I have a long history of collaborative work with Dr. Jeffrey Maher in his roles with professional development, mentoring, and coaching with educators in Maryland County School Districts. Jeff is currently the Chief Strategic Officer for St. Mary’s County Public Schools (MD). When Jeff shared his thoughts on how Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey illustrated a […]

Teacher credibility is students’ belief that they can learn from a particular teacher because this adult is believable, convincing, and capable of persuading students that they can be successful. Students are very perceptive about which teachers can make a difference for them. John Hattie identifies teacher credibility as having an effect size on student learning […]

The power of coaching is found in the opportunity it provides for teachers to consciously examine decisions that are often made unconsciously in the complexity of teaching and learning. This blog looks at how you might approach a conscious exploration of structure and flexibility within the classroom. As you observe in classrooms across your school […]

Conversation is a key element for generating teacher reflection that is critical to continuous teacher growth. Effective coaching generates those conversations that support reflection. Highly reflective conversations are built around vulnerability. Coaches encourage that vulnerability when they can communicate an openness to the teacher’s agenda. A willingness to observe in the classroom through the eyes […]

In their book, “Change the Culture, Change the Game,” Roger Connors and Tom Smith present the Results Pyramid. It illustrates that our experiences foster beliefs, our beliefs influence actions, and our actions produce results. https://training.hr.ufl.edu/resources/LeadershipToolkit/job_aids/ChangingCulture.pdf In order to initiate a change of culture in an organization, leadership needs to begin its thinking by working backwards, […]

I was recently engaged in an online conversation with instructional coaches that very quickly reinforced my experiences concerning the lack of common expectations for instructional coaches. Some instructional coaches at a district level can be working in schools where different building principals have different expectations from each other and sometimes different from the central office […]