How can coaches’ use of radical listening generate teachers’ reflection and increase a sense of teachers’ empowerment? Examine some of the obstacles to and strategies for radical listening from the work of Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener and Christian Van Nieuwerburgh authors of, “Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection.” As coaches, when we resist the urge […]

Donna Spangler, a past chair of district level coaches, describes the need for coaches to develop strategies to gather input that assesses the effectiveness of their coaching program. The collection of calendar and activity records tend to record activity; not impact. How does coaching enhance teacher professional growth, positive organizational change and most importantly student […]

Whether your learners are working virtually, in classrooms, or doing both in a hybrid model, your assistance as a learning coach can build more current academic success now and reinforce important executive functioning skills. These are career and life skills. Listen as Steve provides some specific focus areas and examples of what coaching conversations might […]

In this week’s episode of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast, Steve is joined by Jim Knight to discuss teacher autonomy and its importance to successful coaching. Read Jim’s article, “Why Teacher Autonomy Is Central to Coaching Success” here. Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to […]

In an earlier blog,   I described the importance of coaches knowing a teacher’s agenda…. the beliefs, values, and thinking behind the teacher’s decision making. What are the options the teacher considered in planning for learning? As the lesson unfolded what did the teacher perceive and consider as decisions were made about feedback to students or […]

This week I took part in a twitter chat with #esc11coach examining the work of coaches with PLCs. (You can find the entire chat here.) As I was planning for the chat, I found an article in the March 2016 Kappan by Rick Dufour and Douglas Reeves titled, The Futility of PLC Lite. The authors […]