Teacher Leader Coach

I will always advocate for teacher tenure. Quality teachers should have their jobs protected and not be released on an administrator's whim or an influential parent's complaint. The original reason for tenure was to protect teachers' freedom of speech after the Scopes Monkey Trial.  With today's climate in American society, views on what is or is not appropriate change at a moment's notice. And the truth is, while most teachers are happy to have tenure, they do not worry about it because they are high-quality educators. Where tenure becomes a problem is when a bad teacher needs removal, the timeline and effort required are significant. In Illinois, a teacher must be found unsatisfactory in their summative rating, meaning one to three years of bad teaching have occurred. Within 30 school days, the remediation plan starts, and it must last for 90 school days. There are about 180 school days in an academic year, so the timeline moves into the second semester before a c...

Psychology has shown that autonomy and agency are key to motivation, and being confined to someone else's standard or method of work can feel stifling or defeating. People need to feel they have some locus of control to blossom in their work. However, any organization needs confines to function properly. Even entrepreneurs who are their own bosses need to have structures for their businesses to thrive. Schools and classrooms are no different. Administrators with rigid rules about teachers working in lockstep in the curriculum and educating like an assembly line do not lead to strong learning environments. I have colleagues in large urban districts who have strict expectations that all teachers of a course district-wide are teaching the same lesson on the same day. They get in trouble if they are observed to be off schedule. This makes it easy for administrators to check off that teachers are covering the curriculum, and guarantees that all students receive access to the same conten...

With Teacher Appreciation Week upon us, I’m using this post to show gratitude to the teachers I supervise and teach with. In my career, I have been blessed with wonderful colleagues who have impacted me in more positive ways than I can count. As a teacher evaluator, my pedagogical knowledge and teaching ability have grown exponentially by watching other educators’ classrooms. Brilliant means to open, close, and transition between topics. Creative ways to maximize student engagement and foster relationships. Classroom management and furniture arrangements create a comfortable yet challenging environment. Formative assessments to gain knowledge of all students' abilities, and summative assessments that allow students to shine in multiple ways.  What I appreciate most is beyond the whole-class instruction. The teachers I am privileged to lead embrace a culture of high expectations with support. In a perfect world, all students are present physically and mentally at all times, master c...

The NFL Draft is one of the biggest spectacles of the year, with thousands of hours spent poring over the best American football talent. Many journalists' entire careers are spent predicting who will get drafted when. Each of the NFL's 32 teams has a large staff dedicated to years of scouting, interviewing, researching, and lobbying for different players to improve each team. The player's estimated cost to get drafted is $100,000 beyond college costs, including training, travel, and agents to get on NFL General Managers' radars. NFL franchises spend millions on the draft process. Sometimes, all that pays off, and players get drafted ahead of their predicted draft spots. Some supposed first-round locks inexplicably plummet. Some cannot miss players become busts, and undrafted rookies become stars. This past draft had Cam Ward, from the University of the Incarnate Word, to Washington State University, to the University of Miami in college, drafted number 1 overall. This s...