November 11, 2026
Why the Current System Does Not Produce Change
Most schools have the infrastructure for the SEEING work. We have observation protocols.
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What Coaching Actually Has to Do
Here is what I learned: You cannot change what happens in classrooms with one walkthrough and a data meeting. I tried.
Read the entryOctober 28, 2026
Why We Miss It
Here is the challenge: Most leaders have never been trained to look for cognitive effort. We have been trained to look for other things.
Read the entryOctober 21, 2026
What Deep Thinking Actually Looks Like
If you want to know whether students are thinking, you have to know what thinking looks like. It is not quiet.
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October 14, 2026
The Opportunity in the Failure
There is a moment in Dungeons and Dragons where one character tells another: "The minute we stop failing is the minute we fail.
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October 7, 2026
Ninety-Five Percent
You want to know what shocked me most during those 1,200 classroom observations? It was not the bad teaching.
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September 7, 2026
Turning Evidence Into Insight
You're sitting with a stack of data. Student assessment results.
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September 2, 2026
First Month Back—From Conference Energy to Sustainable Culture
August is almost over. School starts next week.
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August 31, 2026
Why Iteration Beats Perfection
You're working with a teacher on deeper questioning. She tries it Monday.
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August 26, 2026
Coaching Responsibly in the Age of AI—Helping Teachers Think It Through
A teacher stops you in the hallway. "So how do we actually use AI in our classrooms?
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August 24, 2026
Reflection as an Instructional Leadership Practice
A teacher sends you an email. "I tried the open ended questioning like we talked about.
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August 17, 2026
Evidence That Helps Us Learn, Not Just Perform
You're in your third week of classroom visits. You're watching teachers try new things.
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August 12, 2026
Installing Collective Collaboration—Building the System That Works
You're sitting in your first leadership team meeting of the year. Everyone is back.
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July 27, 2026
Coaching Toward Purposeful Learning—First Classroom Visits
You're doing your first classroom visits of the year. Teachers are setting up their rooms.
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July 22, 2026
Learning Happens in Cycles, Not Workshops
You're planning your professional learning for next year. You have a budget.
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July 16, 2026
Why Professional Development Rarely Transfers to Practice
You're sitting in a Tuesday afternoon PD session. A presenter is sharing research on formative assessment.
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July 13, 2026
Designing Learning That Lives in Classrooms
It's June. You're planning professional learning for next year.
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July 6, 2026
The Myth of the One-Time Training
You've probably heard it. "We're bringing in an expert next month.
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June 15, 2026
Clarity Is a Form of Care
A teacher sits down with her evaluation. The principal has marked her as "developing" on student centered instruction.
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June 8, 2026
What Does Good Instruction Actually Look Like?
A principal is observing a classroom. The lesson is well organized.
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June 1, 2026
Making Instructional Expectations Visible
A principal watches a lesson. Students are working on a math task.
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May 27, 2026
When Leaders Stop Answering and Start Asking
There's a moment that happens in many leadership conversations. A teacher brings a problem to a principal.
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May 25, 2026
Why Vague Goals Create Anxiety
A school sets a goal: "Improve writing across the grades. " It's a good goal.
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May 11, 2026
The One Question That Moves Practice Forward
Sometimes a single question changes everything. A teacher has been teaching a unit the same way for five years.
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May 4, 2026
How Leadership Language Shapes Teacher Risk Taking
There's a moment in many classrooms where a student raises their hand and offers an idea. It's not exactly right.
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April 27, 2026
Questions That Open Thinking vs. Questions That Shut It Down
Not all questions are created equal. Some questions open minds.
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April 22, 2026
When Teachers Own the Question, Learning Accelerates
A teacher sits in a faculty meeting. Someone from central office announces a new initiative.
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April 20, 2026
Shifting From Buy-In to Shared Responsibility
A principal spends six weeks trying to build buy in for a new approach. She presents data.
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April 15, 2026
The Problem Elmore Named in 2000 That Most Schools Are Still Living in 2026
Richard Elmore didn't mince words. In his monograph Building a New Structure for School Leadership , he argued that the single greatest barrier to improving student performance wasn't funding, wasn't curriculum, and wasn't teacher quality.
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April 13, 2026
What is Micro-Inquiry? The teaching approach that puts curiosity before content delivery
Most lessons start with the answer. Micro-Inquiry flips that and research shows it changes everything about how students engage.
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April 6, 2026
Inquiry as a Leadership Move, Not a Teacher Task
There's a fundamental misunderstanding about inquiry in schools. Most schools treat it as a teaching strategy.
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March 30, 2026
Why Ownership Can't Be Mandated
A principal sends out a memo: "Teachers are now responsible for student learning outcomes. We'll be tracking progress monthly.
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March 23, 2026
From Fixing Scores to Understanding Instruction
The moment feels urgent. Scores are down.
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March 16, 2026
Naming the Right Challenge Changes Everything
There's a moment in improvement work where everything shifts. It's not when you collect data.
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March 11, 2026
Turning Student Results Into Practice Questions
A principal gets fourth grade math assessment data. Students are struggling with multi step word problems.
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March 4, 2026
Why Outcomes Are the Wrong Place to Start
A school administrator sits down with her team to look at end of year reading assessment data. Third grade is down three percentage points from last year.
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January 28, 2026
The Conditions We Design Become the Culture We See
A principal implements a planning template. Comprehensive, thoughtful, well-intentioned.
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January 21, 2026
Why Adding More Rarely Improves Instruction
A school adopts a new literacy program. Comprehensive.
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January 14, 2026
A Leadership Pause: What Output Will This Create?
By now in January, you've implemented several things. A new meeting structure.
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January 1, 2026
Inputs Are Leadership Decisions: Why the Conditions We Design Shape the Learning We See
Instructional leadership is filled with constant decisions. What to introduce.
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