Leadership

As educators and leaders across the nation grapple with the challenge of changing policies, practices, and procedures to ensure high levels of learning for all students, the inability to effectively change the mindsets of colleagues, faculty, and staff is proving to be the biggest hurdle of all. Hence, in order for systems to change, outlooks will also need to change.

Hiawatha Smith, PhD, is an associate professor of literacy education. Prior to his work preparing educators to teach literacy, Hiawatha worked as a classroom teacher and an instructional coach.

Ari Gerzon-Kessler is a sought-after speaker and professional learning provider working with schools and districts committed to forging stronger school-family partnerships. He’s presented at national and international conferences and his writings have been featured in a variety of educational publications.

Sheline Miller is a high school vice principal and was the former learning coach for the Washington County School District in Utah, where she successfully worked with teachers and teams to help establish professional learning community practices.

Kyle is the principal of Powell Middle School in Powell, Wyoming. Prior to administration, he was an elementary teacher where he developed the passion for professional learning communities and the power behind building a strong culture and teamwork in a school.

Instructional leaders (e.g., coaches, principals, and teacher leaders) work with teachers to improve educational outcomes for their students. This role can be overwhelming, especially when students and teachers have lost a full year of academic instruction.

With so much focus on students’ foundational skills, we cannot afford to overlook the unconstrained components of language comprehension. In this webinar, author Molly Ness highlights the research showing the cognitive, linguistic, socioemotional - and even physiological - benefits of read alouds. Despite their solid research basis, 50-70% of teachers do not plan read alouds in advance! This webinar overviews a planning protocol for effective read alouds in Pre-K - Grade 8 in literacy blocks and content-area classrooms.

The focus is to show how your urban school can make an impact on student achievement and change the trajectory of student lives using the time available during the day, the resources in the book, and the Brilliance in the Building - your amazing staff! The greatness of this webinar is the review of all the resources in the book available for educators to use immediately. I created all of the reproducibles based on 25 years of extensive research and actual use in schools. Leaders and staff in urban schools cannot do this work in isolation; they must work together to accomplish their goals, so therefore the work in this book is grounded in the PLC at Work principles. Let’s go!

Steven Carney is the executive director of Rooted School Vancouver, an innovative charter high school committed to building the roots of upward mobility.

Jenice Pizzuto is a system, change, and implementation expert. She is the founder and CEO of IMPACT Lead and Succeed.