Should we teach students to track the speaker?
Teachers often insist that it doesn’t matter if the student is tracking or looking at the speaker. “I can listen and not look at you,” are the words that made me stop and pause. The 25-year veteran teacher was absolutely right. She could listen without looking at me, as we were only 12 inches apart. […]
The Food Network…Effective Teacher PD?
As a busy mom with a full time job that requires travel, I hardly have time to watch much television, but when I do, it’s always the Food Network. In fact, one of our favorite “Family Friday Fun Night” activities is for our kids to snuggle in bed with us and watch the fast paced […]
Relationship Management 101: “Your students don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
There are few statements that so simply and succinctly communicate the critical role that a teacher’s investment in their students plays in securing trust and cooperation. Students can and will put forth their best effort to meet and/or exceed whatever expectations we clearly establish as long as they believe that we truly value and care […]
Record Yourself to Improve Your Practice
by Joe Gaston. Originally posted on Edutopia.org. “I took a speech class one semester when I was in undergraduate school. For our first assignment we had to give a short speech that the teacher videotaped. Our extended assignment was to watch the recording and critique our performance. That proved to be a very eye-opening experience […]
Raising My Children Using the No-Nonsense Nurturer® 4-Step Model
Often, while supporting coaches and principals in schools across the country, I am asked the question, “Kara, do you use the 4-step model at home with your own children?” My response is an overpowered and elated “YES”! My oldest son now tells me when that I can’t give him a consequence or reward when I […]
Guest Blog: How do Students Know You Care?
Building relationships with my students is the crux of the culture in my classroom. My students know that I love them deeply, and because of that love, I will accept nothing but their absolute best and I will push until we both feel like they have reached their best, and then perhaps a little bit […]
We Don’t Wait, We Narrate!
A short time ago, I had the privilege of supporting a Real Time Teacher Coach (RTTC) as she was conducting a Baseline Observation in a middle-school classroom for an upcoming RTTC session. During our time in the classroom, when pressing for 100% of her scholars’ attention, I remember hearing the teacher say, “We have almost […]
Guest Blog: One Classroom, One Teacher
I’ve previously written that student behavior is not personal. This is true. Pressure from students’ outside lives can erupt in class. Unprocessed grief can become disruption. Unfelt anger can become a refusal to participate. It’s important that we as teachers recognize the many external factors that can influence behavior inside a classroom. While students do […]
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 […]
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 […]
