It’s not every day you find Mike Schmoker’s stuff on the web–ok, here–so I was thrilled to run across this series of tweets sharing his sagacious perspective on leadership. His words have particular resonance with me, as I’m empowered to see how often I fail in my own approaches, and what I need to do to improve. Learning to be a leader is a lifelong process, and freeze-dried leadership (that’s my term, not Schmoker’s BTW) in schools is often what most of us get.

Thanks to B_Wagoner, as well as others, you can track Schmoker via Twitter. Here’s B_Wagoner and #Schmoker search term, while here’s the more general #Schmoker hashtag search. Wagoner shares that this will be audio-recorded and shared online. I hope she’ll share the link soon!

Some tidbits that jump out at me:

• Any teacher, any time has a short list of things they want to improve upon.
• Senge: More than two goals is the same as none at all. [What district level dept doesn’t run afoul of this one?)
• Schmoker is making a strong case for high quality writing instruction.
• Traditional strategic planning sucks organizations into superficial, time consuming efforts.
• Replace improvement planning with team-based efforts to improve what and how we teach.
• Critical for college success: analytical reading and discussion; persuasive writing. To support this, have students read with a question in mind and a pencil in hand.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure