Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people…
Last night, we shared a dinner table with a diverse group of incredibly nice folks. Compass House, our local Safe Place, was hosting their annual dinner and my family had a wonderful time hanging out with some of the incredible people behind this organization. We’ve made a few friends there this year, and last night, we became acquainted with some of their friends. Anyway. One of the gentlemen at our table struck up a conversation…
There are a lot of difficult conversations going on around me lately, in every school that I am working in. Everyone is calling for meaningful change, which is never an easy call to answer, and as we begin treading those very deep waters, the threat of drowning in an ocean of need becomes very real. This week, I’m appreciating the fact that the work I’m involved with has been guided by a clear purpose. Much thought went into defining what teachers…
Yesterday was a coaching day, and I had an awful lot of fun hanging out with sixth grade students for the better part of the morning. I began the day in Danielle Cobb’s classroom, who has begun differentiating reading instruction and making use of formative assessment. Danielle knows that her kids struggle to identify main idea as they read, and yesterday’s demo lesson aimed to address that. I’m sharing that lesson here for two reasons:…
“Well, I hope now that he’s been elected, he can live up to that great promise of change that he’s been prattling on about for two years.” Barack Obama hadn’t even made his acceptance speech last night when comments like this started winding their way through the web, and I wasn’t surprised. Realizing change is a complicated thing and so many of us are desperate to see things happen quickly. But it’s never about what…
People debate the pros and cons of immunization quite a bit in my personal parenting circle. My kids are immunized of course, as they have to be, but I’m fairly certain that every parent considers the safety of wide-range immunization practices. We have to, after all. We’re responsible for our childrens’ well being. Most of us learn what we need to and allow that knowledge to inform our widely varied choices. We all know that immunization…
SearchmeView in searchme: full | lite I was scrolling through my reader tonight, and I stumbled into this quick post by Darren Kuropatwa, prompting readers to begin diving into the fabulous content shared within the first week of the K-12 Online Conference. For those who may be unaware, this event is free, open to all educators, and hosted online by volunteers. If you are interested in taking advantage of this but as uncertain about where…
This week, I had the opportunity to present literacy coaching as a professional development model, and in preparing to do so, I realized that like all good things in education, much of its value rises out of the fact that it simply makes sense. When I think about how I learn, it often looks a bit like this: The process seems to work the same way whether I’m attempting to teach myself how to cook a meal worth eating (I…
In her book Literacy Coaching: The Essentials, Katherine Casey shares her experiences and the wisdom gained from her work as a school-based literacy coach. Casey was fortunate enough to find herself mentored by teacher-leader Lucy West. The second chapter of her book highlights the important ways in which her relationship with West enabled her to grow into her role as a coach: “During our teacher-leader training sessions, whenever we complained about teachers who were, in…
I’m really enjoying my work with middle and high school English teachers this year. Literacy coaching is providing me the opportunity to build deeper relationships with those I’m striving to help, and it’s also allowing teachers the necessary time and space to transform their practices right within their classrooms. This is first time I’ve been able to join teachers through each phase of change that they are hoping to create for themselves and for their…