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For the past 35 years, Steve Barkley has served as an education consultant to school districts, teacher organizations, state departments of education, and colleges and universities nationally and internationally, facilitating the changes necessary for them to reach students and successfully prepare them for the 21st century. A prolific published author, his weekly blog has evolved into a go-to resource for teachers and administrators all over the world. Visit BarkleyPD.com to learn more.
Episodes

Thursday Apr 17, 2025
Coaching to Leverage Hardiness
Thursday Apr 17, 2025
Thursday Apr 17, 2025
How do coaches assist teachers in reframing stress from something to be managed to a catalyst for growth and improvement? How can understanding the roles of commitment, control, and challenge build teachers’ hardiness? Highly experienced coaches, Lana Cecil and Angela Buckingham, share the application of Stein’s and Bartone’s work in Making Stress Work for You to Achieve Your Life Goals to the work of instructional leaders and coaches.
Contact Angela: angela.buckingham@esc13.txed.net
Contact Lana: lana.cecil@esc13.txed.net
Find the Coaching Strategies and Coaching Questions for Hardiness here.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Thursday Apr 10, 2025
A District’s Focus on Inspiring and Creating Joyful Experiences
Thursday Apr 10, 2025
Thursday Apr 10, 2025
What happens when a school system makes four promises as their mission: joy, connection, growth, and success and consider joy as the lead to the others happening? "If we want people to be present, engaged, and thriving, joy can’t be an afterthought. It must be a priority." (George Philhower, Superintendent Eastern Hancock Schools in Indiana) Hear about their summer Joy Jam conference for educators.
Visit the Eastern Hancock Schools website here.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Building Coachability for Myself and Others
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
“Coachability is not just teachability. It’s not just a willingness to learn. It’s a willingness to unlearn and change. Coachability is a moral capacity that allows a person to accept feedback, acknowledge faults, limitations, and deficiencies, and to act on that new information.” (Timothy Clark)
As instructional coaches and school leaders, we can play a big role in shaping culture of coachability. We do it through the way we listen, the questions we ask, and the tone we set when offering feedback.
Find Timothy Clark's article, "Are You Coachable?" here.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Situating Responsibility With Students: Enhancing Learning
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Tuesday Apr 01, 2025
Barbara Smith, the editor of Urgent Care for Schools: Situating Responsibility as an Engaging Way for Students to Transform School Cultures, explores providing meaningful, memorable, and fulfilling learning experiences by situating responsibilities with learners.
From her experiences in public, independent, charter, and international schools, Barbara explores expanding the student identity to include that of becoming service providers, injustice responders, action researchers, designers, apprentices and teachers.
Visit the ZPD website and connect with Barbara here.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Thursday Mar 27, 2025
Radical Listening in Coaching
Thursday Mar 27, 2025
Thursday Mar 27, 2025
How can coaches’ use of radical listening generate teachers’ reflection and increase a sense of teachers’ empowerment? Examine some of the obstacles to and strategies for radical listening from the work of Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener and Christian Van Nieuwerburgh authors of Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection. As coaches, when we resist the urge to jump in with comparisons, advice, or quick fixes—and instead, lean into radical listening—we communicate trust, respect, and belief in the teacher’s capacity.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Thursday Mar 20, 2025
A Thriving School Culture Through a Path of Student and Teacher Responsibility
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
From her career as a teacher and school leader in public, independent, and international schools and having opened three new schools, Barbara Smith proposes the importance of situating responsibility with students and teachers. She describes why change is urgent and needs to be transformative. Just as teachers need to be facilitators of student responsibility to create their learning, school leaders need to be facilitators of teachers’ responsibility. Time and space for teacher collaboration and learning is a key.
Connect with Barbara & visit the ZPD website here.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Coaches Listen to Guide Self Discovery
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
What skills do coaches practice to communicate being fully present in coaching conversations? How do those conversations support a growth-oriented environment where teachers feel valued, heard, and empowered to take ownership of their professional learning? Consider your use of questions and paraphrases in coaching.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Thursday Mar 06, 2025
Building Coaching Skills and a Coaching Culture
Thursday Mar 06, 2025
Thursday Mar 06, 2025
Rory Courlander, IFC Certified Coach, high school administrator, and experience learning and teaching coach, explores building a coaching culture from no coaching to an embedded collaborative coaching culture. He and Steve discuss coaching skills and coachability.
Find Rory’s Coaching Culture Continuum and connect with him on LinkedIn here.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Thursday Feb 27, 2025
Supporting Teachers in Supporting Students’ High Performance
Thursday Feb 27, 2025
Thursday Feb 27, 2025
How do instructional coaches and instruction leaders support teachers in maximizing students’ high performance? How should we be preparing teachers to identify possible indicators of high talent and to create opportunities for talent and giftedness to flourish? Steve Arnold, the Head of Gifted and Talented at GEMS Education explores these questions and identifies the importance of adaptive teaching verses siloed differentiation. What should teachers know about the neuroscience of learning?
Email Steve: steve.arnold@gemseducation.com
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Sharing the Listening Path with Students
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Listening is a crucial skill for students to develop for school and life success, yet we rarely purposefully approach a plan for students to learn the skills. Christine Miles, the creator of The Listening Path highlights the why and how for teachers to provide students the tools and practice to develop their listening capabilities. Consider the impact of a listing culture on classroom dynamics and student engagement.
Visit The Listening Path website here.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!