A one-stop shop to answer your most pressing questions about what it takes to facilitate. Workshops, committees, teams, and study groups are a regular part of an educator's professional life, and any educator can find themselves in the facilitator role, with a responsibility to aid the group in achieving its goals. The Effective Facilitator's Handbook is here to help. Professional development expert Cathy A. Toll has written a guide for busy facilitators, starting with four simple rules for successful facilitation: listen, start with the end in mind, lead with productive tools, and stay organized. The processes, tools, and templates in each chapter are easy to apply and offer advice about how to create a welcoming environment, set the right tone, understand the group's dynamics, improve communication, and more. This book walks you through the unique purposes, pitfalls, and needs of specific types of groups, whether it's a professional development workshop, a committee focused on one decision or problem, a team that regularly collaborates for student success, or a study group learning about a specific issue. But Toll also considers the bigger picture and connects the patterns behind different types of facilitation skills that will serve you in a variety of situations and settings. As an effective facilitator, you'll be able to increase the value of group time, foster engagement, and help teachers improve their practice so that they can bring their best to the classroom each day.

Educational coaches-whether math, literacy, instructional, or curriculum coaches-vary in the content of the work they do and in the grade range of the teachers with whom they work. But ""good coaching is good coaching,"" as coaching expert Cathy A. Toll affirms in this, her newest book. All coaches seek to help solve problems and increase teacher success, and they all depend on effective collaboration to do so. This practical guide shows readers how to get the most out of educational coaching. It details: Models of coaching that enhance teachers' thinking, help them overcome obstacles to success, and lead to lasting change. Three phases of the problem-solving cycle. Characteristics of effective coaching conversations. Components of CAT-connectedness, acceptance, and trustworthiness-that are essential to the partnership. Practices that support teamwork. Toll also tackles the obstacles that hinder a coach's success-administrators who don't understand coaching and teachers who don't want to engage. Full of insights and answers, Educational Coaching is for all coaches and those who lead them.

Do you feel bogged down by endless administrative tasks? Do you wish you could focus more on what truly matters-learning? Learnership provides both insight and solutions for moving past the distractions and becoming a learning leader. Cathy Toll illustrates this transformational process through activities and focused "learning conversations." Toll uses supported actions, theory and research, real-life stories, and narrative bibliography to explain how the practice of learnership can be implemented on a daily basis. This book offers: Practices to help teachers improve their effectiveness using problem-solving techniques More effective ways to approach data, testing, and accountability Strategies for supporting Professional Learning Teams (PLT) and educational coaches Learnership is an invaluable resource for principals and teachers in school-based leadership roles, or anyone who wishes to focus on school improvement and their own personal growth as a leader in education.