I have a long history of stating that teaching is a team sport and needs to be a public act with colleagues. My use of the word team is to illustrate collective responsibility. When I meet with administrators and teacher leaders and ask them to rate the level of teaming in their schools, they tend to initially rank their practices higher than they do after I spend some time describing teaming as collective responsibility. What many educators describe as teaming is what I describe as franchising. With franchising, teachers with common grade levels or content areas meet, collaborate, and then re ..read more

“Our beliefs drive our behaviors.” That’s a statement that Kyle Coppes featured in an article titled “Student Laziness Is a Myth, Here’s Why.”  Coppes reminded me how our beliefs, often unconsciously, effect decisions we make in a classroom from moment to moment. Coaches can play a key role in surfacing those beliefs so that teachers can decide if they consciously want to react according to that belief or to purposefully implement a different behavior. Coppes illustrates that the belief that laziness exists limits the behavior of any teacher who encounters it and that can be harmful. Beli ..read more

Who would gain from adding the skills of instructional coaching to their communication and leadership skill set? How would schools, teachers, and most importantly students gain from having more instructional coaching experiences occurring within schools? My first book on the topic of coaching, Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching, had a forward written by Adam Urbanski, who at that time was the president of the Rochester (NY) Teachers Association, vice-president of the American Federation of teachers, and the director of the Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN) of AFT and NEA Locals: “Many ..read more

Years back, I recall having a principal tell me about one of the most successful PLCs in his school. One of his descriptions was that you could at times hear disagreement and even arguing during their meetings. It took some processing for me to understand his finding. Those PLC members saw the decisions they were making to be highly important. Therefore, they didn’t rush to quickly reach a consensus. They had respect for each other, knew that their views would be heard, and had probably experienced, over time, that their productive conflicts had led to quality decisions that were best for thei ..read more

We are preparing to celebrate reaching 500 episodes of Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud Podcast! We are looking for some regular listeners who would be interested in joining Steve on a podcast to discuss what you find of value in following the podcast or in sharing the podcast with colleagues. Drop Steve a note if you’d be interested: sbarkley@pls3rdlearning.com Thanks for considering! The post Help Celebrate 500 Episodes of The Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud Podcast! appeared first on Steve Barkley ..read more

Thinking Partner is a term that I have been using in describing the conversations that I work to have emerge with coachees, especially in post observation conversations. Reading Dr. Kristine Needham’s post, 3 Ways to More “Aha” Moments in Coaching, I found several connections to the concept of thinking partner. Needham describes these coaching conferences with moments of sudden realization, when a breakthrough occurs, as “Aha Moments.” There is a sense of new knowledge being created. She describes these moments as being truly powerful and capable of leading to a change in practice. I am often ..read more

Research has identified that collective teacher efficacy is among the highest influences on student achievement. Teachers who believe in their collective ability to impact student learning can create a more positive school climate, set high expectations, and effectively engage students. When teachers have a strong sense of collective efficacy, they are more likely to be motivated and committed to their work. Teachers who believe that working together can lead to successful outcomes are more likely to share strategies, support each other, and engage in professional learning communities. Is you ..read more

Perhaps one of the greatest things for a coach to hear in the middle of a coaching conference is the response “that’s really a good question.”  Whenever I get that response, I smile because it indicates to me that my work in questioning has caused the coachee to consider something that he or she is thinking to be of value. I see three main categories as purposes for my coaching questions. I call the first one finding out and knowing, the second, reflection, and the third, exploring future actions. Finding out and knowing. I’m big on using the phrase ‘the teacher’s agenda.’ It’s important ..read more

Differentiating Peer Observation and Peer Coaching: Peer Observation is an activity that is focused on the observer’s learning while Peer Coaching is focused more on the benefits to the observed teacher. Of course, there are some benefits to both in either activity but the clarity of expectations going into and throughout the activity can increase the learning outcomes. In Peer Observation the observing teacher has the opportunity to focus on student learning behaviors in a way that one can’t while teaching. Consider John Hattie’s thought that 80% of what is happening in a classroom is unobse ..read more

Since having recorded a podcast with Alexis Wiggins, I have been subscribed to her newsletter at the Cohort of Educators for Essential Learning. As soon as I finished reading the Winter 2024 Newsletter, I asked Alexis if she would share it here. Alexis Wiggins is the founder and director of CEEL – the Cohort of Educators for Essential Learning. She has worked for over 20 years as a teacher and instructional coach in the U.S., Spain, the Middle East, and Asia. Her book, The Best Class You Never Taught: How Spider Web Discussion Can Turn Students into Learning Leaders (ASCD), explores how to tra ..read more