This is so important that the students were able to learn and experience this. We can't simply tell them; they need to experience it.

This is important to distinguish-- growth CAN happen for everyone with the right supports and access to the education. This does not mean that every student will achieve the same level of intelligence or success, but they can grow and have success.

I hear these statements all of the time!

This is so important. I feel like assumptions about this statement right here is what hinders a lot of communication. It is easy to make judgements about others and their willingness to have an open mind. And because of that, we cater our conversation to that preconcieved notion.

This really resonates with me because I do things like this all of the time. I work out all the details in my head, and I get frustrated when I do not get the response I anticipated. This, then, leads to an unproductive use of the time. My goal this year will be to take the time to get to know what every person might be thinking or feeling, and allow for true dialogue and collaboration to happen.

This reminds me of an article I read called "When Nice Won't Suffice" that touched on this exact idea. I often struggle with this-- I desperately want to avoid conflict, but what I am realizing is that often I make my own conclusions about what I think is going to be the outcome of a conversation, and work to totally avoid all conflict, when in reality, it is not fair for me to decide how people are going to react without giving them a chance.

What a powerful statement. This is so true. No matter how well we feel that we listen, and how good we feel our intentions are, we need to practice what we preach by valuing the opinions of others and working to understand them.

I love this example of how a teacher was able to feel heard and respected, and in the end, learned something about herself and was able to better help her students! Using this strategy of dialogue allows the teacher to really consider their actions and collaborate to make necessary changes.

I feel like this would be so powerful! I am realizing how amazing it is that our instructional coach works with our team of instructional leaders (who are active classroom teachers) to design, try out, and build our professional development for our school.

I feel like this is an experience for many teachers-- they tried something new, got burned or had it fail so colossally that they gave up trying to make changes. As leaders, it is so important to consider this mindset because I feel-- at least in my school-- that this mindset is present for A LOT of teachers. Shifting the culture to a more positive and accepting place can help mitigate these feelings and allow for other teachers to be okay with failing sometimes, yet still being willing to try something new!

These are definitely all reasons that a person might focus less on improving/changing/adpating as a teacher and shift into merely surviving.

It is extremely difficult to mitigate the stress around factors of security and survival-- I wonder if, as we consider the relationship between teaching tasks and security/survival, teachers might increase their focus on teaching tasks and student improvement?

getting to learn through practice and experience is so important-- this is why jobs often do "on the job" training-- you can only tell someone so much, but if they can't experience it and learn through mistakes and successes, then they won't be able to "crystallize" that learning

self-direction allows people to work at their own pace and focus on what they need rather than being told what they need. There is such a difference between recognizing a need for change rather than being told to change.

This is a really interesting theory-- I never considered how people respond to change can impact their knowledge. This is important to consider when working with teachers-- especially because leaders are often asking them to make some kind of change.

This is such a powerful idea. As a parent myself, I have become more and more aware of what is being said and how it is being portrayed because in reality, so many adolescents are hearing things (in or out of context) and processing those things on their own because they did not know how to talk about it. This can create so many conflicting emotions and misconceptions about things like race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

This is so important though. So many people do not know how to have these conversations.

This is exactly why I encourage others to always be willing to change. I have heard many teachers argue that they don't want to change what they teach because they have become such experts at what they do, but I am always working to challenge them to consider what needs to improve, what needs to change? Much of our materials, resources, and curriculum is outdated, and while there is no doubt that they may be teaching it well and with expertise, moving forward is so much more important to make it more relevant and accessible to students.

This has really sparked some ideas for me for leading my department at the beginning of the year and working with student teachers. I think that being transparent about our goals for the year, as well as, allowing teachers to reflect on what they need is some important. It allows everyone to have a voice and the ability to create direction for learning throughout the year

It seems like such a simple concept: if people trust you, they will do anything you ask. The real challenge is building the trust.

This is so powerful-- to have a stance that makes clear you are non-judgemental. This ties in well to the importance of transparency trust. People should be able to trust that you will do what you say, and in turn, can further trust you because they do not feel judged when they interact with you. I love that!

I never really thought about it this way. When working with the TC's in my school, I often do this to some level: I observe, ask them what they think went well and could have gone better, and then I offer my suggestions. It never occured to me that the way I do it may seem like I am in a superior role to them.

Much of this conversation is based on a deficit-based mindset: what happened is a problem that needs to be fixed, and it can entirely be blamed on the thing that changed. If Jane's supervisor was more aware of his mindset heading into the conversation, things could have gone completely differently. I can imagine that it is difficult, however, to maintain an asset-based mindset in a system that is largely focused on problems that need to be fixed.

While this has been a huge push in education, I feel that leaders are often not challenging or addressing when adults are not actively working toward equity in schools. This is a really important thing to consider-- even if the conversation is uncomfortable, we cannot make traction toward equity in schools if all teachers and staff are not on board.

This is huge! I feel like so often the excuse is, "well their heart was in the right place at least." However, so often that impact-- even if the intent was not to cause harm-- can still be harm. Becoming more aware of the possible outcomes may help to mitigate this.

