Trained for the Wrong Things I entered the public school system with a provisional teaching credential, though I had completed a two-year credentialing and masters program and a slew of standardized tests. I selected my credentialing program because it included several student-teaching opportunities. Each classroom placement was a chance for me to learn from an experienced teacher, gradually taking over the teaching for longer chunks of time. What I expected
Why Is Dysfunction the Norm in Education?
April 15, 2026
When I first became a teacher, I couldn’t believe that anyone thought it was a good idea to leave me alone in a room with 30 nine year olds. I knew that at any moment, the class could spiral into chaos. I had learned enough from student teaching to know that I should begin the school day with routines I taught explicitly. But my management unraveled as the day went
What Is a Literacy Coach? It Depends on Who You Ask.
March 9, 2026
I’ve been a literacy coach for nearly a decade, through six different job titles and several theories of change (some of them contradictory), with one persistent question: what should a literacy coach know and be able to do? Coaching As Therapy My first coaching job was a “Common Core Teacher Leader.” State funding was intended to help teachers meet Common Core Standards. My district, however, used its coaches to roll
Getting Reading Right Is Messy: No One Has It All Figured Out
October 28, 2024
“I wish my school were like that.” I clicked through a slidedeck about a literacy improvement plan and I felt a pang of envy. “I wish my work was so straightforward and my school’s progress so steady.” But these were my slides. The students, teachers, moments captured in photographs, and ideas represented in bullet points–they were all from my school. So why, while looking at evidence of my school’s improvement,
Doubt Crept In: Questioning My Faith in Reading Research
August 7, 2024
Uh oh I thought that the more I knew about the science of reading, the better my teaching would become. And I’ve staked so much of my identity on this belief that my newfound doubt has shaken me terribly. At a recent conference for reading researchers, I realized: “There is a whole world of reading science that is not meant for me.” Panicked, I said to a researcher-friend: “Please tell
