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A quick note to listeners:
Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker take a few minutes to share some feedback that Will has recently received after a PD session with teachers and staff.
Listen in to hear their conversation!
Meet Kim Marshall and Jenn David-Lang:
Kim Marshall is a veteran educator and writer known for his work on teacher development, leadership, and school improvement. After spending 32 years in the Boston Public Schools—as a teacher, principal, and central office leader—he began writing and consulting full-time. He’s best known for The Marshall Memo, a weekly summary of important research and ideas for educators, and for his work on teacher supervision and evaluation. Kim’s mission is to help educators stay informed, inspired, and focused on what matters most for student success.
Jenn David-Lang is an experienced educator, writer, and professional learning facilitator known for making education research accessible and actionable. She is the founder of The Main Idea, a service that provides monthly summaries of essential education books for busy school leaders. With a background in teaching, leadership, and coaching, Jenn combines deep knowledge with practical insights to support school improvement. Her mission is to empower educators with the tools and ideas they need to lead with clarity and purpose.
They are the authors of two books, The Best of the Marshall Memo: Book One and Book Two: Ideas and Action Steps to Energize Leadership, Teaching, and Learning and they received a grant to upload all of the chapters to a website to offer these materials for FREE (bestofmarshallmemo.org)
Identifying and Retaining Good Teachers:
Will Parker begins the conversation by asking Jenn David-Lang and Kim Marshall to share some tips on how school leaders can identify and retain good teachers. For some principals, identifying the best teachers to retain can be difficult, and doing so is crucial to the health of the school. Sometimes identifying these teachers can come down to a simple judgement call; recognizing that there is potential in a teacher can lead to teacher growth. Kim Marshall suggests that classroom visits are what help identify good teachers, while giving them feedback is what will help retain them. Jenn David-Lang reminds listeners to pay attention to how a teacher responds to feedback, as well as the relationships they have formed.
Preventing Teacher Burnout:
Next, Kim and Jenn share some insight into preventing teacher burnout. They recommend reading Article #8 of the Best of the Marshall Memo, an article that shares the story of a teacher, Rebecka Peterson, who almost left the profession. The turning point for Rebecka was when she started reminding herself of one good thing that happened each day. Eventually, she had her students start doing the same thing. In 2023, she was named the National Teacher of the Year. Kim and Jenn highlight Rebecka’s story, among others, in the Best of the Marshall Memo to provide principals with a variety of solutions to combating teacher burnout. Teaching is a hard profession, so it is essential for school leaders to provide the necessary coping strategies to struggling teachers.
Why Teachers Don’t Ask for Help:
Many new teachers often hesitate to ask for help when they need it, which can lead to stress and burnout for these individuals. One reason for this, Jenn and Kim highlight, is that teachers feel that principals are not easily accessible to them. Kim suggests that principals move away from a once a year teacher evaluation system to a frequent, informal system, thereby reducing the stakes of the process so that the administrator is more accessible. Jenn discusses the power of reflection on teacher growth. She says that principals should regularly ask new teachers about one thing that is going well and one thing they need support with. This removes some of the hesitation a new teacher may feel about asking for help by going to them, rather than them coming to you.
Resilience Strategies:
Building emotional resilience is a hard, but necessary skill that all educators must develop. This is an exceptionally difficult skill for new teachers to develop. Jenn recommends the book Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators to teachers and principals. Kim and Jenn also recommend Article #9 of the Best of Marshall Memo to teachers as a story that provides a realistic solution to managing tough emotions in the classroom. Focusing on what went well in the classroom can help boost teacher morale immensely. Teaching is a hard job, and Jenn and Kim want to help both school leaders and teachers to build emotional resilience and prevent burnout.
Staying Connected:
Jenn and Kim encourage listeners who would like to learn more about their work to visit Bestofmarshallmemo.org. They also encourage listeners to check out the all faculty discussions portion of their website.
