Search results for: lesson design

Do you need quick “get to know you” ideas to implement into your professional development sessions for teachers? It might seem silly to play a game or plan an activity for staff to mingle and chat prior to diving into learning.  But in order for teachers to get the most out of a professional development…

Succeeding in the classroom can be tricky. There is so much to learn, little time to learn it, and not much feedback when you try it out on your own. To make matters worse, everywhere you turn, there is advice for what the new best thing is to incorporate into your teaching methods. Where is…

Were you prepared to start your first year in the classroom? I know I wasn’t. I went to a four year college to receive my bachelor’s degree in Education. And yet, I wasn’t prepared to take on my first year. I learned a lot of theory and history with very little practical application. I had…

Just like a teacher sets up a classroom, an instructional coach needs to set up their coaching space. The process is very similar in terms of what you must consider about those you lead, whether it be students or teachers. Not every coaching space is identical in size and shape. Most commonly, instructional coaches utilize…

The summer is the perfect time to prepare for the upcoming school year.  There are 2.5 months, on average, where teachers are able to work at their own pace gathering ideas and preparing their classroom for instruction in the fall. The following 10 tips are tried-and-true strategies veteran teachers use to prepare for the upcoming…

Teacher leaders are often creating professional development [PD] sessions for the staff that they lead. These PD sessions historically have been meetings that are lengthy, rarely applicable, and have a “sit and get” mentality. This is an ineffective way to equip teachers with instructional best practices and knowledge of current pedagogy. Teachers need opportunities to…

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…

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…

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…