The Power of Conversation

Designed to harness the power of focused professional conversation, this book uses dialogues between a principal and a mentor or colleague to explore everyday school dilemmas, such as scheduling, discipline, budgeting, and instructional challenges.

Barbara Kohm is a veteran principal, teacher, consultant, and mentor. She is the co-founder of the Clayton Family Center in Missouri.

Meet the Author Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Building Trust: Honesty and clarity are more important than perfection Chapter 2. Establishing and maintaining focus: Knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do Chapter 3. Developing a learning culture: From fixing people to building capacity Chapter 4. Building a competent, cohesive faculty: The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts Chapter 5. Building a collegial culture: No more insiders and outsiders Chapter 6. Making purposeful decisions: The building blocks of a cohesive culture Chapter 7. Resolving conflicts: Avoiding winners and losers Chapter 8. Planning meetings: Learning and leading together Chapter 9. Collecting and using data: What story does your data tell? Chapter 10. Improving Curriculum and Instruction: From Creating Orthodoxies to Continual Change