If I believe the person sitting across from me is a professional, my coaching job can't simply be to get that person to do what I've decided is best. I need to engage their thinking which means deep listening on my part. Treating someone as a professional isn't simply something we say. Teachers experience whether we see them as professionals through the conditions we create and the ways we interact with them. If we want our students to be taught by professionals who exercise professional judgment, our leadership and coaching need to continually develop that judgment and create the conditions that support professional dignity.

Listen to Jim Knight’s podcast episode, "Stop Telling Teachers What to Do" here. 

Visit Brad Gaynor's website here. 

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The author of, "Not One More Teacher Lost," Brad Gaynor, explores the powerful idea that improving education is not only about developing better teachers and leaders, but also about creating the conditions in which they can continue to do their best work. What happens when systems confuse accountability with documentation, support with compliance, and improvement with constant change?

Connect with Brad and his work here.

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

“Within every school there is a sleeping giant of teacher leadership which can be a strong catalyst for making change.”

(Katzenmeyer and Mollar, "Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders")

Carly Quiros, from EdAdvance, explores this quote with Steve. What should instructional coaches, school and teacher leaders be modeling and doing to create schools that are “leaderfull?”

Find Carly’s Blog in ISTE/ASCD

Visit Carly's LinkedIn and get in touch

Visit EdAdvance

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

A meeting to establish a teacher’s professional growth plan goal can either be a perfunctory activity to be checked of the “to do list” or the start of a year-long do --- reflect --- apply cycle that generates professional learning. Ask these questions at the end of the planning meeting:

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

Kelly Hastings, founder of Enlightening Leadership and author of Leading Change That Lasts shares thoughts on school leaders planning backwards from desired student outcomes to leadership actions. How do leaders involve and empower teachers in the process? What role does evidence of progress, with cautions around “fidelity,” play in supporting an implementation.

Visit the Enlightening Leadership website and Connect with Kelly here. 

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

Schools aren't experienced through mission statements or curriculum guides. They're experienced one interaction at a time.

Coaches can help teachers and leaders gather evidence about experiences that often go unnoticed because they have become routine - or even unconscious.

Watch Marcela Andreas Diaz Revultas’ video here. 

Find Tim Montalvo’s blog here.

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

If professional learning for educators is going to generate increased learning success for students, it needs to be an environment, not an event. Dr. Marisa Ramirez Stukey, co-author of, "Professional Learning Redefined: An Evidence-Based Guide," shares key elements of effective professional learning and the necessary commitments needed from administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers.

Visit The Reading League website and get in touch with Dr. Stukey here.

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

In many schools, it isn’t common to find teachers exploring possibilities and reflecting on observations with instructional coaches early in the school year. Perhaps there is a view that coaching is problem-solving and the idea that coaching around designing is being missed. Hear an example of what that coaching around a teacher’s early planning might sound like.

Find Dan Steele’s post here.

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

Multipliers, as Liz Wiseman identified ("Multipliers - How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter") don't simply recognize talent—they help it grow and spread. Perhaps that's one of the most important roles of an instructional coach. Rather than identifying what teachers are missing, coaches are on the prowl for the capabilities that are already emerging. Noticing them, naming them and creating opportunities for those talents to become even more powerful and, ultimately, benefit colleagues and students beyond a single classroom.

Watch the Positive Psychology in Coaching and Professional Practices video (from Growth Coaching International) here.

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

Teacher to teacher conversations are powerful when they expose us to perspectives we would not generate on our own. Left to ourselves, we tend to revisit familiar assumptions, interpretations, and solutions. We think within the boundaries of our current mental models. Dialogue creates the opportunity for those mental models to be challenged, refined, or expanded. How do instructional coaches, teacher leaders, and administrators support those dialogues?

Listen to Naquin’s podcast, "What educators should know when talking with one another" here.

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