Traditional PLCs are often dull and leave educators feeling like they're another task to do in their already busy schedules. Casey Watts, IC in Texas, offers a few fun strategies that re-shift the focus of your current PLCs to be ones focused on a shared culture of collaboration.

This week we learned the benefits of using pineapple charts in your organization to increase collaboration among staff, five steps for planning and developing a PD session, how effective questioning skills can help an IC coach outside their comfort zone, and more!

If you're looking for new and creative ways to build relationships with your staff this year, look no further! Margaret Harris-Shoates, district edtech coordinator, and Kimberly Eure, instructional technology coach, both in Virginia, provide four techniques to create meaningful connections with teachers in both remote and in-person settings.

Sherry St. Clair, president of Reflective Learning, shares a few tactics that leaders can use to praise individual and shared goal progress to help cultivate a culture of learning.

Welcome to the 2021-22 school year! Kick it off by learning how you can use pineapple charts to inspire a school-wide culture of collaborative PD, why mentors are valuable for teacher growth, how administrators can support teachers who feel stressed or anxious, the role of trust in coaching, and more! Enjoy.

Being a new instructional coach can feel like you're on an island with few resources, which is why it's crucial to build a learning network on your own. 🏝️ Violet Christensen and Courtney Groskin eagerly share three tactics for making connections—both in-person and online—and even suggestions of whom to follow online.

As we venture back to in-person teaching and learning, we must decide what tactics worked in the past and what we should leave there. Ellen Eisenberg, executive director of The Professional Institute for Instructional Coaching, highlights what she believes we should strengthen, keep, and dismiss for the return to school and the role of the IC during the process. 🏫

We wrapped up June and kickstarted July by learning how to use the Jigsaw Method to increase collaboration during adult learning sessions, three steps for building our PLNs, words to avoid as an IC, and more. Enjoy! 😀

Miguel Guhlin, Director of Professional Development for TCEA, walks us through the Jigsaw Method and how, in an adult learning context, it can increase collaboration and rapid learning among everyone involved.