Speaking Up: Hard Conversations with Ourselves
December 18, 2012
Read Jennifer's interview with Bob Garmston on the ABPC Blog "Speaking Up: Hard Conversations with Ourselves"
Excerpt:
We’re pleased to present this original conversation between Jennifer Abrams and Robert Garmston concerning the difficult but important conversations educators need to have with themselves about speaking up when critical issues are on the table.
Jennifer Abrams is a former English teacher and new-teacher coach, and a professional developer with two books to her credit. The first, Having Hard Conversations (Corwin, 2009), provides a step-by-step approach to mastering the art of challenging conversations in a wide range of professional situations. Jennifer’s next book, with the intriguing title Being Generationally Savvy: Working Effectively with Educators of All Generations, will be published by Corwin in 2013.
Bob Garmston – a legend in professional development circles – co-authored The Adaptive School, which won the NSDC Book of the Year award when it first came out. Bob is also the co-author of Cognitive Coaching, based on the influential PD model he developed with Art Costa. His most recent book is Unlocking Group Potential to Improve Schools (Corwin, 2012). His next publication from Corwin, Lemons to Lemonade: Resolving Problems in Meetings, Workshops and PLCs, will appear in 2013.
ABPC’s Cathy Gassenheimer had the opportunity to participate in a day-long session with Jen and Bob at the recent Learning Forward annual conference. We’re delighted they’ve accepted her invitation to extend the learning here at our blog.
About Jennifer Abrams
Jennifer has been recognized as one of "21 Women All K-12 Educators Need to Know" by Education Week's 'Finding Common Ground' blog. She considers herself a "voice coach," helping others learn how to best use their voices – be it collaborating on a team, facilitating a group, coaching a colleague, supervising an employee and being an all around better human being in all types of interactions.
Work with Jennifer
Praise for Jennifer
“Jennifer has so squarely hit the mark with our teacher-leaders that she is one of the few presenters that they are always requesting when professional development is the question. Here at the University of Chicago, this acclaim and recognition does not come easily! Jennifer has a way of presenting information that gets quickly to the heart of the matter. Her ability to read the true needs of the group, regardless of the original focus, has made her a favorite among the faculty here at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.”
