Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud

Ignite Your Ideas

Dr. Joanne Foster is returning to our podcast upon the release of her new book, "Ignite Your Ideas: Creativity for Kids," written for children 12 and older. It provides understandings and strategies, generates exciting, accessible choices and joyful creative experiences for kids and their families. Teachers will also find countless possibilities and strategies. In this podcast, Dr. Foster highlights the role of agency and effort in creativity. She shares a few of the over 100 sure-fire ways to spark creativity across many different areas of interest that are found in her book.

Find information on "Ignite Your Ideas: Creativity for Kids" and Dr. Foster’s other books here.

Find "Mess for Succes" here. You’re invited to scroll through and explore LOTS of resources, and this particular one is listed partway down under the heading “Articles on Important Topics

At this website, including the bookshop, you can take advantage of  a discount code specially set for the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud community! Use POL20! at check out for 20% off these books: "Ignite Your Ideas," "Being Smart about Gifted Learning," "ABCS of Raising Smarter Kids, Bust Your BUTS," and "Not Now, Maybe Later" – valid till Dec. 31st, 2023. Great now and for holiday gift-giving.

Refocusing Problem Saturated Thinking

Problem saturated conversations can lead to a limited focus on any solution, a negative impact on morale, as well as a decrease in collaboration and teamwork. Lana Cecil, a coach of instructional coaches and teachers, shares her "Positober" strategy: a plan to address a common dip that occurs for many educators sometimes called the October dip. Some describe it as a long stretch while you’re really tired. Others describe it as hitting the wall, barely making it through the week, with endless weeks of the school year ahead of you. How can coaches and leaders respond to problem saturated conversations?

Read Steve’s blog on Problem Saturated Conversations here. 
Contact Lana: lana.cecil@esc13.txed.net

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Guiding Teachers to Build Co-Constructed Classrooms

Author and international educator, Ann Lautrette, describes a co-constructed classroom as a space where students are valued and empowered, where teachers and students work together to plan learning, to do learning, and to assess learning. How can coaches and school leaders create a space for teachers to stop doing some good things to make room for doing things that may be better?

Connect with Ann, read her blogs and find her book, "The Co-Constructed Classroom" here. 

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Developing Parenting for Developing Youngsters

Nellie Harden, from the "6570 Family Project," describes our parenting role in providing a training ground for our children’s adulthood. 6570 days is the amount of time we have until our youngsters reach age 18. As a parent of four teenage daughters and having interacted with hundreds of parents, Nellie explores building youngsters’ worth, esteem, and confidence. How do we encourage self-led discipline?

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Expectations As a Foundation for Coaching Part 2

This podcast is pulled from a presentation/conversation I did with Nicole Turner as part of her Coaching Summit 2023. In this podcast, we explore why teachers deserve a coach. We knew this important connection to coaching from at least 1980. We also examine the important principal coach partnership and explore building coachability by tackling FOFO - Fear Of Finding Out.

Watch Atul Gawande's TED Talk, "Want to Get Great at Something?" 

Visit Nicole Turner's website: Simply Coaching and Teaching

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Expectations As a Foundation for Coaching Part 1

This podcast is pulled from a presentation/conversation I did with Nicole Turner as part of her Coaching Summit 2023. With a special consideration on those who are newer to their instructional coaching career, I looked back on the learning and insights from my early years implementing coaching in many different settings. In part one, we explore the concepts of continuous teacher growth, teaching as a team sport, and planning backwards for teaching and coaching.

Watch the Dylan William clip, "Every Teacher Can Improve" here. 
Visit Nicole Turner's website, Simply Coaching and Teaching here. 

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Take the Time to Build Connections: Trust the Research

It takes time and conscious decisions on a teacher’s part to build connections with students. With the pressures of pacing guides and content coverage, teachers can feel uncomfortable dedicating the needed time to connection building with students. Research is clear that many benefits can be gained from committing to building connections. "The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food." (Dean Ornish)

Find "The Connected Species" and other resources from Dr. Mark Williams here. 
Listen to Tara Brown's Podcast here.  

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Being a New Leader

Dr. Mark Wilson, a past national principal of the year and a current coach to school leaders, shares insights and strategies from his new book, "What They Didn’t Teach You in Fancy Leadership School." Mark addresses team building, communication, and expectations. He highlights the many similarities among the roles of teachers, instructional coaches, and principals. Leaders work to find the right balance between establishing a positive workplace and raising expectations of performance.

Communicate with Mark and find his book and many resources at: https://principal-matters.com/

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

PLCs as Constellations with Integration

How can "constellation thinking" (Matthew Barzun, "The Power of Giving Away Power") increase the learning and creativity of school staff who currently are most likely engaged in pyramid thinking? Building integration into decision making increases vulnerability, trust, and interdependence. What role should instructional coaches have in PLCs?

Watch Senik and Barzun's video here. 
Find Simon Sinek's book, "The Power of Giving Away Power" here. 
Read the article, "How Diversity Effects Decision Making in Communities" here.

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Building a Quality Learning Environment

What do students experience in your classroom that they would identify as indications of caring? When would they identify the tasks that they have been given as useful? When and why would they describe hard work as feeling good? Can students recognize that when teaching is hard work it feels good to you? How might discussions about above and beyond generate increase quality work and learning? When are your students wowed?

Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!