Unstuck: How Curiosity, Peer Coaching, and Teaming Can Change Your School

by Bryan Goodwin, Tonia Gibson, Dale Lewis

Good ideas, the best intentions, and a stirring vision aren't enough to effect change in schools. Unstuck offers a road map to help schools change from the inside out instead of the top down. Inside-out approaches are designed to encourage schools to become more innovative and entrepreneurial, finding better ways to help students learn and pursue their own intellectual passions and talents—while also maintaining a healthy skepticism and reliance on data to make sure new approaches and ideas are working. This process involves seven starting with moral purpose, unleashing curiosity, building on bright spots, peer coaching toward precision, leading from the inside out, and moving the goal posts. This book's tips, real-life examples, and next steps will help leaders get from where they are now to where they want to be.

Genres: Education

200 pages, Paperback

Published April 25, 2018

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unstuck is one of those professional books that you can skim through in one sitting, or take time to process the information bit by bit over time. The authors focuses on three key components that they have found necessary to bring change to the schools they worked with over the years: CURIOSITY, PEER COACHING, and TEAMING. The underlying piece that is needed for these three components to work is a school leadership team that feels less like a "bureaucracy and more like a Silicon Valley startup."

As a teacher leader in our school helping to grow our instructional coaching program, I found simple ideas that I can take back and share with our coaching staff when school starts. Here are some of my favorite ones:

1. Pg 73-79: Lesson Planning Strategies and reflection questions to use as I coach teachers.

2. Pg. 88-93 & 158-162: Observing teachers looking for "bright spots" in everyone's classrooms. Having teachers observe one another to see "what they are doing right." Taking this data and turning it into Theories of Action - "When teachers do this, Then this happens for students."

3. Pg. 152 -154: Good leaders ask better questions. Figure 7.2 lists 6 types of questions that we can ask of one another to increase growth. Understanding why people resist change and how to get them to change.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a helpful book for creating change within schools. It reminds you to start with the moral purpose and unleash curiosity in order to make a change. If you’ve ever felt stuck or disillusioned, this book can help you reframe your way of thinking.

[Elizabeth Guillemette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a horrible professional development book, but also not one that made me excited to get back into the classroom. It seemed focused on the negativity in schools.

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent roadmap for putting student and teacher curiosity at the epicenter of teaching and learning