Sari Factor, the Vice Chair and Chief Strategy Officer at Imagine Learning, explores the intersection of curriculum, technology, and people. These questions are explored:

Visit the Imagine Learning website here.    

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

As a guest on another podcast, I was asked what were my thoughts, after all my years in the coaching field, what the ideas and ideals of coaching done well would be? "Coaching done well"

Check out the Coaching Done Well Podcast here. 

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

Rigor doesn’t mean more work, and it doesn’t mean figuring it out on your own without support. It should mean achievement at a level just outside of a student’s ability to do things unaided. Just like temporary building support structures, scaffolds for learners are designed to provide access to rigorous learning for all. We want our learners to have what they need to experience productive struggle at a higher level of challenge. James Fester describes strategies to create that support.

Read James' article, "How to Scaffold Learning and Maintain Rigor" here. 

Visit the National Park Classroom website here.

Visit James' website and get in contact here.

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

Resourcefulness, resilience, and collaboration are critical mindsets, and skill sets, for students to develop. For schools to support those outcomes, educators must have the opportunity to develop the same. Mitch Weisburgh, the author of, "Mindshifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success," explores the importance and possibilities.

What’s the role of wellbeing and hope in achieving long term, deep learning?

Visit the Mindshifting Website & connect with Mitch here.

Download "Why We React Instead of Respond" — a free MindShifting Conversation Circle for your educator team here.

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

What’s one of the first questions you tend to ask a teacher after you’ve broken the ice in a post-conference? Here’s one I hear very often: “How do you think that went?" I cringe a little when I hear that question. The reason is something I learned the hard way early in my coaching career.  That question can lead to teachers protecting and the moment protection enters the conversation, reflection usually leaves it.

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

Classroom observations can become overly focused on our unconscious bias toward traditional signs of quality teaching and learning. Observers can focus on teaching moves and the appearance of engagement but miss what matters most: are students making sense of the learning. Experienced educator, Dr. Michael McDowell shares the need to “flip” our view in observation to look past surface signals of teaching and learning rituals and perhaps disrupt them.

Read "Flipping the Lens on Classroom Observations With the ‘Inside-Out’ Method" here.

Visit the Hinge Education website and connect with Michael here. 

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

"When leaders consistently show up in classrooms, not to judge, but to learn and support, they help to create schools where continuous improvement is not an initiative but a way of life." (Dr. Raymond Schmidt)

Dr. Schmidt describes how learning walks can build alignment among a teaching staff and administrative team. He explores elements pre, during, and post learning walk observations that build professional learning as continuous and collective, not a one-time event.

Read "From Presence to Practice: How Learning Walks and SMART Feedback Strengthen Instructional Leadership in K–12 Schools" here.

Visit Dr. Schmidt' LinkedIn here.

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

How does a staff’s engagement in reflection generate increased staff learning that promotes ownership and accountability for student success?  Highly experienced school leader, Dr. Matt Horvath, explores leaders work with coaching, PLCs, and professional learning for classified staff. The podcast provides insights and questions to promote your reflection.

Email Matt: [email protected]

Visit Matt's Leadership Nexus Consulting website here.

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

Chris Norwood, the founding director of the Bay Area Tutoring Association, highlights the impact of tutors, parents, students, community members and business leaders collaborating to invest in the future. He explores the preparation of tutors and the rewards for tutors, students, and the community. Consider what can be accomplished through the development of an academic tutoring workforce, extended learning programs and services. Possibilities!!

Visit the Bay Area Tutoring Association website here. 

Email Chris: [email protected]

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

Jonathan Haidt’s, "The Happiness Hypothesis," presents a helpful metaphor for coaching: the elephant and the rider. The elephant symbolizes our emotional, intuitive self—the instinctive reactions that show up when a lesson flops, a student refuses to engage, or a new initiative feels overwhelming. The rider represents our rational, planning, problem-solving self that sets goals, analyzes progress, and decides what we should do next.

Coaching for happiness does not mean avoiding challenges or protecting teachers from discomfort. Rather, it means helping teachers interpret challenges as meaningful, discomfort as temporary, and progress as real.

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