Posts by Gretchen Schultek Bridgers
How to Provide Models of Expert Teaching Through Coaching
Expert teaching should be accessible to students on a daily basis, but it should also be available for teachers. They need to see great teaching in action and hone their craft. It is one thing to learn instructional pedagogy and another to see it implemented live in front of students. Live teaching demonstrations allow teachers…
Read Full Post181: The Reward of Developing People
Being a teacher is more than just teaching content lessons. It is the life-giving work of an educator to develop the people in front of them every day. One way to do that is to provide appropriate challenge and support so that overtime students begin to rely on themselves to overcome hardships. Tune in to…
Listen to EpisodeConduct a Classroom Observation with Clarity & Precision
There is an art to conducting a classroom observation that fairly depicts a teacher’s performance in the classroom. Nothing is more frustrating for a teacher than having an outsider watch you teach for a small snippet of time, come to a conclusion about your instructional proficiency and then put that rating score in your permanent…
Read Full Post180: Classroom Resources with Leanne Stone
Leanne Stone is a former third grade teacher in Charlotte, NC who taught through Teach for America. Like most new teachers, Leanne found herself overwhelmed by the responsibilities and costs of creating new classroom materials and began to explore online materials to help her prepare for class. Leanne now coaches hundreds of teachers and school administrators through Teachers Pay Teachers, an…
Listen to EpisodeHow to Prepare as an Instructional Coach
If instructional coaches want to be successful in impacting teacher proficiency and student achievement in the classroom, they have to prepare. Just like teachers write lesson plans by studying and researching content, instructional coaches study too. They take notice of the habits of those they mentor. They research teaching best practices to model and develop…
Read Full Post179: Leadership like Rock, Paper… Pencil
As teacher leaders, we have many pencils in our lives that need our attention to be sharpened so that their talents come to fruition. But if we do not provide the paper so that these pencils can develop and create their masterpieces, then it’s all for not. Tune in to hear an inspiring analogy from…
Listen to EpisodeCoaching Cycle- What is it and How Do I Conduct One?
A coaching cycle puts a framework in place to ensure teachers are improving in the classroom so that students can too. If you are new to the role of an instructional coach or want more clarity on what you could be doing to better help teachers, this blog post will outline how to successfully set up…
Read Full Post178: Leverage Your Surroundings
As leaders, we sometimes think we have to know and be able to do everything. The truth is, were only need to know of people and things to help us along the way. Tune in to hear 3 ways you can leverage your surroundings so that you can maximize your influence in helping teachers. Quotables…
Listen to EpisodeDon’t Underestimate the Power of Simple Math
Being an upper elementary teacher for a decade, I realized that no matter how hard the math concepts became for students to grasp, they seemed to still struggle with the foundational math skills of addition and subtraction, what I refer to as ‘simple math.’ Why? I can’t be quite sure, but I can make an…
Read Full Post177: Developing Good Students into Great Humans
As educators we have a daily duty to help our students develop into their potential, both in life and academia. In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., this episode focuses on how his prolific words ring true in our classroom practices to ensure our students can be kind and do good each and every day.…
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