Book of the Month – Cultivating Coaching Mindsets
We are introducting a monthly highlight of a book by SRI authors, a Book of the Month. We are kicking it off with Cultivating Coaching Mindsets: An Action Guide for Literacy Leadersby Rita M. Bean and Jacy Ippolito. We asked them to write a bit about their book:
Creating Cultivating Coaching Mindsets was a labor of love for us (Jacy and Rita), and we are thrilled that the School Reform Initiative has highlighted and endorsed the book over the past few years.
In writing CCM, we (Jacy and Rita) pooled our knowledge and experience about coaching work to share with readers the various ways that instructional coaches can support authentic teacher and student learning in schools. The book is based on our own research, our experiences as coaches and working with coaches, and our review of the wider fields of educational leadership, adult learning/development, and organizational and school change theory. The book describes our framework for effective coaching that considers both individuals and systems in schools, school culture, differentiating professional learning for adult educators, and the various mindsets that coaches hold as they go about their work (e.g., the mindsets of leader, facilitator, designer, and advocate). While the book zooms-in on literacy coaching specifically, the research and practices in the book pertain to all educators who work as teacher leaders guiding adult learning and reflection. This is a book for all those who coach other adult educators, regardless of job title!
The work of the School Reform Initiative heavily influenced our thinking and writing in the creation of Cultivating Coaching Mindsets. Quite simply, this book would not have taken the shape it did without the work of SRI. The book includes a number of suggestions for and stories about how coaches and teacher leaders employ specific discussion-based protocols (with many references to classic protocols from the SRI catalog). Moreover, the underlying research, theories, and practices highlighted in the book bolster the argument for why discussion-based protocols and intentional learning communities are key levers for reflection and change in schools. For example, we briefly review the work of Breidenstein, Fahey, Glickman, & Hensley (2012) and discuss how their notions of adult development connect to a differentiated coaching model for teachers who are seeking instrumental, socializing, or self-authoring professional learning experiences. We highlight the research and practice literature suggesting that leaders at all levels (and coaches specifically) find success when adopting the mindset of facilitators, with examples from our own work with coaches about designing and facilitating professional learning agendas. Furthermore, the book highlights the importance of school leadership as a collective responsibility that functions most effectively in a culture of collaboration as described in the newly-released edited volume Best Practices of Literacy Leaders: Keys to School Improvement (Dagen & Bean, 2020).
Our CCM book also foreshadows some of the larger ideas about how informal and formal school leaders can reinvent schools, ideas highlighted in the latest Fahey, Breidenstein, Ippolito, & Hensley (2019) book An UnCommon Theory of School Change. And of course, CCM certainly influenced Jacy’s recent TEDx Talk on transforming schools by thinking like a coach. In so many ways, CCM has been a cornerstone of Jacy’s and Rita’s professional work over the past handful of years, and we are delighted with SRI’s support of our work.
If you have leadership responsibilities and are working as an instructional coach or with instructional coaches in preK-12 settings, this is a book that might very well support your adult learning and coaching work! Moreover, we are always eager to talk with educators across the United States and beyond who are wrestling with ways to improve coaching, facilitation, and leadership in schools. If you would like to connect with us, please don’t hesitate to reach out via Twitter or email (@Jippolito or jippolito@salemstate.edu / @rita_bean or ritabean@pitt.edu).
Cultivating Coaching Mindsets: An Action Guide for Literacy Leaders
by Rita M. Bean and Jacy Ippolito
Fall Meeting Pre-Conference Call for Proposals
Pre-conference sessions take place on Wednesday, the day before the start of Fall Meeting and provide an opportunity for participants to extend their learning while in Memphis.
Do you have an idea for a pre-conference session for the 2020 Fall Meeting that you would like to offer? Are you using SRI tools and practices in exciting ways that you’d like to share with others? Pre-conference sessions may be full or half-day and can be on-site in one of our conference rooms or off-site at a school or other location within the city.
All pre-conference proposals are due by March 27, 2020
If you are interested in proposing a pre-conference session, please utilize the pre-conference proposal form, and submit it no later than March 27, 2020. Have a request for a pre-conference that you would like to attend? Email Deirdre Williams, deirdre@schoolreforminitiative.org, and she will try to find facilitators to prepare a pre-conference session that meets your needs!
