Acceleration and equity require teachers to provide ALL students with engagement in on grade-level or above, complex learning tasks. Too little or too much scaffolding prevents students from gaining the needed learning opportunities. Consider when you might be rescuing students rather than scaffolding. Consider why just-in-time scaffolding is important. Read the article, “Just-in-Time vs Just-in-Case […]

In a Ted Talk video,  Patrick Cisler and Patrick Moran raise three areas for self-reflection as you collaborate that I believe are applicable to individual members in PLCs and to those facilitating PLCs. #1 Change Your Perspective I needed to explore the word perspective and wondered how it connected with perception. Perception is your understanding […]

“Strengthening organizations one connection at a time,” is the recommendation from The Connection Coach, Tara Brown. Connecting to emotions and being valued is critical among leaders and staff if we want to have it present in classrooms for students. Visit Tara’s website here. Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or […]

All children are naturally curious and our adult role is to provide an environment where children feel they can ask questions and get support for their explorations. Too often youngsters’ curiosity appears to not be valued as we get more focused on correct answers to questions raised by someone else.  How do we model the […]

Consider this research finding: 83% of executives say they encourage curiosity and only 52% of employees agree. Why is that a concern? The same studies found that… …curiosity helps employees engage more deeply in their work, generate new ideas, and share those ideas with others. When feeling curious at work, 73% of individual contributors report […]

How does a coach respond when teachers suggest they don’t have an idea how a coaching observation could support them? Why does everyone deserve a coach’s support for reflection? Reflection on surprises, failures, and frustrations are opportunities for insights and growth. Sample coaching questions are shared. View Atul Gawande’s video, “Want to Get Great at […]