I am currently consulting to a statewide commission that is examining and then recommending professional growth requirements for teachers’ continuing certification. Here are some pieces I reviewed as I prepped for our sessions: A blog, International Professional Development, posted by the Guardian, presents 10 recommendations for teachers, shared by education leaders. Rachael Stevens suggests that […]

Several times in the last few weeks I have been in conversations or presentations where the topic of trust building in coaching emerged. I was reminded of an activity that I often explore with teachers examining the role of relationships in learning. I ask participants to consider a time that they learned something quickly and […]

In last week’s blog I shared ideas from Phillip Schlechty’s book Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work. Here is some additional thinking as I finished the book. “The primary task of the teacher is not to motivate students. It is to design work they provide to students or encourage students to […]

I was working in Turkey this week with a K-12 school staff examining teachers’ responses to student misbehaviors which were classified as minor, moderate, or major. (See earlier blog) One of the strategies we examined for moderate behaviors was the use of restitution. Knowing that some teachers and many administrators use summer to re-examine their […]

In an earlier blog on inquiry I posted my thoughts on the struggle that teachers often find themselves in as they focus on Teaching and Learning. Several pieces that I read this week provide ways to look at the teacher’s role in facilitating learning. I was back into Phil Schelechty’s book, Leading for Learning: How […]

I have recently had the opportunity to present and facilitate several sessions with teachers examining the importance of developing students’ creative thinking skills. Here are some of the resources I used and the questions that guided teachers’ conversations and thinking. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills lists the following skill sets to define Creativity and […]