Fall Meeting Program Advertising
Do you have professional development programs, positions you are hiring for, or upcoming events you would like to promote to colleagues at Fall Meeting? Consider getting an ad in the Fall Meeting program.
We have kept advertising affordable again this year:
- Full-page 8.5×11 full-color – $700
- ½ page 8.5×5.5 full-color – $400
- ¼ page 4.25×5.5 full-color – $300
You can also combine an ad with an ad exhibitor space or sponsorship.
Exhibiting at SRI’s annual conference allows your organization an even greater opportunity to reach SRI affiliates, partners and other community and education stakeholders. Exhibitors receive exhibit space and acknowledgement in the conference program and on the SRI website
There are also several levels of sponsorship available, for individuals and organizations. Click here to learn more about sponsorship and Advertising.
We expect the 2020 Fall Meeting to be our most well attended Fall Meeting, and anticipate over 350 attendees from across the country to join us in Memphis. Additionally, our messaging reaches over 7,000 members nationally and internationally.
Do you know an individual or organization who may be interested in advertising, sponsorship or exhibiting? Please feel free to share this information. Please contact Deirdre Williams, deirdre@schoolreforminitiative.org, with any questions.
Equity First Institute – Tier 2: Bring a Colleague for 50% Off!
Burlington, VT
May 14-15, 2020
This two-day institute deepens the “Who am I?” identity work from the Personal Awareness Institute by exploring how our identities influence the way we walk in, interact with others and make sense of the world. As a reflective learning group, we address several key questions: What do we mean by power and privilege? Do we all have some level of privilege? How can I identify unintended harm I’ve created in the past due to my privilege, and determine what I would do differently to make sure that I don’t make those mistakes again? With an explicit focus on equity, participants gain skills for using SRI tools and processes to:
- Participate in reflective conversations about equity;
- Successfully manage dissonance, disequilibrium and anxiety in a reflective learning group; and
- Make explicit connections among educational practice, student learning & barriers to educational equity
When you register, you will get a code for 50% off one registration to give to a collague to attend with you!
SRI’s “Teaching & Leading for Student Equity” Educator Institute
June 21-24, 2020
Disney’s Coronado Resort – Orlando, FL
For schools to become places of educational equity and excellence, improvement in several areas of leading, teaching and learning are required. SRI’s Teaching and Leading for Equity Institute engages and supports educators as they seek culturally proficient ways of leading, teaching, and learning to interrupt and eliminate inequities. Using SRI tools, participants will engage in complex conversations that will help us learn from our own cultural proficiency journeys, examine our school data for current school structures and inequitable practices that lead to gaps in student outcomes, and create equity action plans to address those gaps within our own spheres of influence. This institute is excellent for individuals or for school and district teams interested in engaging in data discourse and collaborative action planning.
Part of Pegasus Springs Education Collective’s Summer Institute 2020 Walt Disney World’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL / June 21-24, 2020
In addition to the Pegasus Springs’ “Building our Leaders of Tomorrow” (BOLT) student program, our Summer Institute 2020 will also feature SRI’s “Teaching & Leading for Student Equity” Educator Institute, facilitated by Dr. Deirdre Williams, Executive Director of the School Reform Initiative (SRI). Pegasus Springs Education Collective is proud to partner with SRI, a non-profit organization serving thousands of educators and students. SRI’s mission is to create transformational learning communities, fiercely committed to educational equity and excellence.
#10forSRI
SRI affiliates genuinely care about the students and communities we serve and recognize that schools as they currently exist need to improve so that all students have the chance to succeed. Our affiliates are passionate about making such change. Loving and caring about all students is at the center of where we start. Our goal for 2020 is to help educators remember why they became educators, and to do whatever we can to not only help them to ‘feel’ supported, but to actually ‘be’ supported, and work together to create the schools our students deserve. I hope you will join me and continue to support SRI!
SRI is fiercely committed to educational equity and excellence, and we cannot do this work without your support!
Thank you for your commitment to students, families and communities!
Do you have news to share? Interesting things happening in your area? Please let us know so we can share with our community! Email Chris Jones, chris@schoolreforminitiative.org.
Thank you,
Deirdre Williams and Chris Jones
On behalf of School Reform Initiative
