The main ideas of the book:
- Just as students benefit from teaching that addresses their specific needs, teachers thrive with supervision that is individualized and targets their unique concerns and challenges.
- By expanding their approach to supervision, school leaders can grow strong teachers while simultaneously achieving whole-school improvements that benefit students.
Why I chose this book:
Supervision is incredibly important. It’s how we help teachers grow and develop, and in turn it is how we improve our schools and help students learn. Most school leaders I work with know it’s important, but so often I see them doing just one thing, that same old thing: one-on-one supervision. This type of supervision has its place, but it’s time consuming (one principal supervising dozens of teachers) and, often, it’s not that effective in terms of nurturing real growth. In many schools, supervision is desperately in need of rejuvenation.
Differentiated Supervision will help you build a synchronized, whole-school approach to supervision. In this new system, one-on-one supervision is bolstered by new ways of giving feedback – to small groups and even to the whole staff. Getting an entire faculty working toward practical improvements together can generate energy and synchronicity that one-on-one interactions never could. The supervision process has the potential to be powerful. It’s time to think outside the checklist and bring new life to supervising.
