Happy New Year, friends! I’ll keep this one short and sweet.
This year, I’m leaving behind a few false dichotomies – those fake either/or options that we often feel like we have to choose between.
These aren’t new realizations, or the only fake choices I’m letting go of. But they’re areas where my resolve has strengthened, I’ve become decreasingly apologetic for rejecting them as mutually exclusive choices, and that can really get me going in conversations about teaching, learning, and instructional coaching – not because I’m insistent on my point of view, but because I see these themes as traps that keep us from serving students and teachers fully.
So here are the false dichotomies I’m leaving behind in 2025:
Student-centered vs teacher-centered instructional coaching approaches
Evidence-based vs evidence-generating practices
Directive vs facilitative instructional coaching / Technical vs adaptive work
In their place, I'm inviting and codifying even more both/and thinking and practices.
More on that soon.
What about you? What are you leaving behind in this new year?
I’m looking forward to continuing to hear from you and sharing more ways to make instructional coaching more effective in service of all students in 2025. Don't be a stranger.
¡Salud! 🥂
