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
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?
Education
Opinion
John Hattie's Research Doesn't Have to Be Complicated
John Hattie's research is often seen as complicated but it doesn't have to be. DeWitt explores the basics of Hattie's research, and how to go deeper, in this blog post.
Education
Opinion
Grit, Growth Mindsets, and Technology
We often want students to have grit or a "growth mindset" but we often lack it at the same time we are telling them to have it. Here are 3 ways to show our students what we want.
Education
Opinion
Leadership: It's Much More Than Doing Discipline and Blanket E-mails
Collaborative leadership is about working in partnership with those groups that are a part of the school community, and there are 6 influences based on the research of John Hattie to help get leaders there.
Teaching
Opinion
Last I Checked, Compliance Isn't a Learning Standard
How often do our students have to engage in compliant engagement rather than authentic engagement?
Education
Opinion
5 Keys to Achieving Deliberate Practice
Getting better at what you do can be achieved through deliberate practice. Here are 5 reasons how.
Education
Opinion
Why Can't Instructional Coaches Reinvent Themselves?
We always tell students to learn from their mistakes but it seems that we don't give the same courtesy to instructional coaches. Why is that? Here are five steps coaches can take to reinvent their program.
Education
Opinion
Observation: Can We Stop The One And Done?
Teacher observation has been a waste of time for many leaders and teachers. Instead of looking at observation as a 1 and done, we need to look at it as a cycle, and this blog helps explain how to do it.
Education
Opinion
3 Collaboration Tools and Tips for Education Leaders
Providing opportunities for teachers to interact with collaborative tools can help them brainstorm ideas for their own instructional goals. So why don't more leaders do it?
Education
Opinion
What Are the Best Strategies for Surface to Deep Learning?
We hear a lot about surface to deep learning. In this blog, Peter DeWitt explains the different between the two citing a recently released paper by John Hattie and Gregory Donoghue which explores the two levels of learning and what specific strategies go with them.