, the Pursuit of Wow, caught my attention. He described how businesses needed to Wow! their customers and how it could be done by some pretty simple purposeful things. […]

I’ve spent the past week prepping to facilitate an upcoming workshop about grading for high school teachers. I thought I’d share some of the information I found, as it seems to me a valuable conversation for administrators to explore at a faculty meeting, coaches to examine with teachers, facilitators to discuss with PLCs, and mentors […]

As a classroom teacher I discovered early in my career that when I met with a learning specialist regarding special needs of one of my students, the strategies shared for me to try almost always had payoff with additional students. When she told me a student needed movement between activities to increase his focus, I […]

I have had several opportunities in the last few weeks to observe and coach PLC sessions. In most cases I was looking to identify where the PLC was functioning in a developmental process and then provide suggestions, payoffs, and encouragement for movement to a stronger learning system, continuously increasing its positive impact on student achievement. […]

During a recent PLC observation, where I was invited to provide coaching, teachers, their instructional coach, and principal were observing a video clip of a teacher’s writing lesson. In the section they were observing, the teacher had students on the floor around her as she reviewed writing components and connected them to a recent activity […]