Hi, I hope you’re doing well. Things are pretty quiet around here, so I’m just sitting around, reading Dostoyevsky, getting my nails done. You know, same-ol’-same-ol’. The Times had a piece on gratitude on Sunday, and I wrote a post on Thanksgiving last year (CL #14) that was probably the most popular thing I’ve [...]
Good evening, I hope this finds you well. If you have time to spare this week (between the turkey and pumpkin pie) and are looking for great things to read and listen to, here are some suggestions. Last week's New Yorker has an essay by Atul Gawande, The Upgrade, about the complicated relationship between [...]
This Coaching Letter is for anyone who has said or even thought that others just don’t have the same sense of urgency as you do, that others need to get on the bus, or that others need to change their mindset—because they have said something about the past, present or future that does not [...]
Admittedly, I have come to be a bit—perhaps more than just a bit—skeptical about the prospect of federal or state policy significantly and positively influencing student learning and outcomes. Of course, policy matters—it shapes the authorizing conditions within which schools and districts operate, offering supports and sometimes creating rather significant barriers. Yet my years [...]
Friends, I know this is a momentous day. Most of you are involved in some kind of professional learning today, and you still have to find the time to vote, and the weather is miserable. And I am sure I am not alone in having more on my plate than I can handle gracefully. [...]
Last week a long-time colleague dropped this gem on me: “Most superintendents and principals who lose their jobs do so not because of their instructional leadership (or lack thereof).” Let’s refer to this as Rule 1. His point, I inferred, was that my intensity around helping educators become stronger instructional leaders was a bit [...]
Hello! This your gentle reminder that the discussion online of Annie Duke’s Thinking in Bets opens in two weeks. Please read the book by then! I’m sending this email to the entire Coaching Letter list, as a lot of people have been added since we started advertising the book club, and a lot of [...]
Good morning! Last week was exceptionally busy, so I’m trying to catch up with my life. Lots going on, all good, and I’d like to get back to the lovely fall weather. Fundamental to coaching is the idea that the coach exists in service of the client; that the coach has to figure out [...]
Join our Reading for Leading Book Club We at the Center like to discuss books. This summer, if you had dropped by our office during the lunch hour, you may have overheard discussions of works by Edgar Schein, Michael Lewis, Ta-Nehasi Coates, J.D. Vance, Tara Westover, Michelle Alexander, or Peter Block. It is within [...]