I’m not sure it will ever be. — I’ve enjoyed listening to the Hard Fork podcast. A relatively new show, I like the mix of technology reporting, along with the level of the discussion. The hosts are knowledgeable, but are not particularly close to the metal. …

Coaching for equity: Conversations that change practice (Aguilar, 2020 — My current personal PD project reading tour of various coaching models continues with this review of the second book by Elena Aguilar that I have consumed this semester. If you want to read my thoughts about the first one, you can do that here. Why I read it: In my last piece in the…

”Assessment Writing Just Got a Whole Lot Fun-gineered with ChatGPT!”² — At the end of last year, I wrote a bit about ChatGPT and its implications for teachers. You can check out those thoughts here if you’re interested. Since then, ChatGPT, and similar models have become the fastest accelerating technological trend I can think of. …

Ways to increase agency in our contingent existence. — I think a lot about the role of contingency in my life. It took a long time to understand that is what it’s actually called, but a while back I learned that contingency is the name of the thing. I bet you think about contingency, too, but you also might…

Some thoughts on the trap of fidelity — Let’s begin with an illustrative example from the work I’m engaged in this year. As a member of our school’s General Biology PLC, we have been working to integrate a storyline approach for our unit planning. The details of what that entails are for another time. What is useful to…

LeChatelier dynamics in professional meetings — One of the interesting things that one learns when studying chemistry is LeChatelier’s principle. Named for its original formulator, the principle usually reads pretty drily, something like “if an equilibrium system is stressed, the system will experience a shift in response to the stress that re-establishes equilibrium¹.” One of the…

A brief reflection on working in a functional school system — This is a quick one about something that happened last week. A student asked to speak with me privately. In that conversation, she let me know that she was transitioning, and her new name and pronouns. I listened to her and thanked her for letting me know. I told her…

The art of coaching: Effective strategies for school transformation (Aguilar, 2013 ) — As mentioned in my first post in this series, I’m trying to be a bit more intentional about pursuing some personal professional development this semester. Which mostly involves reading books. So, here’s another one. Why I read it: I am an instructional coach. We don’t call it that¹, but that doesn’t change the fact…

Some thoughts on precrastination — We are hiring again. For this current round of hiring, our final topic question for candidates has been “What is one thing that your colleagues might find difficult about working with you?” I like this kind of question a lot. And this year, we have had several candidates use variants…