"Being a peer leader poses unique challenges, but also offers unexpected advantages. In the following pages, I explore five understandings that skillful team leaders (STLs) have about peer leadership." - Intentional Moves.
"There are certain fundamental questions that plague educational practice, none more perplexing than: How do we know specifically THAT something has been accomplished; exactly HOW was it carried out; and WHAT should we do to make it better the next time?"
A growing body of work has pointed to the use of data to inform decisions concerning the level of students’ growth and achievement made by states, school districts, school administrators, teachers, and the broader community. However, one could say that a “faceless glut” of data is both a political and a systemic pathological problem facing educators almost everywhere. With so much information available,
“Successful gardeners know when to use a rake versus a hoe. School leaders must approach supervision in this same manner, understanding which tool will yield the best results.”
Chapter 1 of Confronting the Crisis of Engagement lays out the essential nature of relationships; the components of safe and meaningful relationships; common mistakes in relationship building; student leadership; and establishing, restoring, and maintaining staff relationships.
"Think about two leaders in your professional life, one with strong credibility and one without. Did you choose to follow the one without strong credibility?"
Emotional regulation for students begins with learning the names of emotions and matching those labels to how they are feeling; the zones of regulation and the wheel of emotion in The Social-Emotional Learning Playbook can aid this process.
Module 1 of The Social-Emotional Learning Playbook, Building on Strengths for Resilience, includes background, important vocabulary, and beginning with the self.
Use this strength-focused question list from The Social-Emotional Learning Playbook to ensure students are able to learn about their own individual strengths.
The cessation of overtly racist practices is not enough to halt the effects of racism. We need, in the words of Ibram X. Kendi, to become antiracists—as teachers, school leaders, parents, and community members.
How do teachers, students, parents, school leaders, and admin-istrators build an antiracist school system?
What we all need is time to focus and cut down on the noise. We need time to breathe and engage in conversations that focus on deeper impact...but we won’t get that time back until we begin taking some things off our plates.