Peter DeWitt

Albany

Contributor, Finding Common Ground at Education Week

CEO/Founder - Instructional Leadership Collective. Leadership coach/Author/@EducationWeek Blogger. Moderator for A Seat @ the Table. #LEADCOLLECTIVELY

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Articles

How Educators Can Escape Toxic Productivity

1 month ago | edweek.org | Peter DeWitt |Michael Nelson

It’s 9:30 p.m. A teacher checks their email before heading off to bed. Unfortunately, they’ve received a message from a parent who is angry about an interaction the teacher had with their child earlier that day. The child’s perception of the interaction is skewed, and the parent wants to discuss the situation. The email was sent at 6:30, and the teacher feels guilty for not seeing it until now.
Want to Be a Better Education Leader? Try These 5 Strategies (Opinion)

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Peter DeWitt

3 hours ago10 ChatGPT prompts I love that’ll turn you into a power userIn a world where your favorite chatbot (hopefully not one these) is often relegated to drafting emails or brainstorming ideas, unlocking its full …NowLearn Colorful Vector Illustrations in Adobe Illustrator | Pietari PostiTake this Online Course by Pietari Posti of Studio Posti and Discover the Secrets to Colorful Vector Illustrations in Adobe Illustrator.
Want to Be a Better Education Leader? Try These 5 Strategies

1 month ago | edweek.org | Peter DeWitt |Michael Nelson

We have all been there. Perhaps we are a newer teacher and our principal asks us to be on a leadership team. We both have had the experience in which our principals asked us to join the school leadership team and we found a spring in our step and thought that our leader saw leadership potential within us. Peter, though, found out soon that being a part of the team was really just window dressing.
Using Data With Purpose for Literacy Instruction

1 month ago | edweek.org | Peter DeWitt |Michael Nelson

Collecting data is something leaders and teachers do really well. For example, we were recently working with leaders in a small urban school district, and they told us that collecting data is never an issue because their state requires that of them. The issue? They don’t use those data to guide learning because the information is mostly summative and they receive it too late.
How to Be a Focused Leader When There’s a Lot of Noise (Opinion)

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Peter DeWitt

1 hour agoI Love This Hidden iPhone Camera Trick for Stunning Long-Exposure PhotosYour iPhone can already take beautiful, dreamy long-exposure photos. Here's how to do it. If you've ever seen artistic photos of waterfalls or rivers where the water is blurred to look like flowing ribbons, then you already know the beautiful effect of a long exposure photo. By allowing moving …NowHarvard is taking the Trump administration to court.
How to Be a Focused Leader When There’s a Lot of Noise

1 month ago | edweek.org | Peter DeWitt |Michael Nelson

Every morning, we seem to wake up to more and more uncertainty. Whether it’s concerns about inflation, tariffs, shrinking budgets, or national-level debates about the future of education, the noise can feel overwhelming. Regardless of the social networks we follow, or the news sources we read, it feels like there are so many issues that are out of our control. When the two of us talk with teachers and leaders directly, the real concerns for them come into a sharper focus.
3 Mistakes New Leaders Should Avoid

Jan 19, 2025 | edweek.org | Michael Nelson |Peter DeWitt

A new year. 2025. The beginning of each calendar year usually signals the start of the hiring process for vacancies in school and district leadership positions. Excitement abounds as applicants seek new leadership opportunities and districts anticipate the possibilities that new leaders bring. Prospective leaders are filled with what they hope will be innovative ideas that catch the attention of an interested district.
Why Educators Are Abandoning X to Join Bluesky?

Nov 25, 2024 | edweek.org | Peter DeWitt |Michael Nelson

Many years ago, I (Peter) wrote this blog explaining why so many educators were joining Twitter, now X. In the blog post from 2011, I wrote,Many educators are intrinsically motivated to find their own professional development. They read websites and blogs and are members of organizations that send them journals. They read more educational material than they read books for fun.
How Education Leaders Can Engage With Teachers About Data

Nov 17, 2024 | edweek.org | Peter DeWitt |Michael Nelson

Data and evidence. Those are two words that leaders and teachers often hear and are certainly not new to the educational vernacular. Recently, we posted a short video on our Instructional Leadership Collective Instagram page focusing on using data as a flashlight and not as a hammer, which you can find here. One of the comments we received was: “Data does not drive anything. Influence, inform? Humans make decisions not data.
The Blind Spot More Educators Need to Recognize

Oct 29, 2024 | edweek.org | Peter DeWitt

Have you ever engaged in a self-reflection activity during a professional learning session that provided you with such clarity it changed your perspective immediately? One of us (Michael) remembers a jarring moment during a session that provided such clarity for him. At that time, he was a building principal sitting in a workshop, and the presenter asked the participants to take out their calendars. It was the late ‘90s, so many of the participants were using a paper calendar of some sort.