Recently, I was preparing a 30-minute kickoff for a school district entering its second year of professional learning community (PLC) implementation. During the first year, teachers had discovered many of the benefits that come from having dedicated time to work with colleagues. They shared strategies and resources, problem-solved around student needs, developed greater consistency across […]

Teachers know that curiosity fuels learning. We intentionally design lessons that spark students’ questions. We celebrate inquiry, encourage exploration, and recognize that students often learn more deeply when they wrestle with uncertainty rather than simply receive answers. A classroom where students wonder, question, and investigate is a classroom alive with learning. Yet somewhere between the […]

The end of a school year is often treated as closure. Yet for learners, it is also a transfer point. Students leave carrying far more than content knowledge and grades. They carry beliefs about themselves as learners, strategies that helped them succeed, habits they developed, and questions they still hold about their abilities. During the […]

School leaders often express concern when teachers resist implementing a newly adopted curriculum with fidelity. The assumption is understandable: If we selected the program carefully, why wouldn’t teachers follow it? A recent Phi Delta Kappan article, “Educator Resistance to Curricular Control,” suggests we may be asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why teachers resist […]

A recent article, “The schools where even young children change classes,” posted by the Hechinger Report had me go back and revisit a blog I wrote over 15 years ago that explored the same topic. My blog, “Platooning,” explored an article from Harvard Education Letter that described: “Platooning (or departmentalization) as nothing new. It’s what […]

Chad Dumas, the author of, The Teacher Leader Handbook: Simple Habits to Transform Collaboration in a PLC at Work, explores the mindsets, skills and strategies that generate team collaboration. Chad describes the important mindsets of “Seeing in others what they don’t yet see in themselves,” Being humble with a posture of learning, and “Spreading the […]