Peter DeWitt is the founder and CEO of the Instructional Leadership Collective. A former public school teacher and principal, he now facilitates professional learning in the United States and abroad based on the content of many of his best-selling educational books. Former superintendent Michael Nelson is a frequent contributor to this opinion blog. He is the co-leader of ILC and a former superintendent who has been an educator for more than 40 years.
Education
Opinion
Relationships: The Yin to Feedback's Yang
How can one sentence change the trajectory of student learning? It shows the power of feedback.
Professional Development
Opinion
If Coaching Is So Powerful, Why Aren't Principals Being Coached?
If instructional coaching is beneficial to teachers, shouldn't leadership coaching benefical to principals? Why aren't more principals doing it?
Education
Opinion
Standards-Based Learning: Why Do Educators Make It So Complex?
Educators have the odd habit of taking simple ideas and making them inexplicably complex. Standards based learning is one of them.
Education
Opinion
Teacher-Principal Relationships: Are We Building Bridges or Burning Them?
Too often in schools situations can help build walls and make teachers and leaders feel as though they're on opposite sides. There are a number of ways leaders and teachers can prevent that from happening.
Education
Opinion
Renegade Leadership: Making Change Realistic
We talk about change a lot, but it's often lofty and out of reach. How can we make change more realistic?
Education
Opinion
Poverty Matters, But Not the Way You Think
Research has shown us that poverty has a large impact on students. However, poverty actually has a more profound impact on schools and parents.
Education
Opinion
Actually, I Wasn't Listening to Anything You Said
Listening is one of the most important aspects to our learning, but many of us don't do it well, and we definitely could do it better with our students.
Education
Opinion
Consultant Confidential: We're Not Always Happy After Professional Development Either
Professional development gets a bad rap from time to time. Teachers and leaders aren't always happy after they leave, and truth be told, consultants aren't always happy when they leave either.
Education
Opinion
Think Online Videos Will Solve Your PD Problem? Think Again.
Twitter, YouTube, Podcasts, Pinterest, Khan Academy, TeacherTube, Facebook, and Google are existing repositories where educators are already freely sharing ideas and best practice. Do we really need more?
Education
Opinion
What Presidential Candidates, Brangelina, and Reality Television Mean for Education
We ask the question of why we don't have better candidates for president or why our friends would ever vote for a candidate we wouldn't. It's all tied up in our need to be entertained more than informed. Good news though, because we can change that in the classroom.
Education
Opinion
Why Do Students Think They Have to Be Perfect?
Why do students believe they have to be perfect. It doesn't necessarily come from within. It may be pushed on them from the adults around them.
Education
Opinion
Instructional Coaching: Finally, an Easy Choice
There are many reasons why instructional coaching is crucial to teacher development, and here are a few ways to do it well.
Education
Opinion
How to Build Compliance and Kill Collaboration
There's compliance and then there is over-compliance. Over compliance is built by chipping away at one's credibility and it starts one conversation at a time after the person leaves the room.
Education
Opinion
Are We Thinking About Growth Mindset Too Narrowly?
Are we thinking too narrowly about the growth mindset?