While reading an Education Week Blog by Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers, The Importance of Challenging Our Comfort Zone   (August 6),  I was reminded of the need for school leaders, instructional coaches and teachers to create environments where staffs and students are comfortable with discomfort. Berkowicz and Meyers explore the need for school leaders to be […]

This past week I was asked this question in two different settings. A possible future client was interviewing me on a phone call to explore “the fit” for me to be a trainer/coach for administrators and teacher leaders who would work in coaching roles to increase student success by increasing teachers’ skills. I was told […]

I have been working with the principal, Charlie McDaniel, of the new East Ridge Middle School (ERMS) in Lake County, FL. The administrative and guidance leadership of the school worked to create an advisory program for the 6th,7th,and8th grades students coming to this brand new school. Students will stay in the same advisory group through […]

I recently spent an afternoon with the mentor teachers at St Mary’s County Public Schools in Maryland. Prior to my presentation Jeff Maher, the director of professional development, reviewed the results of a recent survey of beginning teachers regarding the time, type of activities, and quality of mentoring they were receiving. Jeff celebrated the results […]

I was recently stranded overnight and then delayed while traveling to Rochester, NY to conduct a two day training for Mentors. I called my colleague, Sandra Fink, who lives close by and requested that she step in to cover until I could arrive. When I arrived, I found that Sandra had the group deeply engaged […]