The Challenge Konocti Unified is located in the town of Clearlake, California. Only 8% of Clearlake residents hold a four-year college degree or higher, the median household income for a family of four is $25,000, hovering just over the federal poverty line, and the city
Behavior is a form of communication, and students often behave in ways that we do not understand and for reasons we cannot fathom. Nikolas Cruz and Adam Lanza, for example, spoke a behavior language that their administrators, teachers, and community officials did not understand. This
What does it mean to lead learning? At no other time in the history of education do we have such a powerful opportunity–given federal policies such as Race to the Top and now ESSA–to redefine instructional leadership in our schools and focus on how and
In my last blog, The 5 Teachers You Meet in Professional Learning, I described a handful of trends in teacher personas. It was shared a lot on social media, so I’m thinking it struck a chord. Now, in this sequel, let’s play some more with
Many schools and districts are working on strategic plans that include at their heart a vision of graduating students who are lifelong learners, with indispensable ‘must-have’ skills such as creativity, problem solving, and collaboration. Thanks to the work of Sir Ken Robinson, Tony Wagner, the
When you’re in the midst of school improvement planning to address some of the biggest pain points in your school—like literacy, equity, or leadership—there are plenty of options to choose from. You could attend events, fly in expert consultants, or send your staff to workshops
A dozen years ago I took on the role of an Instructional Coach in the school of my tiny town I grew up in. I was filled with blind optimism. Imagine Dorothy, post Emerald City, exclaiming “Oh, there’s no place like home!” I showed up
How do we move from teams solely talking about improving student learning to actually building efficacy for students, teachers, and teams? The answer: Impact Teams. [embed]https://youtu.be/dmgj5P5jU98[/embed] As an educator, you may be currently working in a teacher team where you meet regularly to share expertise and work collaboratively
This is the third of a four part series on increasing the effectiveness of the teacher evaluation process. The original post outlining this work can be found here and provides the groundwork for why teacher evaluation must be ‘fixed.’ This post speaks to three quick
A few weeks ago I published a blog post (found here) lamenting reasons why teacher evaluation must change. The issue is compelling. BUT - nobody wants to only hear about what is wrong with something. In our district, we refer to this behavior as “admiring the