Here’s what I’d like to have instead of an instructional coach:
Instead of a coach…. an assistant*.
Yup. That’s right.
I want an assistant. Not actually an assistant for demos and teaching, although that could work. I want more of a, well, lab manager.
Last week, our superintendent announced her decision to modify the model under which our high school has operated for the past several years. We run as 4 small schools, courtesy of a Gates grant and other funding. Each small school has a principal, counselor, and central office staff. We will continue in 4 small schools as student/parent/staff surveys, dropout rates, and other sources support the model. We will lose our 4-principal structure. Instead, we will have one decision-making principal, and three assistant principals. The likely structure will show one head principal, two assistant principals in charge of 2 small schools each, and one assistant principal will be charge of learning and professional development. Who will do each job?
For kicks today, I looked at my site stats. I normally don’t bother checking, because I write here to document my thinking for myself, when I actually write anything. I looked at the search strings that brought people to my blog. Here’s a sample of what I found:
In a previous post, I described a scenario in which an administrator clearly did not understand the impact on student learning a teacher must demonstrate to renew National Board Certification. If you’re wondering, too, read on. And if you’re a renewal candidate, here are the files you’ve been looking for.
I’ve answered more than 100 emails this past week, asking for renewal help. As I write, there are almost 300 hits to this blog from searches for national board renewal help – just in the last month. As a result, I’ve decided to post a few items from the Renewal workshops I facilitate and a rationale for renewing.
Several years ago, I was introduced to a process designed to help students learn. 
The plan involved my colleagues and I doing some simple things in our classrooms, with our students, and then discussing the results of our work together and planning how to make learning even better. It’s no longer being used, and I’m sad. I have a few ideas about why it fell by the wayside.
I had the opportunity to view an important movie this week. I’ve seen it once before. Both times, I watched with a group of the finest educators I’ve ever met. The movie was especially hard-hitting for us because we’ve shared their journey, their tears, and their triumphs.
This post was inspired by a Twitter conversation with @GetUpStandUp2 and @kiwigirl58 in which I learned that Randi Weingarten,
John Dewey in 1902
I’ve just spent an exhausting, invigorating day with 36 of Washington State’s finest teachers.
This group of teachers, all National Board Certified, are in their eighth or ninth year following initial certification. In order to remain NBCTs, they are faced with the task of renewing their certificates. Most look forward to this process with residual fear and trembling from their initial certification experience. As one who completed the renewal process fairly early in its evolution, Washington Education Association asked me to develop a facilitation protocol and workshop to support NBCTs through the renewal process, so I did. And that’s where I was today. Here’s why it’s the best path to growing accomplished teachers. And here’s why it’s the very best renewal, ever.
This post has little to do with science, or education. It has everything to do with organizing my work, my students, and my life.
Every dataset has a story. We usually look only at the data and ignore the story. For example, according to my original findings, and as approved by my committee of esteemed researchers in education and science, I could make this statement:
Pre-service elementary teachers showed a statistically significant gain in their learning about the moon and teaching elementary students about the moon by inquiry.
And this supporting statement:
The study shows that pre-service teachers average gain scores from pre-test to post-test increased by 7 points on a 21-item test.
If this were taken as the only finding from my dissertation, these pre-service teachers obviously demonstrated significant learning. All is well.
But wait. (See below for the tl;dr version.)
