The Power of Reflection and Feedback to Drive Instructional Leadership
What makes a reflective instructional leader? And how can you create the space for your teachers to be reflective educators?
In the day-to-day, school and district leaders’ attention is focused on the myriad immediacies, alongside the teaching and learning happening in the classroom, and how that all relates to their big vision.
Through their work with school and district leaders nationwide, Jamie Poskin and Daniel Bauer have learned this:
In a constantly changing world, whether changing school culture or changing teacher practice, the work begins with reflection.
To be the leader that schools and districts need now, to inspire and affect change, K12 leaders must have the space to reflect on their leadership practice and a community to walk alongside them, in order to also be a leader who reflects in their practice.
Similarly, to be the best teachers they can be, and to be the teachers that their students need them to be now, teachers need a safe space to reflect – alone and in community – on their own teaching practice, in order to also be a teacher who reflects in their practice.
Watch the recording of the conversation Jamie and Daniel led with dozens of k12 leaders from around the nation.
Watch the replay of this conversation to talk with your peers, and with Daniel and Jamie, to talk about:
What it means to be a reflective leader, and to move from reflecting on your practice to reflecting in your practice
What tools and practices support reflection among leaders and teachers – feedback, continuous improvement, evidence, data-informed practice
How to examine whether you’re being the kind of reflective leader you’d like to be, or facilitating that practice for your teachers
Recommended resources from the conversation
More about our co-hosts
Daniel Bauer, Chief Ruckus Maker, Better Leaders Better Schools
As a chronically late student, Daniel Bauer once told his Chemistry teacher a fib about saving an entire girl scout troop from a burning building to get out of a tardy.
Daniel is not sure if it was the very made up story, the very real cookie he offered his teacher, or a combination of both that got him out of a detention that day …
That experience taught him it pays to develop your storytelling skills.
Daniel has been telling stories since then, most recently on the Better Leaders Better Schools podcast, ranked in the TOP 0.5% of 3 million global podcasts, and via his latest book, Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader, co-published by Corwin and the National School Superintendents Association (AASA).
His mission is “to connect, grow, and mentor every school leader who wants to level up.”
Jamie Poskin, CEO & Co-Founder, TeachFX
The CEO and co-founder of TeachFX, Jamie is a former high school math and English teacher, coach, and athletic director with an MA in Education and MBA from Stanford.
Jamie’s teaching career taught him two things (among many): Most teachers are very eager for feedback, but rarely get any. And, students need to talk to learn, but to facilitate conversational learning, teachers need feedback and space to reflect on their practice.
That’s the inspiration for TeachFX. Provide teachers with objective, on-demand, non-evaluative feedback about their teaching practice. And focus that feedback on insights grounded in the research about what helps students learn.
