Guest Blog: It’s Not Personal
“There’s a fight in the library!” It’s 2 pm, and Chelsea is standing on the faded asphalt, yelling. Our principal, Ms. Benjamin, shoots up from her desk and pops out her door onto the quad, wondering how a fight could possibly be happening in our “library,” a bookshelf-lined freight container with barely enough room to […]
Letter to a New Teacher
I recently received the following email from a career-changer who was beginning their first year of teaching. It got me thinking about the kinds of things new teachers should consider and ideas that even veteran teachers should revisit once in a while. Letters like this one demonstrate the commitment that teachers have to improving their […]
A Paradigm Shift to Transformative Coaching
During my tenure as a special education teacher and district coach, I thought I’d seen almost everything. I was an instructional manager supporting the special education reform in New York City public schools for 1.1 million students. I then supervised the implementation of a coaching credentialing program for over 300 coaches in Broward County Public […]
For What?
When I am brainstorming ideas about how to support educators or youth… one of the questions that is simple, sometimes infuriating, but always important is “For what?” While simple, this question always takes me back to purpose and objective. Why am I doing this? Will it support our associates better at CT3? Can we make […]
Why I Quit Special Ed…and Am Proud of It.
As a special educator, I dedicated my career to advocating, supporting, and loving my students. Students who not only needed someone to believe in them, but someone to help others see just how much they had to offer. I began my career as a special education teacher, behavior specialist, and diagnostician. I eventually progressed to […]
The Complexity of Nurturing and Showing We Care
Effective educators profoundly understand that “nurturing” scholars means demonstrating “care.” Many teachers may misunderstand “care” as unconditional praise, downshifting expectations for scholars…
The Power of Positive Narration
Positive Narration is the act of focusing on what students are doing correctly and openly saying those things aloud to help motivate students and provide a more positive classroom culture. Don’t underestimate the role of positive narration and its range of influence on establishing, developing, and maintaining positive and productive classroom culture and climate. Below […]
It’s Not the Students…It’s Us.
It’s not the students. It’s us. The evidence from CT3’s work suggests that educators formulate their cultural responsiveness through connections with the people, places and experiences that reciprocate value. If we do not value the output we are getting from students and our coaches do not push us to own our areas of growth, students can […]
I’m a Better Teacher Now Than I’ve Ever Been…
I teach everything from kids with horrifically unfortunate home lives to those with two parents and who live in million dollar homes (in my area that’s a very fine home). We serve them all and we love them all, not that it’s always easy. Especially for struggling teachers. Teachers in their first few years often […]
Coach’s Corner: School’s (Always) In Session
Here we are at the end of July and summer is again flying by. Since my very first year teaching, the thing I hated to hear most from non-educators was, “Wow, summers off. Good for you.” Well, I never actually figured out how to have a summer “off”. I always had graduate classes, taught summer […]
