Elena Aguilar
edutopia
Oakland, CA, United States
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Past articles by Elena:
How to Address Tough Topics in Staff Meetings
A structured process can help administrators and teachers discuss topics they’d often rather avoid, from equity issues to team dynamics. → Read More
Why Your Coaching Program Is Failing
In Elena's final blog, she shares why coaching programs fail and what leaders can do to prevent failure and create effective coaching programs. → Read More
How to Build Resilient Teams
Resilient teams are built when they are provided time, space, and structure and when the leader is supremely aware that their emotions are contagious. → Read More
5 Ways to Do Equity Work Daily
When it comes to owning our learning around diversity, equity, and inclusiveness many of us rely too heavily on the experts to do the heavy lifting. → Read More
How a Vacation Improves Your Coaching
When you turn completely away from your professional life, your mind can follow the whispers that beckon it, which will ultimately help us become more compassionate, curious people--and more effective coaches. → Read More
How to Coach a Teacher Out
I recently got an email from a teacher I coached 10 years ago. The first sentence was, "I can't thank you enough for convincing me to quit." → Read More
Why We Need Transformative Learning Experiences
Two things are true as I sort through my reflections on transformative learning experiences: We need intensive, immersive opportunities for learning (such as a trip to Kenya) and we also need to build in mini-opportunities for transformative learning every day. → Read More
How to Coach the 'Delusional' Teacher
Coaching a teacher who appears "delusional" requires you to slow down and get curious. → Read More
Podcasts That Expand Our Hearts and Minds
A collection of podcasts that aren’t about education but can still help teachers find new ways to think about their work. → Read More
How to Coach the Perfectionist Teacher: The Coach's Emotions (Part 3)
Katie was one of the most challenging teachers for me to coach because of the emotions that arose in me. I often felt frustrated with her, because I felt like her perfectionism was getting in the way of her being a good teacher, and I felt impatient with her. → Read More
How to Coach the Perfectionist Teacher: Strategies that Work (Part 2)
Coaching a perfectionist teacher requires an expansive set of tools--they are a complicated type to coach. What follows are eleven strategies that I've found are useful with most perfectionists. → Read More
How to Coach the Perfectionist Teacher: Understanding Perfectionism (Part 1)
At the heart of perfectionism is a belief that, in order to be loved and accepted, we must strive to act and be the best all the time. Our very worth as a human being is tied to our perfection. → Read More
How to Coach the Overwhelmed Teacher
Often when I ask educators how they're feeling, the most common phrases I hear are, "I'm overwhelmed" and "I'm so stressed." → Read More
How to Coach a Cranky Teacher
Five strategies for coaching a cranky teacher that start with getting humble and empathetic. → Read More
Three Reasons Your Coachees' Emotions Matter
Teachers commonly express strong emotions in coaching sessions. Here are a few ways to help them process those. → Read More
Books That Foster Empathy and Hope
An educator shares some of her favorite reads of 2018—fiction and nonfiction that may help you recharge over the break. → Read More
Why Teachers Might Benefit From Transformational Coaching
Transformational coaching is an approach that explores a teacher's behaviors, beliefs, and ways of being, and that uses a systems thinking perspective to solve for common instructional challenges. → Read More
Simple Tips for Boosting Teacher Resilience
Try these quick and easy ways to build resilience and relieve stress. → Read More
The Arc of a Coaching Conversation: Six Steps to More Effective Meetings
A basic plan for a coaching conversation provides a routine that allows you and your coachee to enter each conversation with confidence, while also providing a structure to return to should the conversation digress. → Read More
Why Coaches Deserve More Appreciation, and How to Get It
While educators as a whole are terribly underappreciated, coaches might be the least appreciated group of all. → Read More