What should teachers expect from school leadership in the support of teacher growth? What expectations should school leaders have of teachers in their investment in professional growth? Katherine Hamilton, vice president of programs for Ensemble Learning explores these questions with Steve.  Designing for teachers as professionals is key to generating educator learning that impact student success.

Visit the Ensemble Learning LinkedIn page here.    

Visit the Ensemble Learning website here.

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Just as students benefit from developing a positive, growth-oriented approach to failure, teachers thrive when they are supported in the same way. Instructional coaches and administrators can play a critical role in fostering this mindset. Teachers need opportunities to embrace challenges, experiment with new ideas, and persist through setbacks, in a safe environment. Too often, professional learning focuses on delivering strategies and best practices without acknowledging the discomfort and vulnerability that come with trying something new. Explore seven keys to “successful failure.”

"A Moment of Perspective," Christina (Kiki) Peterson

"Why Failing Well is the Key to Success," Megan McArdle

"7 Keys to Successful Failure," Mindy Crary

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

Chad Dumas, the author of, The Teacher Leader Handbook: Simple Habits to Transform Collaboration in a PLC at Work, explores the mindsets, skills and strategies that generate team collaboration. Chad describes the important mindsets of “Seeing in others what they don’t yet see in themselves,” Being humble with a posture of learning, and "Spreading the contagion of joy." How should school leaders support teacher PLC leaders?

Find "The Teacher Leader Handbook: Simple Habits to Transform Collaboration in a PLC at Work" here.

Find the free downloadable reproducibles here.

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

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.

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

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.  

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

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.

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

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. 

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

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.  

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