Creating a Coaching Culture for Professional Learning Communities, June/2010

Build a collaborative coaching culture that ensures all adults learn through activities that keep the team focused on student learning. This practical resource provides activities designed to meet a wide variety of needs so you can choose the ones that fit your leadership style, the learning styles of team members, and the particular needs of the school.

1. Explore the role of personality type in PLC teams.
2. Understand how a coaching model can ensure success in a multiyear PLC effort.
3. Utilize a framework for making constructive use of differences in collaborative work and decision making.
4. Get handouts and activities for each personality type.
5. Gain a detailed appendix describing each of the 16 types.

About The Authors:
Jane A. G. Kise, EdD, is a consultant with extensive experience in professional development for instructional coaching, differentiation, and effective mathematics instruction. Other areas of expertise include strategic planning, team building, and conflict resolution. She has worked with Minneapolis Public Schools, the Bush Foundation, Pennsylvania Department of Education, Minnesota Department of Education, television stations, large and small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and community banking organizations. In addition to having an active client base in North America, Dr. Kise has conducted workshops in Germany, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, and Australia.

In 2005, Dr. Kise received the Isabel Briggs Myers Award for her research on differentiated coaching. In 2007, she received the Journal of Psychological Type Award for Best Application of Psychological Type for her research on coaching teachers for change.

She is author or coauthor of more than 20 books, including Differentiated Coaching, Differentiated School Leadership, and Introduction to Type® and Coaching. In addition, Dr. Kise’s articles have appeared in Principal Leadership, The Bulletin of Psychological Type, Guideposts, Writer’s Digest, and many other magazines.

Dr. Kise is a Master Practitioner of both the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and the Strong Interest Inventory™ and frequently speaks or consults using both instruments. Her research involves identification of differences in how students with different type preferences master mathematical concepts and the implications for instruction and also using type as a coherent framework for differentiated instruction.

She is past president of the Association for Psychological Type International, the Minnesota Chapter of National League of American Pen Women, and a faculty member of the Center for Applications of Psychological Type. She is a member of several honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa. She previously worked as an examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and as a financial analyst for Norwest Corporation.

Dr. Kise holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of St. Thomas, an MBA in finance from the University of Minnesota, and a bachelors’ degree in English and business administration from Hamline University.

Beth Russell, EdD, is an author, speaker, trainer, and principal of South View Middle School in a suburb of Minneapolis. She has worked with numerous urban and suburban school systems introducing personality type theory and teaching its value as a tool for differentiation, classroom management, culturally responsive teaching, instructional coaching, and collaboration. She views type theory as a vehicle for students to advocate how they learn best and for teachers to identify new strategies for helping all students learn.

She coauthored Differentiated School Leadership and has written several articles for education publications. Dr. Russell has presented at NSDC, World Futures, ASCD, and National Urban Alliance conferences. She has also participated in the National Institute for School Leadership, trained at the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, and directed the Minneapolis Public Schools in implementing a comprehensive framework for teaching and learning. Dr. Russell volunteers as an assessor for the University of St. Thomas Principal Assessment Center.

She earned a BS in child development and family relations from Colorado State University, a master’s degree in social work from the University of Minnesota, and a doctorate in educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota.