This week I facilitated planning sessions with K12 building principals and their administrative teams including instructional coaches. The purpose of the sessions was to identify leadership behaviors that would support student achievement in their schools and plan for taking action on those behaviors. Working with my backwards planning model, you identify student achievement goals and […]

I was able to attend two sessions that Andy Hargreaves presented at the recent IB Africa, Europe, and Middle East Conference in The Hague. Hargreaves identified five important interrelated focus points drawn from his book “The Global Fourth Way: The Quest for Educational Excellence”: Inspiration: there needs to be a shared vision/dream for the future… […]

I had the chance to return to Leander, Texas to be part of their 20th year Continuous Improvement Conference. I was there last year and I wrote about their focus on seven student learning behaviors.  This year’s two day conference offered over 300 staff development learning opportunities. Each session descriptor identified which of the seven student behaviors the […]

In the Fall 2012 (Vol 8, No1) issue of Learningforward’s The Learning Principal, Bradley A. Ermeling proposes five principles for reviving problematic groups. I see all five principles applying to those of you facilitating (or training facilitators for) professional learning communities. Here are Ermeling’s points and my comments for PLC facilitation: Find a Shared Concern– […]

This was the title of a blog I found written by Steve Keating, Selling Skills Manager with Toro Company.  In keeping with my experience, if I spend 10 minutes on Twitter I’ll learn something new and/or find a resource I can use. Stranded in an airport with delayed flights I went to Twitter and found […]

In recent weeks I had several opportunities to work with school leaders, teachers and administrators, who wanted to examine the current level of learning present in their schools. We created teams of two to five who observed in classrooms for 5-10 minutes and then discussed their insights. Our first goal was the learning of the […]