Happy October! Long-term readers of the Coaching Letter will know that I try and write something about goals every year at around this time. Goal-setting is, I think, one of the most poorly understood constructs in education. So this Coaching Letter is a re-hash of several previous CLs, especially Coaching Letter #91. Goals are not an unmitigated good. There is an article in HBR that is about the danger of confusing metrics with strategy—that paying too much attention to the target
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Hello, I hope this finds you well. Thank you for subscribing to The Coaching Letter. You rock. This is a great time of year to be in New England, my family is happier and healthier than we have been since the start of the pandemic and maybe even before, and I have fascinating work with terrific people, so my life is good. Thank you to everyone who responded to my last Coaching Letter—some of those emails were quite unexpected and
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Good morning, I hope this finds you well. I know many of you just started the new school year, and many are just about to start. I know exactly that particular combination of anxiety, nervous energy, optimism and joy that accompanies the beginning of school. May all your best hopes transpire. I am writing this in the dining car of an Amtrak just south of Jacksonville, and the guy two booths down is singing along, loudly and stereotypically off-key, to
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Hello, I hope you are well and that you are reading this after you get back from vacation. This Coaching Letter is ONLY about the tools that I use to keep myself organized and (more or less) productive. This is in response to multiple requests over the last few months—it’s not like I think I have a lock on productivity, but I have spent some time trying to figure out how to make apps & extensions work for me, because
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Good morning. Today is Day One of Milford’s HQI Live!, which for me is a Very Big Deal. I wrote about it the first year it took place, and this year it’s significantly more ambitious, with 100 teachers from across the district coming together to watch teachers teach real kids in real time, sandwiched between activities designed to engage adult learners on important questions about instructional practice (What is high quality instruction? What matters in giving and receiving feedback? What’s
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Hi, how are you, I hope you had a good Fourth of July weekend. I remember when it used to be a big deal for us to go someplace to watch fireworks, but now I’m just grateful for some time off. I had a great week last week with the Bridgeport Teacher Leaders; it was a great way to round out a very full and challenging year, and I am grateful for the thought and energy they invested, the support
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Good afternoon, I hope this finds you well. This Coaching Letter is a challenge to everyone currently involved with us in connection with action research/improvement science/continuous improvement (which is a lot of you!) OR anyone interested in getting a better idea of what I’m talking about when I write about action research/improvement science/continuous improvement (which must be everyone else?). It also, and perhaps just importantly, uses a familiar situation to teach the stages of continuous improvement. The challenge is to
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Hello, I hope this finds you well. Sorry it’s been such a while since the last Coaching Letter—I’ve been busy. This CL is a continuation of the last one, because it too is about critical thinking; but it is also a standalone piece about critical thinking in the curriculum. 2. Critical Thinking in the Curriculum. I asked in Coaching Letter #159 about where the traits listed in the Portrait of a Graduate (which all the districts I work with either have or are developing) actually show up in the curriculum.
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Hello, I hope you’re well. We are between the two big spring break weeks in Connecticut—almost everyone is on break either last week or next—so if that includes you I hope you get some rest and some sunshine. Remember to register for our Coaching In-Depth on May 18 and the Coaching Institute in September; not just for coaches—I am on a permanent campaign to convince leaders that they would be better leaders if they had coaching skills (which is different
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Hello, I hope you’re well, and before I forget I need to advertise that there are a few slots left for our coaching workshops—Coaching In-Depth on May 18 and the Coaching Institute in September, both in Madison, CT, facilitated by me and my BFF Kerry Lord. Don’t wait, they will sell out. My colleague Rydell and I spent the last few days at the Carnegie Summit in San Diego. The summit is an annual event hosted by the Carnegie Foundation
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