Tom Waters

You do it and great leaders do it. Context switching. Not every scenario, team, or individual should be approached exactly the same. There are unique forms, functions, and frames of mind required of school leadership throughout the day. Great leaders understand this. Good leaders do it. And...well, we've all worked for someone who made mistakes with this...or was unable to execute the context switch. And yes, it's easier to see in your boss than in the mirror (oh, the power of reflective practice). In this post, I will show: How three different school leaders do or don't context switch. The positive and negative effects of each leader. Steps to effectively context switch and lead your school to greater learning outcomes! The Promoted Manager The context for this school leader is managing up. They intuitively know relationships above in the chain of command are vital. This leader places an imbalanced effort in managing up. The efforts in this context ofte...

How Long Should Direct Instruction Be? Direct instruction is great, but how long should it be - based on brain research? This is a great reminder from Eric Jensen about the length that most students can cognitively engage (in direct instruction, that is). Thanks  @DavidJHuber , for sharing this as we go back to school. But what can be done in only 8-12 minutes? Here are 5 high-yielding strategies that fit perfectly in this short direct instruction window. 1. Expand Prior Knowledge in Direct Instruction Part of the challenge in teaching classes of students (instead of individual students) is the range of background knowledge. Each student comes to class at a different starting point. Direct instruction can very efficiently build prior knowledge for all students. Present visuals, videos, quick reads, or graphic organizers. Fill in prerequisite background knowledge and push the limits on enriching background knowledge. This will allow all students to make richer conne...