I wouldn’t really describe myself as someone who cries easily, but as the closing melody of “A Million Dreams” began to play I found myself overcome with emotion, unable to hold back tears. Looking out across the audience of parents, students, and teachers I realized that the moment that we had been planning for months
Data. It’s a four letter word. Especially in education. It has been argued by many to play a pivotal role in increasing student growth. The four key PLC questions from DuFour are centered around it. Even Danielson includes it as part of Domains, 1, 3 & 4 of the teacher evaluation rubric. And yet, when many
Curious. When you have a moment to yourself throughout the day, (driving in the car, running on the treadmill, when the sun is rising and you’re just waking up) what does your mind go to? In the past, it’s been anything from how can I get ALL of my students excited about reading to imagining
Audio version of this post. I’ll admit it. When I go to parties I can’t help myself. As much as I try to avoid it, I inevitably talk about education. Especially if there’s beer. One good IPA will get me waxing poetic about my vision of education for pretty much the entire night. I’ve
I’ve had a lot of great conversations since starting this blog about teaching and coaching and how the two are intertwined. Two of the questions that have come up a lot are How do you ACTUALLY teach like a coach? What does that look like in real practice? This has gotten me to reflect about my
If you were to ask me why I got into education I would tell you a simple fact: I LOVE working with students. Seeing their eyes light up when they learn something new. Building on their strengths. Showing them they can achieve ANYTHING. Except when I really think about it, I don’t know that ALL
Audio version of this post. Email at 9:30 p.m. Sunday night. Tomorrow school is cancelled due to inclement weather. (Cue the cheering) Email at 9:45 p.m. All admin must still report to fulfill their contractual obligation. (Cue the booing) Not gonna lie. That last email didn’t exactly make my night, BUT it did lead to
“Why would you want to be like anyone else?” Trying to figure out how many times I have been asked this question would be like attempting to count the number of shoes in a Kardashian closet. More than a hypothetical question meant to ward off bad behavior, if you grew up in my house, it was
Audio version of this post. Judge a Man By His Questions Rather Than By His Answers Seven years ago I would have seriously struggled with this quote. Coming out of the classroom into the role of an instructional coach, I thought my sole purpose was to solve any problem that was brought my way. In some
Here goes. My first confession. I’m biased. And not in the slightly biased sense, I mean insanely biased. Merriam Webster defines bias as: “an inclination of temperament or outlook especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : PREJUDICE” I have 100% Tom Cruise Jumping on a Couch Level unreasonable judgment about one thing in education:…