It is unfortunate that this happens-- but it can be so true. Teaching is a hard profession, and it can be easy to slip into this negative view. It is important to always remember your why, and the hope is that it can help you continue to grow!

It is scary to think that in this scenario, after two years of school, a student still has not shown growth.

This is really interesting information. I mean, it all makes complete sense to me that highly effective teachers will have a greater impact on student learning, but seeing the numbers laid out like this is very eye opening. I wonder how research like this would be recieved amongst preservice teachers, or even to a whole staff?

Sometimes I can feel this way when I jump back into teaching my own students after having had a student teacher take over the class for a little while. I have to navigate behavioral and structural nuances and I have noticed a lot of learning has happened for me in these scenarios!

This is a very insteresting concept-- In our classrooms, we ask our students often to engage in this model to gain expertise, so it makes sense that it works the same as we become adults and are learning and evolving through our careers.

I really like the idea of having a "desire to learn." In a position like this, it would be foolish to think that we have all the answers. If leaders aren't willing to learn themselves, how can we expect to move forward?

This is such an essential part of being a leader in any capacity. Without showing your own willingness to change, how could someone ever expect to see others do it?

What an interesting perspective. So often it seems like people are trying to find a place of satisfaction amongst all the craziness of teaching. It makes sense, though, that as soon as we grow complacent, that means that we should be looking to move forward again.

As a coach, you have to lead by example. If you are asking others to learn without being willing to learn yourself, it is too hard to gain traction.

This is SO important! I am always looking for ways to encourage people to want to change. Planting those seeds and seeing success is an important step in the process!

I feel that this role is my strength.

The school that I did my student teaching at had two coaches: a data coach and an instructional specialist. I really liked having both because I feel that there is SO much that can be done for both of those roles. Being the only coach at a school feels like they have to wear A LOT of hats

I cannot imagine working in a school without an instructional coach!

This is so important for schools. So often, it feels like the focus shifts from year to year, and keeping aligned with the school's vision helps to create momentum toward the goal because we are always working toward a common goal

How do we get teachers to truly want and seek this kind of feedback? Individualized attention like this is proven to be effective for both students AND teachers, but how do we grow a desire for teachers to get support like this? Student teachers are in a position where they know that observations are coaching is a part of the process, but will that desire for feedback continue once they are out of the school phase of their teaching?

This is how coaches can often get a negative reputation. I know that at my school many teachers are resistant to having an instructional coach or instructional leader come in to their classroom because they feel that they are being evaluated. Additionally, I find this balance difficult to manage when working with student teachers. They often ask for feedback, ask what they need to fix, but I still want to take a coaching stance so that they can be a part of the growth process.

This reminds me a lot of the impact cycle. I like how there is so much room for transparency and collaboration in this process. I further like how the role of the coach is to guide the teacher to growth without pre-planning what the growth is going to look like. It makes the experience authentic for everyone!

I like to compare this to coaching a sport. Athletes who don't join a team or work with a coach are not nearly as successful, so why then, would that not apply to a profession? When we are working toward a collective goal and recieiving guidance toward that goal, we can absolutely be more successful and "win."

It is so interesting how we have more ways than ever to communicate, yet those are the things that are hindering our ability to communicate.

Collaboration is so key in these types of relationships! So much more gets done when multiple people are working to come up with ideas and/or solve problems!

This feels a lot like clearly defining success criteria. If people don't understand why they are doing something and what success looks like, the overall effort may be wasted.

I love this quote! Lead by example.

Teaching becomes less of a job and more of a passion when we are constantly changing and evolving! :)

Utlimately, as a teacher, we should be thinking beyond ourselves and whether or not we are reaching this nebulous standard of being a "good teacher". Instead, we should focus on whether or not what we're doing has a positive impact on students and their success. That is what truly defines who we are as teachers.

I like the distinction between transformational and instructional. These are two entirely different concepts, and some people may need one or the other, or both. It would be hard for one person to do both of these at the same time, but it seems that most leaders have to.

Sometimes mandating certain things might be essential. While the hope is that all teachers will implement what is truly best for students with fidelity, it seems that sometimes things do need to be presented as non-negotiables. Especially when those initiatives are tied to student success.

I like the idea of thinking about these factors separately. The impact varies depending on the lens, and considering them as separate entities allows research to dive more deeply into each category and consider interventions and changes that can be made at each level.

If the argument is that schools have little impact on student achievement, then what does have a major impact on student achievement? Without public schools creating a bridge of opportunity for the achievement gap, then how do students become more successful?

It is interesting the power that one study holds in education. I wonder what other studies exist, if any?

This is a difficult baseline to overcome as schools are working to create equity in education. Especially since one of the major challenges is overcoming the public's negative view of what is actually happening in schools on a day to day basis. Furthermore, this creates not only a deficit based perspective of impacted groups in education, but also creates that same view in society. To impact the future, we can teach and model asset-based mindset to support more forward thinking.

I wonder how we can encourage early teachers to see beyond the stress and overwhelming nature of first becoming a teacher?