This blog is about the work, the gap, and the mission. The work is teaching. Whether you read as a coach or an admin or a superintendent or a teacher, what we want is for teaching to be as great as it can be. We believe there’s an inherent nobility to teaching, as well as […]
Exploring Our Unexplored Weaknesses
The Mensch [teacher] has a tremendous willingness to learn from everything and everyone. He or she seeks feedback and is not blindsided by unexplored weaknesses. — Bruna Martinuzzi, The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow, p. 54 To be the kind of teacher from whom great teaching tends to […]
The Teacher as a Mensch
To be called a Mensch is the greatest compliment one can give you. –Bruna Martinuzzi, The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow, p. xiv Every time I pick up Bruna Martinuzzi’s little book, The Leader as a Mensch, I’m given a mark that’s well out in front of me. […]
The Positive Parent Phone Call
Armed with the following, it’s possible that a three-minute phone call can make your year with a given student. You just need: a specific thing/event/anecdote that you appreciate about the student in question; the right “bent” — humility, appreciation — for working well with parents (a whole post on that here); and a working phone […]
Sane Educators = A Good Strategy
If you settle on the idea that the point of schools is the long-term flourishing of kids, you get to explore all kinds of interesting territory — in your own practice and in your teams (department, PLC, school). The opportunities for earnest and amicable professional arguments — loaded, of course, with paraphrasing and evidence and encouragement […]
