Inspired by the music lessons my daughter and son were taking a few years back, I decided to pick up guitar. In that first year I made steady progress under the tutelage of a guitar aficionado half my age. I built greater finger strength and dexterity, developed a modest sense of music theory, learned [...]
Hi, I hope this finds you well! The contents of these coaching letters are a mix of things I’ve wanted to say for a long time, things I feel like I say all the time, and things that I’m just now learning and thinking about. This letter represents a mix of all three. I [...]
Hello, I hope your weekend has been enjoyable. Here in Connecticut the temperature has been in the 60s, which in previous years would have felt like a miraculous respite from the winter weather, but in the context of the fires in Australia, seems merely ominous. Every time I speak or write lately, I seem [...]
Happy New Year! Lang may your lum reek—or, in American English, may there always be a fire in your fireplace. New Year is a big holiday in my tradition, and I wish you all the best for 2020. This Coaching Letter is your encouragement to join with Center staff, colleagues across Connecticut and friends [...]
Hello, I hope this finds you well. Most schools in Connecticut have had three or four snow days already, so I hope you are warm and dry wherever you are. The last Coaching Letter, #102, was about small cycles of continuous improvement, and so is this one. It also connects to Coaching Letter #94, [...]
On November 16, 2019, I had the honor to co-present at the annual CABE/CAPSS Convention with three remarkable educators on the topic of equity efforts in Naugatuck, CT. Superintendent Sharon Locke, Naugatuck Board Vice Chairperson Ethel Grant, and partner/consultant Kathy Turner told a compelling story of the intentional efforts to create a culture of [...]
Hello, and welcome back after Thanksgiving. I always feel like it’s the hardest holiday to come back from—somehow it’s not long enough to deal with all the over-consumption—gastronomic and otherwise—that happens. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself. But it is long enough to get some serious reading done, especially when you tag on a [...]
Friends, two years ago at Thanksgiving I sent out Coaching Letter #14 about the science of gratitude. People still bring it up to me as a message that meant a lot to them; I am glad for that. Interestingly, my life got a lot more difficult and complicated after I wrote it, but I [...]
Friends, thank you for all the encouragement I have received lately, on a variety of projects. And a big shout-out to all the coaches I have worked with lately in a variety of contexts—thank you for all the work you do to support other educators. I know it’s harder than it looks. And also, [...]
Good morning! I find it interesting that the one thing I get asked about the most is adult learning. It is also the hardest thing for me to respond to, because the field is so vast and there are so many approaches. So tackling adult learning as a discrete topic in a Coaching Letter [...]