A colleague of mine, a fellow educational presenter, reached out to me a few weeks ago and asked me for support with how to help a principal “get his staff” motivated for a new school-wide initiative. The issue, according the principal, was that the teachers
I remember a time not so long ago when Professional Development was viewed as educators attending a workshop, training, or conference. These opportunities were time-bound, meaning that if you missed the offering, you had to determine how you would gain the knowledge you missed. You
"Yes we can." - Barack Obama, Oscar Zia, and Bob the Builder "Si se puede." - Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta Work yourself out of your job! Pursue redundancy! That should be your objective as an educational equity leader. That’s right. If you want to close educational gaps,
This weekend is a small respite for many educators, but we all know there are still a few more weeks until the highly anticipated Winter Break. You’ve started planning your festivities with family, but this is also a great time to get some holiday reading
A note for those who design PD for CCSS and STEM New, and very good, curricula and technologies (such as CCSS and STEM) are ready for implementation, but designing professional development that will enable them to fulfill their promises is a challenge. Textbooks are appearing, but
This post was originally published on Pauline Zdonek’s blog. I was afforded the amazing opportunity to attend the 2015 Teaching Learning Coaching Conference in Denver these past few days. To say I enjoyed the conference is an understatement. As I sit here in the Denver airport
In my work helping schools and districts across the nation and abroad transition from a traditional “one-day sit and get” model of professional development to more effective and engaging models of job-embedded professional learning such as inquiry/action research and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), I often
Can educators at all levels of a system learn how to use feedback with each other to improve teaching practice, and, in the process, create healthy cultures of learning and critical inquiry? The number one investment an instructional leader can make is in strengthening teachers. Instructional
This past summer, I watched rising first graders co-teach a PD workshop for teachers with their kindergarten teacher @mlsmeg (Meg Franco) to demonstrate why and how to use Twitter and Mystery Skype in the classroom. These six-year-olds may have been the least expensive and best
Think about how many times you’ve walked away from school conversations, sensing they could be more productive, but at a loss for how to improve them. In Better Conversations, Jim Knight honors our capacity for improving our schools by improving our communication. Asserting that our schools