In 2023 I am adding a new series to my blog entitled Explorations in Instructional Leadership. I plan to use this series to dive into some of the topics that are rising to the surface in my work, topics that I am researching for future study, and topics that impact student learning and pedagogy.

I use writing as a way to reflect and yet I haven’t used this blog to support my own instructional leadership work in the last few years. One of the reasons for that is that it’s hard to write about a current challenge – sometimes details cannot be made public, sometimes information is tied to a person and I never want to write about other people without their permission, and sometimes when you are in the thick of something it’s hard to know which way is up. However, that is often a good time to write about an issue.

Some of the issues I hope to explore this year include:

• Scope and sequences and pacing guides
• Teacher autonomy
• Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) in math
• The science of reading
• Coaching

I’d love to hear what topics have risen to the top in your instructional leadership.