Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud

How do the words teachers hear from school leaders, instructional coaches and peers provide an uplift and motivation? Are there time that the words teachers hear create a subtle source of stress, confusion, or disengagement? Our language can be a vehicle through which expectations, emotions, and commitments are transmitted.  What we say—and just as importantly, what we don’t say—can directly influence teacher growth, agency, and energy. Consider how your intentional language can empower your coachees, team members and staff, fostering a culture where trust, clarity and motivation thrive.

Read "Empowering Others Through Words," from Phoenix Perform here.

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

How do you ensure your students are reading your feedback, digesting it, and using it to improve? Alexis Wiggins explores the connections between reflection and feedback. She shares her personal experiences around revision-based assessments, AI possibilities, and modeling her use of feedback from student surveys.

Read Alexis’ article, "Feedback That Matters" here.

Watch the "Austin’s Butterfly" video here.

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

Some instructional coaches are starting the year with teachers who are new to the profession—and some with teachers who are entering the classroom without any teacher education background. What do these teachers believe defines classroom management, and where should a coach begin?

Many instructional coaches are also hearing highly experienced teachers say, “I’ve never had a student like this before.” How does a coach respond?

A. Keith Young, author of The Instructional Coaching Handbook and Confident Classroom Management Moves Card Deck, shares insights and strategies for both teachers and coaches. Consider the skills and strategies that require intentional practice and constructive coaching feedback.

Visit the Confident Classroom Management Blog here.

Email Keith: [email protected]

Visit Keith's Website.

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

In coaching—whether you’re supporting a teacher, leading a professional learning team, or working with a school leader—listening is foundational. And yet, in the name of productivity, efficiency, or simply staying on schedule, we can too easily slip into haste. Listening with haste can be worse than not listening at all. When you respond to people too quickly, they’re likely to feel frustrated, demeaned, or unimportant. Coaches having a strong sense of what a teacher “needs” may rush a conversation—finishing sentences, jumping to solutions, or interpreting questions as pushbacks. Missing crucial signals and undermine trust.

Read the Harvard Business Review post, "Are You Really A Good Listener" here.

Listen to the Podcast with Christine Miles, "What’s It Costing You to Not Listen" here.

Listen to the "Radical Listening in Coaching" podcast here.

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

Jennifer D. Klein, the author of, "Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership: Doing Right by Learners Without Losing Your Job," shares the need for leaders to support teachers who frequently struggle with false dichotomies like knowledge vs skills or play vs academics. Teachers and leaders often feel isolated and threatened in their efforts to prioritize what learners need most.  Change work requires engagement from a place of courage not of fear. What beliefs and values build your courage to do right by learners?

Connect with Jennifer and find her book here.

Visit Jennifer's LinkedIn.

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

Amber Chandler, the author of "Everything New Teachers Need to Know But Are Afraid to Ask," shares a program her district implemented to address that 140 out of its 478 teachers have been with the district four years or less—and the ranks of untenured teachers are expected to swell to 250 in the next five years. That’s approximately half of the teaching staff needing support, not just in year one, but also in years two, three, and four. Chandler sees the challenge but also an opportunity to create a community of educators from the ground up. How do instructional coaches support new teachers and mentors?

Red Amber's Ed Week Article, "Going NUTs: How One District Supports Its ‘New and Untenured’ Teachers" here. 

Find "Everything New Teachers Need to Know But Are Afraid to Ask" here. 

Contact Amber and visit her website here.

The Executive Director of Counselling in Schools, Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, explores the environments needed for students to thrive in school and survive in life. A key to that environment is a staff that can manage their emotions personally and be resilient so that they support students authentically. What role do instructional coaches and school leaders play in supporting teachers’ emotional safety and relationships? How is SEL foundational to schools and classrooms and not an add-on? What should we be celebrating and where should we have an urgent focus?

Connect with Kevin and find his resources here.

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

Every educator sends signals to students that, consciously or unconsciously, determine who experiences belonging—and who doesn’t. When students perceive they do not belong, they are at risk for a host of adverse consequences. Conversely, when students feel a sense of belonging, it can lead to an abundance of positive personal, social, and academic outcomes.

How can instructional coaches and school leaders support teachers in identifying unconscious actions that interfere with our intended message of valuing each learner? How can we intentionally plan actions that nurture a community that embraces differences?

In Powerful Student Care: Honoring Each Student as Distinctive and Irreplaceable, authors Kathleen Budge and Grant Chandler provide insights and practical support.

Read the article, "The Signals We Send About Who Belongs" here. 

Connect with Kathleen: [email protected]

Connect with Grant here.

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

Research tells us that awe increases motivation and connection to learning, enhances critical thinking and careful information processing, encourages empathy and prosocial behavior, and supports creativity. What’s the plan for teachers and students first days of school? Are you more likely to hear ‘wow” and “awe” or “ Oh, no.” Explore some possibilities.

Find Steve's book "WOW! Adding Pizzazz to Teaching and Learning, Second Edition" here.

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

Feedback doesn’t create learning by itself—learning happens when students reflect on, act upon, and integrate feedback into their work.  Teachers don’t cause student achievement. Students do. Our role as educators is to design environments, tasks, and relationships that enable students to produce the learning behaviors that generate achievement. One of those critical learning behaviors is knowing how and being willing to use feedback.

Instructional coaches and coaching leaders are supporting teachers to build opportunities for students to profit from feedback, they should be looking to create the same opportunities for their feedback to be profitable for teachers.

Watch the "Austin’s Butterfly" video here. 

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