The alignment of an instructional coach’s and principal’s messages to staff is important in maintaining teacher actions what will drive increased student learning. Both principal and coach must make constant decisions and responses to staff during busy school days throughout the year. Rich conversations assist principal and coach in knowing their thinking is based on […]

During the current and past year, I have been working with the staff at QSI International School of Chengdu in China.  Using Skype, I facilitated professional learning sessions with the entire staff and held coaching sessions with individual PLCs. Last year we focused on professional learning communities and this Fall we added peer coaching practices. […]

Barnett Berry, from the Center for Teaching Quality, writing about teacher collaboration in an article in Kappan magazine,* describes teachers’ professional learning in Shanghai where professional learning is more peer-to-peer support than going to external trainings. Berry sites data from various reports that illustrates the missing peer collaboration in many of our schools: # only […]

My previous blog ended with this paragraph: It’s important that principals’ work with instructional coaches to extend the coaching culture in a school. That culture increases the impact that the coach can have in providing feedback and reflection opportunities as well as increasing the coach’s role in being the “coach of coaching.” Anyone working in […]

The first book that I wrote about coaching was titled, Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching. The title was purposeful as I wanted to communicate that coaching was not merely an isolated activity of observation and feedback, but the way a team of educators “did business.” When a coaching culture is present, teachers use […]

Shirley Hord, Learning Forward’s scholar laureate, was recently featured in a blog  titled, “What Is An Authentic Professional Learning Community?” Hord identified six characteristics that indicate an authentic PLC: Structural conditions– Time… place…resources and useable data. Supportive relational conditions– Community members have respect and regard for each other. Shared values and vision– The community’s conversation […]