In this episode, I sit down with my long-time friend, educator, and co-author of Understanding By Design (UBD), Jay McTighe. In our conversation Jay shares the origins of UBD and its evolution over time, emphasizing its focus on fostering deep understanding in students through backward design.

Have a listen as we discuss the collaborative work of Jay and Grant Wiggins, co-author of UBD, and the importance of open-minded discourse in educational development.

Jay clarifies common misconceptions about UBD and highlights its adaptability to diverse learning needs, promoting inclusivity and engagement in the classroom.

We explore practical strategies for implementing UBD, including the role of instructional coaches in supporting teachers and the importance of alignment between goals and assessments.

Jay closes the episode with reflections on the enduring relevance of UBD in today's rapidly changing world, and he underscores its role in equipping students with essential skills for lifelong learning.

I'd love to hear your feedback about my weekly Coaching Conversations. Please consider leaving a rating or review and subscribing to our channel.

Stay Connected

Subscribe to Jim Knight's Coaching Conversations Podcast on your favorite podcast platform to receive updates on new episodes and access to valuable resources.

Learn More

To learn more about our annual TLC conference, click here.

Prepare for the start of next school year with the Intensive Instructional Coaching Institute, our most comprehensive offering that gives you everything you need to be an effective coach by clicking here.

In today's episode I have the opportunity to visit with Suzanne Dailey once again. She was a guest on our podcast last year as well as a presenter at TLC 2023 in Orlando. Not only am I happy to have her on the show again, but she will return to present at TLC 2024 in New Orleans with a session titled "Strategies to Support Joyful Leadership".

Suzanne Dailey is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she works with over 600 elementary teachers and 9,000 students. She is Nationally Board Certified, a fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a masters degree in reading. Suzanne is also the author of Teach Happier this School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration and Reflection and the host of the popular weekly podcast, Teach Happier.

Today, Suzanne shares her thoughts and research on happiness, specifically how life is so much more than just happiness. Happiness, she says, is not an "either or" situation; it's an "and" situation. When you look at it that way, you can fully live life and experience all of it.

We also discuss the crisis of happiness that is happening in schools right now and two specific practices everyone can do to become happier. Listen in as she gives us some practical advice and three Rs to implement daily.

In this conversation you'll learn how paying attention to the things we are grateful for and how focusing on health and happiness can help us be a resource for other people.

Suzanne also provides tips for coaches to persevere and be a service to others, as well as what you should and shouldn't do when you are coaching someone that is going through difficult times.

Finally, learn about her recent research into which teachers are in need of the most support these days, and what you can do to be an effective coach.

Interested in learning how System Support can make an impact on your district, click here.

Want to learn more about what Instructional Coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching, click here.

I'd love to hear your feedback about my weekly Coaching Conversations. Please consider leaving a rating or review and subscribing to our channel.

In this episode of Coaching Conversations I am joined by one of ICG's consultants, Christina Ortega. Christina is an experienced instructional coach and coordinator of math and science.

I had the opportunity to work with her and several coaches last year as part of a study where we looked at a year in the life of a coach. She taught me a lot about what people were dealing with, successes and challenges, in the moment as she was coaching. It was an incredibly unique learning experience that I'm grateful for.

In this episode, Christina talks about the power of being a learner and why being a continuous learner is a critical part about being a coach. She and I revisit what it was like to be in the study last year and how it taught her about the importance of pausing and reflecting.

Tune in to hear Christina's perspective on the rewarding and gratifying work that is instructional coaching, while also embracing the scary moments and giving space to success stories.

Christina and I also touch on the following key aspects of coaching:

• Role Clarity
• Aligning a Coach's Role to the Goals of the School and District
• What it means to be an advocate for yourself
• Coaching questions, tips, forms, tools, and activities that will help you on your journey
• TLC - Christina's perspective as an attendee last year and what she's excited about presenting this year!

To learn more and join the institute, click here.

To purchase our planner, click here.

I'd love to hear your feedback about my weekly Coaching Conversations. Please consider leaving a rating or review and subscribing to our channel.

