In my work as an instructional coach, I have the great fortune of working with many teacher teams across many grade levels. This allows for a birds-eye view of our district happenings, where I tend to train my eyes on literacy instruction. A common theme among teacher teams, related to literacy or any other content … [Read more…]
If you haven’t read Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, M.D., I highly recommend it. It’s short, it’s lessons apply to both personal and work-related situations, and the advice is timeless. The gist is quite simple: the unexpected can happen to us at anytime. It (an unexpected change) occurs regularly at home, at work, … [Read more…]
Summer always seems to go too fast and this summer is certainly no exception. My thoughts and actions have been completely consumed by our house remodel, which is still underway. We began in June and I was naive enough to think that we would be finished by the time I returned to school in August. … [Read more…]
The EDVIEW360 podcast from Voyager Sopris recently released a stellar episode featuring two of education’s greats: Dr. Anita Archer and Dr. Louisa Moats. The world is a better place because of these two individuals. Their work has resulted in and will continue to result in high levels of learning for teachers and students everywhere. I … [Read more…]
What a whirlwind of a week… or three! As I write today, I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport, buzzin’ like a bee from an AMAZING four days at the 2023 Open Up Resources HIVE conference! There is so much learning to process; I’m thankful for several hours in the airport to do just that. This … [Read more…]
When I began writing this blog in January of 2021, I outlined my goals for the blog which are as follows: Document my learning journey as a teacher, coach, and student Improve my writing craft through reflection Act as a producer rather than a consumer Push my thinking Connect with others Two and a half … [Read more…]
The summer learning season kicked off in beautiful fashion this past week. On the very first two days of summer break, the Guiding Coalition members from each building in Fort Madison Community School District spent two days assessing our data, prioritizing areas of concern, and developing a targeted action plan for the upcoming 23-24 school … [Read more…]
On Saturday, I was on a mission. I was bound and determined to trim the shrubs that adorn the front of our house. This is an annual task, one that was skipped last year, and I was committed to making sure that didn’t happen again. I approached the job with little to no plan. I … [Read more…]
Words matter. Routines and procedures matter. The more we can simplify each in our educational systems, the more likely we are to reach high levels of success. At the risk of sounding like I desire robotic teaching, where we all do the exact same thing, I’m going to make the following statement: I think we … [Read more…]
100% This post was 100% inspired by the three literacy leaders I affectionately call “The Trifecta,” Stacy Hurst, Lindsay Kemeny, and Donell Pons, hosts of Reading Horizons’ Literacy Talks podcast. In Episode 6 of Season 3, Reading: The Numbers Help Tell the Stories, The Trifecta focuses on the irony of how many numbers are involved … [Read more…]