Examining trust and vulnerability quickly engages one in the chicken and egg question. Which comes first?  Trust can’t be created without some vulnerability being present. Trust greatly increases the likelihood that people would make themselves vulnerable. I explore trust and vulnerability often as they are key to growth from coaching and to effective teaming in […]

I love the learning I gain from interactions with educators. Not surprisingly, educators focused on coaching and collaborating provide extra special opportunities. Kevin Schlomer recently provided me one of those learning opportunities and I was anxious to share it with you.  Kevin is a former instructional coach and coordinator of instructional coaching. He is currently […]

In this week’s episode of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast, Steve explores the differences between compliments, praise and approval and looks at how they play a role in coaching.   Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes. Thanks for listening!

The brain works in a natural process of finding patterns within complexity.  If you think about young children, living in very complex adult worlds, their brains find patterns that they bring into learning. One of my favorite examples is when you hear a young child say, “I ‘goed’ outside”. You realize that, hopefully, the child […]

Stretching ourselves and others as a key component of learning and understanding is addressed by Chip and Dan Heath in their book, The Power of Moments. In the chapter titled, “Stretch for Insights”, they highlight that stretching sparks self-insights. “To stretch is to place ourselves in situations that expose us to the risk of failure. […]

While listening to a podcast on creativity, I was introduced to the book Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity Through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play by Mitchel Resnick. In his research paper “GIVE P’S A CHANCE: PROJECTS, PEERS, PASSION, PLAY,” Resnick discusses the research group at MIT Media which developed new technologies, activities, and strategies to engage […]