“We don’t have a teacher shortage. We have a shortage of sustainable, team-designed teaching jobs.” – Roger Osorio Positive results emerge when educators genuinely share students and responsibility, collaborate around instruction, distribute expertise, and possess meaningful decision-making authority. Teaming can create the daily observation, feedback, and reflection opportunities that make peer coaching part of the […]

Guest Blog: Carla Erskin Carla Erskin is a middle school teacher, productivity coach, and the founder of Sustainable Teaching Solutions, which focuses the use of planning periods as a practice that can be taught, supported, and strengthened. Her concept of Planning Period Literacy provides valuable insights for instructional coaches and school leaders to explore with […]

If I believe the person sitting across from me is a professional, my coaching job can’t simply be to get that person to do what I’ve decided is best. I need to engage their thinking which means deep listening on my part. Treating someone as a professional isn’t simply something we say. Teachers experience whether […]

  One of the shifts I have long encouraged teachers to make—especially in their PLCs—is to consider how much of their attention is focused on teaching and how much is focused on student learning. That’s not because teaching isn’t important. Teachers need strong instructional skills, thoughtful planning, engaging strategies, and deep content knowledge. But teaching […]

What if the statements we label as resistance are actually invitations to get curious? As a school leader or instructional coach, have you ever heard a statement like this: “But we have always done it that way”? In a SmartBrief blog, Julie Winkle Giulioni describes that as a phrase leaders cringe at hearing. I have […]

“Within every school there is a sleeping giant of teacher leadership which can be a strong catalyst for making change.” (Katzenmeyer and Mollar, “Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders“) Carly Quiros, from EdAdvance, explores this quote with Steve. What should instructional coaches, school and teacher leaders be modeling and doing to create […]