I have always felt that working with a team was a benefit. I believe today it is a requirement. The complexity of desired outcomes we are looking to produce can no longer be accomplished with the skills and resources of an individual. School heads and administrators need to function as leaders of highly effective teams […]

In this week’s episode of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast, Steve is joined by Professors of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University, Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher to discuss their experiences and work with PLCs. Read Nancy & Doug’s book “Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design” here.  Subscribe to the Steve […]

I recently provided a workshop for mentors who would be working with new (many first year) teachers to their district. Here is the opening I used to set the stage. The old adage “Experience is the best teacher” isn’t quite accurate. “Experience, with a mentor, is the best teacher.” As a new teacher interacts with […]

Zachary Herrmann published an article in ASCD’s EL titled, Cooperate or Collaborate, that made connections for me in my work with Professional Learning Communities vs Professional Working Communities and Teams vs Franchises. I’ve been defining these as: PWC – Professional Working Community –teachers collaborating to get work done. PLC – Professional Learning Community- teachers collaborating […]

School administrators and coaches need to create trust with staff to encourage the risk taking and openness to feedback that will generate continuous teacher growth supporting continuous student growth.  A culture of high “coachablity”. “Schools with high relational trust, and/or leaders who cared about it, had a much better chance of serving students well than […]

The title of an article, The difference between engagement and motivation matters. Here’s why, caught my attention. Author and consultant, Susan Fowler describes employee work passion (EWP).  EWP, employee work passion, is a persistent, emotionally positive, meaning-based state of well-being stemming from reoccurring cognitive and emotional appraisals of various job and organizational situations that result […]