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
Students Can Learn From Their Mistakes If We Let Them
John Hattie says that teachers answer 40 to 50% of the questions they ask students in the classroom. Why do we do that? How can we change?
Education
Opinion
Instructional Coaches: How Do You Evaluate Your Impact?
Instructional coaching is revered by some and misunderstood by others. However, just like any educator, instructional coaches have to be able to prove their impact...or they may find themselves out of a job.
Education
Opinion
John Hattie's 10th Mindframe for Learning
Adults invest a great deal of time and energy into practices that will help them shift their Mindframes at home. John Hattie has 10 mindframes that will help teachers and students shift their thinking at school.
Education
Opinion
Lack of Collaboration? Maybe It's You
It's easy for us to look at a parent, student or colleague who doesn't want to engage with us, and blame them for the lack of engagement. However, before we do that we need to look at how we are approaching them and see if there is something we can change within our approach.
Education
Opinion
Mindful School Leadership: The Well-Focused Leader
How do school leaders use mindfulness to help them become less distracted?
Education
Opinion
2 Technology Tools That Will Help Change Your Impact
It's Connected Educator Month, and two of the best tools around can help transform the way leaders lead, teachers teach, and students learn.
Education
Opinion
3 Ways to Teach Less and Learn More
Teachers are working harder than their students. Here are 3 ways to teach less and learn more.
Education
Opinion
5 Questions to Ask a CEO Before a District Takeover
Youngstown used to be a boomtown, and now politicians see it as broken. In a few weeks the school district may be handed over to a CEO. Here are 5 questions to ask them before handing them the keys.
Education
Opinion
The Principalship Needs a Makeover
Angry. Sitting in their office doing paperwork. Is that what you think of when you think of a principal? We think the principalship needs a make-over.
Education
Opinion
What's the Opposite of Top-Down Leadership?
How do we encourage that kind of partnership in other schools, because I'm not sure more accountability is the way to do it.
Education
Opinion
Connected Education: Take as Much as You Want
It's Connected Educators Month, which means we can get online and take as much as we want.
Education
Opinion
Do We Provoke Misbehavior in Our Students?
In our effort to create optimal learning spaces and focus on learning, are teachers actually provoking the misbehavior that prevents them from getting to that learning with students?
Education
Opinion
Does Subject-Matter Knowledge Count as Much as We Think?
For as long as there have been schools, there has been the debate over the importance of subject-matter knowledge. It doesn't matter as much as you may think.
Education
Opinion
What Is PISA?
When presidents and leaders of developed countries talk about how their education system is doing in comparison to other systems around the world, they use PISA as the data for the discussion, but many educators know very little about PISA. What is PISA?