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
If Schools Had a Relationship Status, It Would Be 'It's Complicated'
Schools are sometimes like hoarders. They keep collecting stuff and don't get rid of the things they don't need.
Education
Opinion
Collaboration: Are You Compelled or Repelled?
Collaboration is quite the buzz word. Are you compelled or repelled by collaboration?
Student Achievement
Opinion
Why Don't Schools Accelerate More Students?
We always think students need to be retained, but never that they need to be accelerated because they have already mastered key concepts.
Education
Opinion
My Bad: Why We Need to Talk About Our Shortcomings
Mistakes, errors, misjudgments...whatever you want to call them are an important part of our learning. In a show called My Bad, we get the opportunity to hear form teachers and leaders about their greatest mistakes and what they learned form them.
Education
Opinion
Magic Bullets and Sacred Cows
Not every old method is bad. Not every new initiative is good. Rather than holding on to sacred cows or embracing magic bullets, we need to work together within our schools to figure out what is best for the students we teach.
Education
Opinion
What's in a Goal?
We know that schools are filled with teachers and students who have a low level of self-efficacy, because they don't feel like their goals matter. One way to make them better is to have dialogue around them and write them down. We should all feel like our goals matter.
Education
Opinion
7 Ways to Break Bad Blended Learning
What separates transformative teachers, schools, and districts from those stuck in the routines of the past? The country's best blended teachers have uncovered these commonalities.
Education
Opinion
Is Your Parent Engagement Authentic or Compliant?
Communication between schools and parents can sometimes be very one-sided, which makes it more compliant engagement than authentic. There are at least 5 things to think about when it comes to parental engagement to make it more authentic than compliant.
Education
Opinion
5 Ways to Foster a Positive School Climate
Schools are still consumed by test scores when they should really be consumed by making sure they have a positive school climate. Here are five things they should focus on to get there.
Education
Opinion
Leading Impact Teams: 5 Keys to Developing Rock Star Teams
We hear a lot about collaboration, but many teams don't function well together. Here are 5 keys to building rockstar teams.
Education
Opinion
Who Knows What's Best for Students?
Social media offers us a plethora of opportunities to chase after silver bullets that may or may not help us with our issues. Sometimes we need to take a big step back first and ask, "Who knows what's best for students?"
Education
Opinion
21 Women All K-12 Educators Should Know
There are many exceptional female leaders in the world of education, and here are 21 who are doing extraordinary work in education.
Education
Opinion
The Benefits of Failure
In this post on the benefits of failure that originally appeared on January 8th, 2012, Peter wrote, "When looked at correctly, failure can teach us where we went wrong in the first place, and how we can learn to pick ourselves up again in a pursuit to succeed."
Education
Opinion
Why Educators Should Join Twitter
Twitter offers connections, professional development, and the opportunity to find engaging resources for the classroom. In this post that originally appeared in 2011, Peter explains why educators should join Twitter.