Hello, I hope you are doing well. Today was a big day for two reasons. One, it looks like England is dropping the quarantine requirements for international travelers from “amber” countries, which means that I’ll be able to visit my sister and father next month. Two, it was the first day of HQI Live! [...]
Hello, I hope this finds you well. If there is your first issue of The Coaching Letter, welcome. You can find all previous issues here. I am currently in Seattle, where it is pleasantly cool—but it wasn’t earlier in the week, when it was in high 90s and low 100s. That wasn’t the plan [...]
Good evening, I hope this finds you well. Only a few days left in this school year, so congratulations on making it through the most challenging school year ever! Now you know you can do ANYTHING! I wrote in the last Coaching Letter about some of the work I’ve been doing to prepare for [...]
Hi, I hope you’re doing well. A number of Coaching Letter readers live outside the US, but here in the USA it’s Memorial Day, when we remember those who have died in service to the Nation. Amen. And I know how this makes me sound, but I’m really glad it’s been a cold and [...]
On May 21, 2021, Dudley Williams, Board Chair of the CT Center for School Change, died after a long battle with cancer. Dudley was a consummate leader, guiding the Center's board with grace, seriousness, humor, and vision. Under his leadership, the Center transitioned between two Executive Directors, expanded its reach, and deepened its impact. [...]
Happy Mother’s Day to those of you who celebrate it. It’s an odd holiday; as I learned from Wikepedia this morning, the woman who campaigned for Mother’s Day to become a national holiday, Anna Jarvis, was later appalled at how commercial it became, and campaigned to have it de-recognized. Plus it’s complicated for other [...]
Hello, I hope this finds you well. This Coaching Letter is about Acceleration, with a capital A, which has taken on much greater significance since we (the Center) started advocating that districts adopt a particular approach to schooling that encompassed prioritized content, challenging and scaffolded tasks, formative assessment, and self-efficacy. This Coaching Letter is [...]
Hi, I hope you’re doing well. Richard and I had an article published in the Kappan this month and Josh Starr took that opportunity to advertise the Coaching Letter; and I also had an article published in ASCD Express; and I think many of you took the suggestion in the last Coaching Letter to pass on the link to [...]
Hello, I hope this finds you well. It is cold, dull and rainy where I am. I don’t know why I write about the weather so much; I guess it’s because where I come from, the weather is an endless source of fascination. When I call my dad, I can rely on giving and [...]
Last Tuesday, eight people lost their lives in three Atlanta-area shootings. The victims’ names are Delania Ashley Yaun, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng. Six of the victims were of Asian descent. This mass murder has captured media coverage, but violence [...]