Working with the staffs at Jollyville Elementary and Live Oak Elementary in Round Rock, Texas, we explored the work of PLCs and how peer coaching might positively impact teacher and student learning. We examined three critical elements of PLCs: They are results driven…… (student achievement). They focus on learning more than teaching. They are collaborative…(the […]

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 was recently asked to facilitate a high school staff who had been working in PLCs that were department centered around curriculum and assessment. I was given a request to create an opportunity for them to focus on individual student success. The staff was regrouped for the day into teams of about six who were […]

TEXAS Last February, I shared a blog about the Leander Independent School District in Texas where staff have focused their professional development, PLCs, and  classroom observations around seven critical student behaviors. Learning Objective: Students articulate the learning objective/target and find meaning in their learning. Assessment for Learning: Students assess their progress toward achieving the current […]

I mentioned in the last blog that I was reading Bryan Goodwin’s Simply Better: Doing What Matters Most to Change the Odds for Student Success. I was introduced (p.121) to a term coined by Hoy, Tarter, and Hoy (2006)…academic optimism. The power of optimism has been an interest of mine for several years. It’s a […]