Transformational Coaching & Leadership

Early Literacy Podcast Appearance

Posted on by Kathy Collier

Taping a podcast is definitely a bit out of my comfort zone, and sharing it feels even more out of my comfort zone. However I’m trying to model productive struggle and risk taking for my students, so here it goes:

I’m excited to share my second appearance on a podcast!

This episode is with two people I respect greatly:

  • Superintendent Dr. Clardy and
  • Karyn Stocks Glover, Director of Teaching, Learning and Innovation.

I am honored to have been invited into this rich conversation. Thank you to Marcie Pfeifer-Soderbloom for facilitating!

In the Loop with the Sup: Early Literacy

Knoster’s Model of Change

Posted on by Kathy Collier

In a learning institution such as a school, we face many changes as we learn more about teaching and learning, as we gain insight about the genius each of our students brings to our community, and as we collaborate to find adaptive solutions to our puzzles of practice. In this post, I want to describe a model we have used in my school district to reflect on change and strive to support teachers as we engage in change processes. This model, developed by Hendrik Knoster, is called the Knoster Model.

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Strategies for Irregular High Frequency Words

Posted on by Kathy Collier

On September 30, I shared a strategy from Read Naturally for explicit instruction on regular high frequency words. Today I want to share strategies from research and my colleagues for systematic, explicit instruction around irregular high frequency words.

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Two New Strategies: Fluency and Phonics

Posted on by Kathy Collier

As I continue to deepen my knowledge of foundational skills to support reading and disciplinary literacy, I am grateful for resources such as the Teaching foundational reading skills Part 2 webinar I recently watched. It included many useful strategies, two of which are new to me and stand out as useful for others. In this post, I want to summarize these: Sound Out Words and Fluency Practice.

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Developing Strong Student to Student Partnerships

Posted on by Kathy Collier

As the school year begins, many of us are talking about how to build strong student to student partnerships in our classrooms. When students collaborate in effective partnerships, learning increases and a sense of belonging is nurtured. In this post, I want to share some partnership ideas.

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Envisioning Language

Posted on by Kathy Collier
This summer I had the privilege of attending part of a Responsive Classroom® training. This opportunity helped strengthen my understanding of how to nurture conditions that include the four domains of a responsive classroom: engaging academics, positive community, effective management, and developmentally responsive teaching. A key strategy to support all four domains is Envisioning Language. In this post I want to summarize some of what I learned about such language.

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Developing Collective Efficacy Through Inquiry

Posted on by Kathy Collier

Collective efficacy is the belief that a group of teachers can have a strong impact on student learning. According to Hattie’s meta-analysis, collective efficacy has an effect size of 1.57 which is nearly 4 times the .4 average effect size for one year. In this post, I would like to describe one way in which effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) can feel more efficacy as a group: the Collective Teacher Inquiry.

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Empower Students by Cultivating Agency

Posted on by Kathy Collier

My fourth article was published last week!

Empowering Students by Cultivating Agency

Thank you to all of you who have taken time to read the article and provide feedback. If you want to comment on the article you can do so here on my personal blog… or find the article on Twitter (Twitter Link).

Lessons While Traveling

Posted on by Kathy Collier

Over Spring Break, I flew to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit one of my sons, Jack, who is spending this semester at the University of Edinburgh. My sister, Colleen, joined me after flying in from her home in Oklahoma. Scotland exceeded my high expectations and traveling reminded me of some important life lessons. In this post, I want to share some of those lessons and how they connect to teaching.

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