March has been a whirlwind of funky weather across the country, spring breaks, and mid-semester reviews.  Luckily, one thing that has remained constant is the round up of insightful instructional leadership articles.

Here are your instructional leadership news, highlights, and updates for March—you can also subscribe to our blog to have our must-reads sent straight to your inbox!

Video Links Professors to Far-flung Student-Teachers, via Edweek

Harvard University uses video observation to allow professors and mentors to remotely provide feedback for their teaching candidates, as if they were actually onsite. Although they acknowledge the power of physically being in the classroom, video allows them to bridge the gap from around the country.

"Even as some candidates are thousands of miles away from campus, they are in touch weekly with professors who provide feedback on their videos. The on-site mentor teacher and fellow candidates can also weigh in."

A Focus on Self-Improvement, via Edutopia

A High School teacher in Leadville Colorado, Dylan Kane, suggests 5 principles of deliberate practice that can help teachers consistently improve their teaching.

"Psychological research reveals that not all practice is equally useful. Mindless repetition is an inefficient way to improve any skill, and short sessions of high-quality, deliberate practice matter much more than a larger quantity of such repetition."

TeachBoost Throwback: How to Set Your Vision for Transformational Instructional Leadership, via The LaunchPad

Not only is it important to set and share your vision of instructional leadership, but to effectively communincate it to others in a clear and consistent manner as well. 

"By establishing and clearly communicating your vision for instructional leadership, educators are able to hold themselves, and one another, accountable for their contributions."

Dealing with a 'Culture of Fear'-Administrators on PD in the Age of Blended Learning, via Edsurge

In this Q&A style post, Edsurge sat down with a panel of administrators to discuss: professional learning growth for staff, tricks for engagement and culture building, and a few more interesting topics. 

"It’s pretty clear that very few people in education enjoy those typical sit-and-get professional development sessions. And when blended learning gets thrown into the mix, the situation gets even more complicated—what happens when educators seem afraid of products?"

Getting Beyond The Teacherpreneur, via Edutopia

Edutopia shines some light onto innovation within our school systems and how schools should shift the focus from innovative individuals to a school-wide culture of innvoation. Three main components are important to focus on: defining the mission broadly, using different metrics of sucess, and diversifying sources of insight and expertise. 

"By defining our mission more broadly, exploring different ways to measure success, and drawing from best practices in other fields, we can begin to create a culture of innovation so that we can better serve all students."

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