How do coaches assist teachers in reframing stress from something to be managed to a catalyst for growth and improvement? How can understanding the roles of commitment, control, and challenge build teachers’ hardiness? Highly experienced coaches, Lana Cecil and Angela Buckingham, share the application of Stein’s and Bartone’s work in Making Stress Work for You to Achieve Your Life Goals to the work of instructional leaders and coaches.

Contact Angela: [email protected]

Contact Lana: [email protected]

Find the Coaching Strategies and Coaching Questions for Hardiness here.

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What happens when a school system makes four promises as their mission: joy, connection, growth, and success and consider joy as the lead to the others happening? "If we want people to be present, engaged, and thriving, joy can’t be an afterthought. It must be a priority." (George Philhower, Superintendent Eastern Hancock Schools in Indiana) Hear about their summer Joy Jam conference for educators.

Visit the Eastern Hancock Schools website here. 

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“Coachability is not just teachability. It’s not just a willingness to learn. It’s a willingness to unlearn and change. Coachability is a moral capacity that allows a person to accept feedback, acknowledge faults, limitations, and deficiencies, and to act on that new information.” (Timothy Clark)

As instructional coaches and school leaders, we can play a big role in shaping culture of coachability. We do it through the way we listen, the questions we ask, and the tone we set when offering feedback. 

Find Timothy Clark's article, "Are You Coachable?" here.  

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Barbara Smith, the editor of Urgent Care for Schools: Situating Responsibility as an Engaging Way for Students to Transform School Cultures, explores providing meaningful, memorable, and fulfilling learning experiences by situating responsibilities with learners.

From her experiences in public, independent, charter, and international schools, Barbara explores expanding the student identity to include that of becoming service providers, injustice responders, action researchers, designers, apprentices and teachers.

Visit the ZPD website and connect with Barbara here. 

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

How can coaches’ use of radical listening generate teachers’ reflection and increase a sense of teachers’ empowerment? Examine some of the obstacles to and strategies for radical listening from the work of Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener and Christian Van Nieuwerburgh authors of Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection. As coaches, when we resist the urge to jump in with comparisons, advice, or quick fixes—and instead, lean into radical listening—we communicate trust, respect, and belief in the teacher’s capacity.

Listen to the Podcast, "Mastering Coaching and Leadership | Robert Biswas-Diener | Craig Dowden, PhD" here.

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From her career as a teacher and school leader in public, independent, and international schools and having opened three new schools, Barbara Smith proposes the importance of situating responsibility with students and teachers.  She describes why change is urgent and needs to be transformative. Just as teachers need to be facilitators of student responsibility to create their learning, school leaders need to be facilitators of teachers’ responsibility. Time and space for teacher collaboration and learning is a key.

Connect with Barbara & visit the ZPD website here. 

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What skills do coaches practice to communicate being fully present in coaching conversations? How do those conversations support a growth-oriented environment where teachers feel valued, heard, and empowered to take ownership of their professional learning? Consider your use of questions and paraphrases in coaching.

Find "The Leader's Guide to Coaching in Schools: Creating Conditions for Effective Learning, by John Campbell and Christian Van Nieuwerburgh here.  

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Rory Courlander, IFC Certified Coach, high school administrator, and experience learning and teaching coach, explores building a coaching culture from no coaching to an embedded collaborative coaching culture. He and Steve discuss coaching skills and coachability.

Find Rory’s Coaching Culture Continuum and connect with him on LinkedIn here.  

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

How do instructional coaches and instruction leaders support teachers in maximizing students’ high performance? How should we be preparing teachers to identify possible indicators of high talent and to create opportunities for talent and giftedness to flourish? Steve Arnold, the Head of Gifted and Talented at GEMS Education explores these questions and identifies the importance of adaptive teaching verses siloed differentiation. What should teachers know about the neuroscience of learning?

Email Steve: [email protected]

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Listening is a crucial skill for students to develop for school and life success, yet we rarely purposefully approach a plan for students to learn the skills. Christine Miles, the creator of The Listening Path highlights the why and how for teachers to provide students the tools and practice to develop their listening capabilities. Consider the impact of a listing culture on classroom dynamics and student engagement.

Visit The Listening Path website here.  

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!