Understanding the student experience is key to designing culturally relevant instruction. Our students know best what works for them. By seeking student feedback, we empower them and build stronger relationships. In this post, I want to describe how the Equity Transformation Cycle described in Street Data has helped me think more deeply about my students. It has helped me feel more creativity and curiosity about teaching.
Street Data
The Importance of Story and Deep Listening
As a teacher and as an instructional coach, I’ve tried to improve my listening skills. It is such a gift when one feels deeply listened to and I strive to provide this for others. Deep listening continues to be a goal for me. I have always been intrigued by the power of telling stories. In classrooms making space for, and deeply listening to students’ stories, insight, and feedback is critical. In this blog I want to highlight some of the ideas in Chapter 4 of Street Data as they relate to listening. Continue reading “The Importance of Story and Deep Listening”
Empower Students by Cultivating Agency
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).
Coaching Partnership Tools: Part I
As I engage in mid-year reflection on my goals as an instructional coach, I would like to share some of the tools I use to plan and engage in coaching meetings. I call these coaching meetings “partnership meetings” because both my colleague and I are learning together. It is my job, as a coach, to reflect on, and plan for the conversations. Intentional planning focuses on ensuring that conversations focus on my colleague’s goals and priorities, while centering students, especially our formerly marginalized students. In this post, and an upcoming part two, I want to summarize some useful coaching tools. Continue reading “Coaching Partnership Tools: Part I”
Data Protocols
Over the past few weeks we have engaged in data talks at my school and several colleagues from other sites have asked me to share effective protocols for data talks. Ever since I began developing my facilitation and coaching skills, protocols have intrigued me. Not only do protocols provide structure and a predictable, transparent routine, but they also can be intentionally designed to support asset-based and equity-rich conversations. In this post I want to share some of what I have learned and, as always, I hope to learn from reader suggestions and feedback.
Student Agency, Feedback, and Voice
Last year, I wrote about Pedagogy of Voice, as described in Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation. This weekend I am rereading the Pedagogy of Voice chapter: Redefine “Success” and striving to go deeper into the content. In this post, I want to share some of the passages that are standing out the most, and why.
A Framework for Developing Agency
Last week a group of colleagues and I were asked to write our definition of transformational coaching. Some words and phrases that came up include: genius, joy, impact, empower, authenticity and relevance, learners feeling seen and heard, reflection, belief that students can be successful, and ways of being. Later in the week, when a Leadership Team at my school further explored the Agency Framework discussed in Street Data, I was primed to see the tool in a new way.
“If we believe that every student is… a complex, layered human with endless potential, brilliance, and access to community cultural wealth-we can choose a pedagogy of voice that transforms everything from our classrooms to our adult cultures to our policies.” – Safir and Dugan in Street Data
In this post I want to summarize what Safir and Dugan say about the Agency Framework and share some ways in which it can be enacted in an elementary school.
Pedagogy of Voice
Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation is a text I highly recommend! I cannot put the book down and know that it is going to drive much of my coaching and continuous improvement work around equity next year. In this post I want to highlight a section of the book on Pedagogy of Voice. This section connects to my past four posts on feedback.