This is the second of three blogs illustrating how coaches can apply the backwards process of connecting the desired student learning production behaviors to the teacher behaviors/practices/strategies that can generate those behaviors. This blog focusses on the coach working with PLCs or teaching teams and departments. The previous blog considers coaches working with individual teachers. […]

In my experiences I have found that many of the groups of teachers who are called a team at school are actual functioning more as franchise owners attending a franchise meeting. (Here’s a business definition for franchise.) “Arrangement where one party (the franchiser) grants another party (the franchisee) the right to use its trademark or […]

Annie Murphy Paul, in the article Four Ways to Give Good Feedback, states: “When effectively administered, feedback is a powerful way to build knowledge and skills, increase skills, increase motivation, and develop reflective habits of mind in students and employees. Too often, however, the feedback we give (and get) is ineffectual or even counterproductive.” She provides […]

Communication Skills for Coaches Our choice of words can have a surprising effect during a coaching conversation. Words that are used commonly in everyday situations can convey unintentional meanings in the context of the delicately balanced dynamics of coaching conversations. This need for careful choice of words can be illustrated with the use of the phrase, […]

As I read a recent newspaper report, I was tugged to examine again how school leaders, school board members, teachers, and instructional coaches themselves define the role of coaches. The reporter was exploring, “What are instructional coaches and how do they help teachers?” This examination of instructional coaching was occurring because the school board was […]

During a podcast with Jim Knight  and another with Joellen Killion and Cindy Harrison, the topic of how instructional coaches spend their time arose. So, it was interesting to find this article by Britnie Delinger Kane and Brooks Rosenquist, Making the Most of Instructional Coaches, in Kappan April (2018) [pages 21-25]. Kane and Rosenquist conducted a study […]