Kathleen McCloskey, CEO of Empower the Learner and co-author of "Make Learning Personal" and "How to Personalize Learning," identifies the need to develop student capacity to support their own learning, achieve agency, self-advocate for their learning and realize their hopes and dreams. As leaders, we need to create the same for staff.Visit the Empower the Learner website.  Get in touch with Kathleen: [email protected]

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Tara Brown, The Connection Coach, shares the need for relationships to precede relevance and rigor. The author of "Different Cultures - Common Ground," shares beliefs and strategies that guide us to communicate the needed messages to students. She stresses the need for students to understand that they can be in the driver’s seat for their future.Visit Tara's website. Find Tara's book, "Different Cultures, Common Ground - 85 Proven Strategies to Connect in Your Classroom" here.

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Frances Valintine, the founder of The Mind Lab and The Tech Futures Lab and the author of "Future You", explores learning in and out of schools today. She describes “embracing change” and how leaders support a learning organization with an environment that embraces change.E-mail Frances: [email protected] The Mind Lab site.Visit the Tech Futures Lab site. Find Frances' book, "Future You" here.

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All of us can learn from reflection. A too often problem is that we neglect setting aside the time to do it. The end of a school year is a great time to encourage your children’s reflections on the past school year, regardless of their age. A set of possible starter questions are included in the podcast.Read Open University's "What is Reflection?" Watch Lulu Chan's video on Reflection. Read Stringer & McFadden's Article, "Children as Reflective Thinkers."Read Dr. Joanne Foster's "Reflective Habits of Mind."

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

Past National Principal of the Year, Mark Wilson, identifies the value of gathering student thoughts, feelings, and insights to promote student reflection and provide data that can focus educator reflection. Mark shares several great questions and strategies to guide a process. Use the link to his website to find more sample questions.

Visit Mark's website. View the 20 Questions For Students at The End of The Year.

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

Teacher, author, and child development expert, Deborah Farmer Kris, examines the need for considering balance and purpose for our students. Teens are reporting as running on empty. Striving but not thriving. She discusses supporting students to build optimism, curiosity, and integrity.Visit the Parenthood365 website.Read Deborah's article, "Striving or Thriving? Steps to Help Kids Find Balance and Purpose." 

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Why might, "what’s your hypothesis?”be a better question to ask than, "what’s your goal?"A business article suggested that hypotheses create more organizational learning.Several schools have been experimenting with building teachers’ professional growth plans (PGPs) around a hypothesis that the teacher wants to explore. In this conversation, you will hear from a director of teaching and learning who shares her experiences at the end of her school’s first year’s implementation of hypothesis focused PGPs.

E-mail Marina: [email protected] the American Cooperative School of Tunis website.Read the article, "Why Hypotheses Beat Goals" here.

Visit the Center for Mathematics Achievement website. 

Find Hilary's Book, "Partnering with Parents in Elementary Math" here.

Find Hilary's book, "Adding Parents to the Equations: Understanding Your Child’s Elementary Math" here.

The practice of giving glows and grows, like the feedback sandwich, seldom generates growth and change. Frequently, some similar structure is used to give feedback to teachers following walkthroughs. Self-reflection is the key to our decision to commit to a change behavior. Without conversations, these notes rarely generate true reflection. When we generate our own "glows" and "grows," we are on a growth trajectory."Why Bosses Rarely Give Negative Feedback, Backed By Science""Why Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Avoid the 'Feedback Sandwich" "Glows and Grows: A Positive Framing for Self-Reflection"

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Acceleration and equity require teachers to provide ALL students with engagement in on grade-level or above, complex learning tasks. Too little or too much scaffolding prevents students from gaining the needed learning opportunities. Consider when you might be rescuing students rather than scaffolding. Consider why just-in-time scaffolding is important.Read the article, "Just-in-Time vs Just-in-Case Scaffolding: How to Foster Productive Perseverance" here.Read the article, "Are you Scaffolding or Rescuing" here.Listen to the podcast "Rough Draft Math" here.

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