I am fortunate to be the benefactor of others’ generosity with a fair amount of frequency. Recognizing this is likely a result of years of practicing positive thinking. Yes, years and yes, practicing. Positive thinking is not necessarily something that comes naturally to me. The practice of positive thinking, captured partially in my Power of … [Read more…]
Full disclosure: Today I am writing from a position of arguably limited authority. I have been a classroom teacher (23 years) and an instructional coach (7 years) and have held varied leadership positions in the past. I am talking to and about school district leadership, though I have never held one of the positions that … [Read more…]
Today’s writing marks the final of 41 posts for 2025. That’s 11 posts short of writing a post each week, but 41 more posts than 0. Making and keeping promises to others and to ourselves turns out to be a pretty big deal. I’ve made a habit of writing each week and have no regrets. … [Read more…]
My intent with this post is to be brief, and to somehow connect lots of unrelated thoughts. The title, “Not Sure” comes from two places: 1. I’m not sure what I want to write about and 2. I’m not sure how to connect seemingly unrelated ideas. Chances are, this will be a jumble! Listening As … [Read more…]
I’m 50 years old… closer to 51 than 50. And at 50 years old, I’m still figuring out who I want to be. I shared this with my dear friend, Kate, over a delightful lunch the other day. I shared with Kate that I heard a line in my audio book where the main character … [Read more…]
Reflection is likely the number one tool on the road to improvement. Whether one is wanting to improve their wrestling stance, their pitching performance, their teaching practice, or their instructional coaching practice 😉 the ability to honestly reflect on their current state positions one to improve. This point was driven home in a recent Maxwell … [Read more…]
In January of this year, George Couros wrote a blog post titled, Decoding Digital Deception: A Journey Into AI and Bias. In the post, Couros raises excellent points about the impact our own mindset has as we navigate all of the information at our fingertips. Our personal bias often influences us to choose the information … [Read more…]
This post was started just over two weeks ago. The flu bug hit, so I was down and out for awhile. As I write today, I am enjoying the end of a week-long spring break, wishing I had my full pre-flu energy back, still unsure about the situation I wrote about below, and hoping for … [Read more…]
I’m sitting in the Charolotte International Airport as I write this (why does it make me feel important to write that?!). I am processing two incredible days of learning, alongside incredible educators, from the 8th Annual Conference of The Reading League. Last week, I had written that I predicted many presenters would mention Scarborough’s Reading … [Read more…]