I meet with a group of educators each week to talk shop, and this week our conversation turned to how to give effective feedback. We started the conversation by watching a video of a 6th grade teacher delivering a lesson and then talked about how we would offer feedback to this particular teacher. The conversationContinue reading “The Art of Feedback”
Category Archives: Leadership
Don’t Get Body Slammed by a Lowland Gorilla
Just last week a student of mine alluded to one of those ridiculous old Direct TV commercials. Remember these? “When you pay too much for cable, you feel down. When you feel down, you stay in bed. When you stay in bed, they give your job to someone else…” The scenario quickly devolves so thatContinue reading “Don’t Get Body Slammed by a Lowland Gorilla”
Pull, Push, and Nudge
“In the end it’s best to pull whenever you can, push whenever you must, and nudge all the time.” That’s the closing (and the best) line of an article that someone sent my way this week. The article is called The Power of Professional Capital – adapted from a book written by two Canadian EducationContinue reading “Pull, Push, and Nudge”
Instructional vs. Transformational Leadership
John Hattie points out some key distinctions between Transformational Leadership and Instructional Leadership in education: Transformational leaders lead around a common vision; their focus tends to be on getting teachers and students to buy in and commit to that vision. Once they have the buy in, they turn their attention to creating an environment inContinue reading “Instructional vs. Transformational Leadership”
The End of the Story – Will Ferrell, Jim Stockdale, and Educators
There’s this movie with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, and Dustin Hoffman called Stranger than Fiction. Have you seen it? If not, you should watch it; it’s excellent. Will Ferrell is a character in a book that Emma Thompson is writing and there’s this interplay between her story and real life that is creative and thoughtContinue reading “The End of the Story – Will Ferrell, Jim Stockdale, and Educators”
What’s a Growth Mindset?
“If you started at a school where the teachers were not familiar with the concept of a ‘growth mindset’ how would you introduce the concept?” Someone posed this question to group of educators I’m part of. Growth mindset has been a hot topic in education recently. The concept is simple but profound. People with aContinue reading “What’s a Growth Mindset?”
Get Better
According to Steven Covey, the primary thing that separates great leaders from good leaders is simply “being an individual who can be trusted.” After making this claim, Covey lists and explains 13 behaviors that characterize a leader who can be trusted. When I talked through these high trust behaviors with a group of colleagues thisContinue reading “Get Better”
Values and Stories
I recently read an article written by business management guru Patrick Lencioni called “Make Your Values Mean Something.” Lancioni breaks values into 4 distinct categories in order to distinguish “Core Values” from other types of values that might distract an organization if they are wrongly deemed “Core.” “Core values,” he says, “are the deeply ingrainedContinue reading “Values and Stories”
Mr. Zerwas Teaches Here 