eNewsletter: March 4, 2008

Missed Our Presentation at the OSPI Conference? No Problem.

PTL President and Founder, Alison Olzendam, was lucky enough to present to a packed house at the OSPI conference at the end of January. Her session, called "Bridging the Implementation Gap" explored the research and principles behind adult learning and strategies for sustainable practices. You can check out the slide deck online in the blog entry, or download a PDF from our resources page.

Heather Knight also had a chance to present on behalf of PTL's partner, the Leadership Innovations Team. In a presentation titled "Leadership Training and Executive Coaching: Ensuring New Principal Support is Effective, Consistent, and Research-Based" she provided an introduction to coaching, an overview of the research-based benefits of coaching leaders, and examined the program that Portland Public Schools is currently implementing to provide top-notch support for their new leaders.

Her presentation can also be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF from the Leadership Innovations Team site.

New From LIT: Leadership Coaching Training

Our partners at the Leadership Innovations Team are excited to announce their latest development opportunity: Leadership Coaching Training. This training combines the best coaching and leadership training available to deliver a program guaranteed to help new and experienced leaders alike reach their highest potential.

This training offers practical, hands-on, interactive experience to help develop essential skills - helping new leaders move from philosophy to concrete strategies for execution. Participants work in small and large groups, observe mock coaching sessions, and even have multiple opportunities to practice coaching in real time with feedback and guidance.

Visit the website to learn more. You can also sign up to receive notifications via email when new dates and locations are announced.

Upcoming Institute Dates

We've got several institutes coming up that still have availability. You can check out the complete calendar online or browse below to see what's lined up.

Coaching Institutes
Kelso: April 8-9, May 6-7, June 3

Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Math Classroom
Renton, WA: May 15 & 16, 2008

Extraordinary Leaders Institute (offered by our partner, the Leadership Innovations Team)
Toppenish (Registration Deadline is March 12)
Day 1: March 24, Day 2: March 25

Interview: Learn how Wapato School District is Putting Powerful Teaching into Practice

We had a chance for some quick Q&A with Linda Heade, School Improvement Facilitator for Wapato Middle School, to see how the early stages of their PTL implementation is going. One of the most useful bits of feedback were Linda's ideas about why the program was already experiencing success:

Linda writes: I believe that the success of this training is based upon:

• Quality orientation of PTL and STAR that addresses readiness to benefit prior to teacher commitment to the process
• Current, well researched data consistently included and aligned within all segments of PTL
• Quality training (initial & follow-up) provided by a highly skilled and currently practicing teacher…increases trust and credibility!
• Site visits with coaching provided for effective debriefs

Check out the blog entry to read the whole interview.