Instructional coaching does not succeed on the strength of the coach alone. It thrives when leaders create the conditions that allow coaching to flourish. This session will provide school leaders with an inside look at the Newport News Public Schools Coaching Model and its role in improving teaching and learning. Participants will examine how their decisions around clarity, communication, and culture directly influence the effectiveness of coaching in their buildings. Leave with new ideas for supporting meaningful coaching partnerships and a personalized action step toward building systems where coaches, teachers, and students can all win.
How much should a principal participate in a PLC? In this interactive fishbowl session, participants will observe the leadership moves that foster teacher ownership, collective efficacy, and meaningful data-driven collaboration. Rather than focusing on the PLC's outcomes, attendees will identify strategies principals use to ask purposeful questions, facilitate productive dialogue, and hold teams accountable for improving student learning. Participants will leave with practical leadership techniques to strike the right balance between guiding the work and empowering teachers to lead it.
Every school leader has felt it. A team that meets regularly but still isn't seeing results. This session unpacks Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team framework, walking through the real cascade from absence of trust to inattention to results, with the leader's role and practical suggestions at each layer. Through a quick self-assessment and small-group scenario work, leaders will diagnose where their own team is actually stuck. This isn't theory. You'll leave ready to make your next move with your own team.
Go beyond the framework and into the work. In this interactive session, you'll take a deeper look at the Teaching & Learning Framework, explore what it looks like in practice, and make meaningful connections to your role as an instructional leader. Through discussion and application, you'll leave with a clearer understanding of how the framework can guide leadership decisions and strengthen teaching and learning across your school.
All leaders are required to attend this session during one of the available time slots.
Student behavior is often a reflection of the systems, expectations, and culture that leaders create. In this interactive session, Dr. Jaraun Ransome and Dr. Shayla Woodard will share practical strategies for building positive school cultures through proactive systems, VTSS frameworks, and data-informed decision making. Participants will explore how clarity, consistency, and capacity can reduce behavioral challenges while increasing student belonging and success. Leaders will leave with actionable tools they can immediately implement to strengthen culture and improve outcomes in their schools.
