Blended Coaching: Skills and Strategies to Support Principal Development

Support new and veteran principals through coaching-based professional development! 

How can a coach support a school leader in mastering the professional and emotional challenges of school leadership in a manner that has a positive impact on students? This book provides practical skills and strategies for leadership coaching explicitly tied to the needs of principals and other school leaders. An indispensable resource for improving principal retention, teacher satisfaction and student achievement, this ready reference contains:

• Real-life examples
• Reflective prompts
• Practical exercises
• Comprehensive resources, including worksheets, sample forms, and assessments

Gary Bloom is the lead author of Blended Coaching: Supporting the Development and Supervision of School Leaders. Gary has 40 years of K-12 education experience, having served as a bilingual teacher, principal, director of curriculum, and assistant superintendent. He served as the superintendent of the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District, known for its innovative programs, such as graduation exhibitions, a teacher-led high school, and teacher peer review. More recently he served as superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools. He was a founder and Associate Director of the New Teacher Center at the University of California Santa Cruz. Gary is a Kellogg National Fellow, was adjunct faculty to San Jose State University's Educational Administration graduate program, and has consulted, trained, and presented on a variety of topics throughout the United States and in Latin America. He is the primary author of a number of professional development programs for leadership coaches and school principals. He has published articles in a variety of journals, most recently on the topics of teacher leadership, principal development, professional learning communities, new teacher support, and the appropriate use of technology. He authored, with his friend Marty Krovetz, the book Powerful Partnerships, a guide for the development of assistant principals in collaboration with their supervising principals available from Corwin Press. Gary currently consults with school districts around the United States, provides executive coaching to superintendents and principal supervisors, does volunteer work in California and Central America.

Claire Castagna is a program director and outreach consultant for the New Teacher Center's administrator induction program, Coaching School Leaders to Attain Student Success.  She has 28 years experience in education as a bilingual teacher, bilingual program coordinator, assistant principal and principal.  Throughout her career, Claire has focused on implementing programs that ensure that second language learners achieve excellence. She has presented her work in second language literacy at TESOL and CABE conferences. As a principal, Claire led her school to a California Distinguished School Award and became a mentor principal for the Santa Cruz County Baldrige in Education Consortium. Since 2001, Claire has coached beginning principals as they learn to balance the daily demands of the principalship with their role as instructional leader and change agent.  She has collaborated in the development of CLASS as a model of support for beginning principals and leads the development of the Improving Student Achievement series of workshops for site administrators on standards based supervision.

Ellen Moir is founder and executive director of the New Teacher Center, which is committed to the development of an inspired, dedicated, and highly quali¬fied teaching force by supporting new teachers as they enter the profession. For more than 20 years, she has pioneered innovative approaches to new teacher development, research on new teacher practice, and the design and administration of teacher induction programs. Moir continues to work with the Santa Cruz/Silicon Valley New Teacher Project and is an advocate for new teachers across the country. Moir has received national recognition for her work, including the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. 2005 Prize in Education and the 2003 Distinguished Teacher Educator Award from the California Council on Teacher Education. Moir is the author of several articles and book chapters and has produced video series related to new teacher development. Her work has been supported by over 20 private foundations and donors, the National Science Foundation, and several state and federal agencies.

Betsy Warren has worked in the field of education for thirty years. As a classroom teacher she taught grades 6-12 in four states. She was a teacher leader active in both local and state levels of teacher association activities. After completing her Masters degree in School Administration, she worked as district coordinator of curriculum and staff development. She went on to become a site level administrator where, she confesses, she learned more about herself, schools, and systems than she ever imagined possible. Betsy currently serves as outreach coordinator for the New Teacher Center working with the CLASS Team's New Administrator Project. She also presents professional development seminars for new and veteran administrators. Betsy is a recipient of the Women Leaders in Education Leadership Award and a recent nominee for the Excellence in Education Award sponsored by the Office of the Mayor of San Jose.