In this episode of Coaching Conversations I'm excited to learn from my guest James Marshall, professor at San Diego State University—ranked as the top education school in California—and author of Right from the Start: The Essential Guide to Implementing School Initiatives.

James draws a clear distinction between programs and initiatives, emphasizing that initiatives are what truly drive systemic change. They are embedded in the culture of an organization, fostering meaningful change. Initiatives are designed to make a real impact.

Tune in as James shares a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to successfully implementing school initiatives. He covers key aspects of this well-structured process, including:

• The importance of conducting needs assessments
• Essential factors to consider when designing and launching initiatives
• An introduction to the "logic model" and its role in initiative planning
• The significance of a program director and what makes an effective one
• Fundamental principles for monitoring the impact of an initiative
• And more!

High quality implementation is essential. We have great ideas, but they aren't great if they aren't implemented effectively. I'm grateful James Marshall gives us ways to do it.

I'd love to hear your feedback about my weekly Coaching Conversations. Please consider leaving a rating or review and subscribing to our channel.

Join us at the Teaching Learning Coaching conference in New Orleans or Online, this October. To learn more, click here.

Learn how administrators can support their coaches effectively by clicking here.

Welcome back to Coaching Conversations. Today my guest is Allison Rodman, Founder and Chief Learning Officer of The Learning Loop.

Allison's background spans various roles in education, from teacher to instructional coach, from school leader to director of teaching and learning. She's an ASCD Faculty Member and the author of Still Learning: Strengthening Professional and Organizational Capacity and Personalized Professional Learning: A Job-Embedded Pathway for Elevating Teacher Voice.

As the driving force behind The Learning Loop, Allison's mission is clear: to reshape how we view professional development.

In this episode you'll hear Allison share about her passion for student and adult learning, encouraging educators to see learning as an ongoing journey rather than a one-time event.

Listen in as Allison shares details about the 5 key concepts from her latest book Still Learning: Strengthening Professional and Organizational Capacity, and find out how to understand, accept, and elevate the importance of stillness within the field so that we can make sure we're making the most thoughtful decisions on behalf of one another as well as our students.

I'd love to hear your feedback about my weekly Coaching Conversations. Please consider leaving a rating or review and subscribing to our channel.

Curious how our consultants can make an impact on your school or district, click here.

Join us at TLC in New Orleans, this October as we remind ourselves to keep kids first. To learn how to join us, click here.

"I think the whole idea, and what I get excited about is that the more we can design learning to reflect how kids' brains work, and the more we can use teaching strategies that really accelerate their learning, the easier it is for them, the more joyful it is for them, and also for us. In the end, I feel all this is adding up to joyful learning experiences for kids and for teachers. We all want to be great teachers, right? We all want to see the light bulbs go on for kids, And, I think this is, ultimately, all about those joyful learning experiences." - Bryan Goodwin

In this episode of Coaching Conversations, our special guest is Bryan Goodwin, President and CEO of McREL International, a nonprofit organization that provides in-depth professional learning and school improvement services to school systems worldwide to help educators use the science of teaching, learning, and leading to lift all learners.

Learn about the approach in developing the rigorous research base for the third edition of Bryan's book The New Classroom Instruction That Works and how this new methodology yielded an updated set of 14 high leverage teaching strategies that have been shown, scientifically, to promote deep, meaningful, and lasting learning for diverse students.

In this conversation, Bryan shares details about the six phases of learning and the cognitive science behind each.

• Become interested.
• Commit to learning.
• Focus on new learning.
• Make sense of learning.
• Practice and reflect.
• Extend and apply.

Interested in learning how our consultants can make an impact on your School, District, or Program? Click here

Learn how to join our Institute by clicking here

Our featured guests this week are Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves, authors of "The Age of Identity." In this episode they share their views on education in our modern era, focusing on how identity influences practices and policies. Together, Jim, Andy, and Dennis discuss the connections between culture, technology, and societal changes, considering what it means for educators globally.

Tune in to this conversation about the role of identity in education.

Curious how to gain insight into coaching as an administrator, clicking here.

To learn more about the Paris Institute and how to attend, click here.