A+ Alabama Best Practices Center

Joellen Killion and Jim Knight: Listen In as Two Leading Experts Talk about Coaching!

Cathy Gassenheimer May 26, 2020

One silver lining of social distancing has been the many fresh educational resources appearing on the internet, writes Cathy Gassenheimer. “Wonderful content is being created by expert colleagues whose energetic minds never stop looking for ways to engage and share.” One case in point – the recent Facebook Live discussion between coaching experts Jim Knight and Joellen Killion. Read Cathy’s notes and follow our link to the archive.

Meeting Our Mental Health Challenges During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Guest Post May 21, 2020

In this guest post, Commissioner Lynn Beshear shares targeted resources curated by the Alabama Department of Mental Health to help support students, educators and parents during the current pandemic. She also highlights the Department’s school system outreach collaborative. “We strive to assist any child we can reach with preventive care and treatment that will help them to become healthy adults.”

While We Take Care of Others, We Need to Take Care of Ourselves

Cathy Gassenheimer May 19, 2020

What are you doing to take care of yourself during the Covid-19 pandemic? Is self-care part of your coping strategy in these unprecedented times? Many of us are learning to work at home, and educators are very much feeling their responsibilities to students and parents. So much to do, Cathy Gassenheimer writes, and yet, it’s also really important to devote some time to self-care. She has ideas!

The Advice Trap: How to Keep Your “Advice Monster” at Bay

Cathy Gassenheimer May 14, 2020

Think for a minute about the number of times you’ve given someone advice over the past several weeks. “If you are like me,” says Cathy Gassenheimer, “you might lose count!” In his book The Advice Trap author Michael Bungay Stanier warns against the “advice monster” in each of us and describes how we can become better leaders by advising less and listening more.

Incredibly Quick Virtual Resources: More of Stoney’s Snippets!

Cathy Gassenheimer May 12, 2020

Stoney Beavers is back with more Snippets and Snaps, highlighting interesting resources for virtual teaching and professional development in 60 seconds or less. This time Stoney reminds us to check out (or revisit) the vast Crash Course collection of educational videos, the simple power of Lino’s corkboard approach to sharing visuals and comments online, and a game-changing book by Fisher, Frey and Hattie.

Our PCN Focus Book for 2020-2021 Explores “Trauma-Invested Practices” for Fostering Resilient Learners

ABPC May 7, 2020

This past year, participants in ABPC’s Powerful Conversations Network dove deep into Fisher, Frey, and Smith’s All Learning is Social and Emotional. In 2020-21, we’ll extended this work with a new text by Kristin Souers and Pete Hall, Relationship, Responsibility, and Regulation, a book that provides concrete approaches for helping learners develop resiliency. Stoney Beavers has an overview.

Want to Be a Better Listener and Deepen Connections With Others? Try Improv!

Cathy Gassenheimer May 5, 2020

Leave it to Cathy Gassenheimer to watch a webinar from the Second City Comedy Troupe about improvisation and immediately wonder, “how could this be useful to our network partners?” She came up with an answer, of course, which you can read about at her latest blog post. Resource materials included.

Students from EL Education Schools Share a Heart-Warming Original Song

Cathy Gassenheimer May 1, 2020

As many of you know, our friend Ron Berger – author of Leaders of Their Own Learning – is co-founder of Expeditionary Learning and academic leader for EL Education, which supports a network of schools across the United States. EL Education just posted this video, featuring students in many remote locations contributing to a song celebrating Better World Day. Enjoy! And have a great weekend!

Have a Minute to Spare? Subscribe to Stoney’s Snippets and Snaps

Cathy Gassenheimer April 30, 2020

It’s amazing what you can think up while social distancing! Stoney Beavers, who joined the Alabama Best Practices Center as (our first) Assistant Director not long before schools closed in response to the pandemic, has dreamed up Stoney’s Snippets and Snaps as a way to highlight good ideas in a hurry.

What You’re Missing: How Can We Become “Active Listeners”?

Cathy Gassenheimer April 28, 2020

In her book You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why, journalist Kate Murphy reviews the research suggesting most of us are not good at active listening. Educators are in a profession where listening is a crucial skill, whether you’re a teacher paying attention to students or an instructional partner working with a colleague. Cathy Gassenheimer finds Murphy’s insights and tips extremely valuable.

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