Strategies and Tools for Leading
Newsletter
In this edition, we explore resources and ideas for leading professional learning.
Summer is a time for recharging but also for renewal. In this post, Virginia Soukup shares her experience learning about classroom routines from Kristin Mraz.
Harvard Graduate School of Education offers a variety of thinking routines for classrooms; click here to explore these free resources.
Routines can be powerful for teachers too. In this post, Annie Palmer describes one of these protocols – The Experiential Learning Cycle – for engaging adult learners.
If you are not familiar with the National School Reform website, check it out here. They have many tools for leading teachers in professional dialogue and discussion.
For educational books with practical tools and strategies, I recommend The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Professional Development by Nancy Fitchman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey.
Leaders should make their listening visible. In this post, I shared how I gathered feedback from teacher leaders about an upcoming professional learning day and revised the agenda in real time.
The teacher leaders mentioned previously attended an Adaptive Schools training this summer. This well-received approach provided strategies for supporting teacher teams in engaging in “productive conflict” regarding teaching and learning.
For an introduction to the concepts of Adaptive Schools and Cognitive Coaching, check out the book Cognitive Capital: Investing in Teacher Quality by Costa, Garmston, and Zimmerman.
In this post, we close out the online book study for The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation by Shane Safir.
According to Daniel Venables, PLCs often falter when teachers neglect the “how” of instruction. His article for Educational Leadership offers protocols and practices for better collaboration.