As educators, stress is an ever-present reality. But what if we could reframe stress—not as a threat—but as fuel for growth and purpose?  I was introduced to the concept of hardiness in a podcast with instructional coaches and coaching trainers, Lana Cecil and Angela Buckingham, from ESC 13 in Austin, Texas. They shared how they explored […]

Simon Senik’s advice to focus communicating the WHY of your organization before the how and what has a direct application to a staff’s understanding of “why” an investment in instructional coaching would be made. Decisions about a coaching model, the selection of coaches, the training provided to coaches, as well as the expectations for administrators, […]

As I was assisting a high school leadership team in the midst of initiating some instructional coaching opportunities with their staff, I uncovered the need to explore if the WHY of their plan had been communicated to staff. Teachers were not responding to the availability of coaching even though all the assurances of autonomy and […]

          Simon Sinek shared the statement, “Leaders have the ability to see those around them rise” in this short video clip. It struck me as a great reflection opportunity for school leaders, instructional coaches, and teachers. Sinek identifies his own important learning about leadership with two key statements: Remind myself –“I […]

I have written blogs and posted podcasts on building teachers’ professional growth plans and professional learning community goals around hypotheses and evidence collection. I was initially pointed in that direction from an article by Jean Ross, in the Sloan Management review from MIT, “Why Hypotheses Beat Goals.” She suggests that instead of asking “What is […]

Working on the environment should be a continuous focus of leaders in schools and in classrooms. Simon Sinek shared this statement that reinforces our need to focus on creating an environment that supports and encourages those that we lead. “Because we are social animals, we respond to the environment we are in. Leaders are responsible […]