SamTastic Weekly Tip: 11/3/25 - More is Better

This week’s Tip: More is Better

SAM principals know the frequency of classroom visits, coupled with feedback conversations with teachers, is a good predictor of improved practice. In other words, more is better.  TimeTrack data reveals SAM leaders spend far more time in classrooms in informal, formative visits than formal, evaluative observations.

Does work with teachers in grade level, subject, PLC and planning meetings help?  Can principals use their experiences in classrooms in group meetings effectively?

In an Edutopia article, Using Your PLCs to Promote Collective Instructional Improvement, author Olivia Odileke makes a persuasive case that the answer is yes.

“The most effective learning walks I’ve facilitated follow a focused, grade-level approach that builds team ownership from the start. Choose one area that aligns with your school improvement goals—student engagement, questioning strategies, or differentiation—and visit several classrooms teaching similar content within a 60-minute window.

Before conducting learning walks, involve your teams in identifying what to look for. During a PLC meeting, ask, “If we’re focusing on student questioning this month, what specific behaviors should I be watching for?” Let teachers help create the observable indicators. This collaborative approach immediately builds shared ownership—teachers become partners in defining excellence, not just subjects of observation.

Strategic Questions That Build Team Ownership

Here’s how curious principals transform observation data into powerful team inquiries.

Focus: Student participation. Instead of “Some teachers need to call on more students,” ask the team, “We noticed that participation varied significantly across rooms. What conditions help quiet students feel safe to share their thinking?”

Focus: Pacing and processing time. Instead of “Lessons are moving too quickly for some students,” ask the team, “We observed different pacing approaches. What have you noticed about how processing time affects student understanding?”

Focus: Response to student questions. Instead of “Teachers should encourage more student questions,” ask the team, “We saw fascinating moments when students asked unexpected questions. What strategies help you feel confident when students take learning in unexpected directions?”

Notice how each question shifts ownership from individual deficits to collective exploration. The team becomes invested in solving challenges together rather than feeling evaluated individually.”

Read the full article:  https://bit.ly/3WAxF6c

Special thanks to Kim Marshall for featuring Odileke’s article recently in the Marshall Memo, a weekly email publication that summarizes key ideas and research from over 60 educational sources for K-12 educators.  NSIP offers the Marshall Memo to active SAM principals and SAMs at no cost.  Use this link to begin receiving this useful resource.  https://bit.ly/3nE9hm3

---

19^th Annual National SAM Conference

Registration link:  https://registration.samprocess.com/ 

A few things to consider when planning to attend:

Ø The conference is January 15-18. 2026.

Ø To be eligible to attend, you must be a SAM team member doing the process with efficacy, NSIP staff, Board member or presenter.

Ø The conference will be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Marriott Harbor Beach Resort

Keynote Speakers

·      Will Parker, Principals Matter: Living your Best Life as an Educator

·      Will Bowen, You Can’t Complain Your Way to Success

·      Tracie Swilley, The PrinciPAL Effect: Setting the Vibe, Energy, and Excellence Every Day

·      John Antonetti, Personal Response: Am I safe to share my thinking?

·      William Martinez, Signing the Song: The Power of Belonging

Pre-Conference All-Day Workshop Presenters

·      Jim Masters, Beyond Why and What – Getting to How School Leaders Make a Difference

·      Ken Williams, Better Teachers, Better Results: Where Students Learn Because Of US

·      Willow Sweeney, Top 20 Moves for Building Effective Staff and Student Relationships

·      Brendan Houdek and Caleb Shomaker:  Executive Speaking Coaching Seminar

Breakout session preference selection, featuring national presenters and SAM practitioners, will open December 1.

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 10/27/25 - Artificial Intelligence Use and Student Mental Health

This week’s Tip:   Artificial Intelligence Use and Student Mental Health

The plethora of articles touting the advantages of artificial intelligence use in schools seldom mention the rising concern about student mental health.  Artificial Intelligence chat-bots have been connected to cases of student depression and suicide.  Research shows this happens more in schools that encourage AI use. 

Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth, chief medical officer, The Jed Foundation, warns that AI companions have emotionally manipulative techniques similar to online predators, and can negatively impact young people’s emotional well-being, from delaying help-seeking to disrupting real-life connections.  “While online predators are typically seeking either sexual contact with minors or monetary rewards from blackmail, AI companions are designed to keep users in conversations,” she says. Teenagers are particularly “vulnerable to exploitation by systems designed to maximize attention or simulate care.” 

In an August 2025 report published by Heat Initiative and Parents Together Action, researchers logged 669 harmful interactions across 50 hours of conversation with 50 Character.AI bots using accounts registered to children (an average of one harmful interaction every five minutes). "Grooming and sexual exploitation" was the most common harm category, with 296 instances.

A new study published Oct. 8 by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) found that 1 in 5 high school students have had a relationship with an AI chatbot, or know someone who has. In a 2025 report from Common Sense Media, 72% of teens had used an AI companion, and a third of teen users said they had chosen to discuss important or serious matters with AI companions instead of real people.

Elizabeth Laird, a co-author on the CDT study and the organization's director of equity in civil technology, says that schools play a crucial role in children's use of AI. "Along with higher usage of AI in schools are coming these negative effects that students will bear the brunt of," Laird says.  For students whose schools use AI extensively, the rate of students who have had a romantic relationship with AI jumps to 32%. And 30% of students indicate that they have had personal conversations with AI using a school-provided device or service. However, only 11% of teachers said that their school provided guidance on what to do if they suspect a student's use of AI is detrimental to their well-being.”

Excerpts from USA Today, October 20, 2025 Access the full article:   http://bit.ly/4hvRoxp

---

19^th Annual National SAM Conference

Registration link:  https://registration.samprocess.com/ 

A few things to consider when planning to attend:

Ø The conference is January 15-18. 2026.

Ø To be eligible to attend, you must be a SAM team member doing the process with efficacy, NSIP staff, Board member or presenter.

Ø The conference will be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Marriott Harbor Beach Resort

Keynote Speakers

·      Will Parker, Principals Matter: Living your Best Life as an Educator

·      Will Bowen, You Can’t Complain Your Way to Success

·      Tracie Swilley, The PrinciPAL Effect: Setting the Vibe, Energy, and Excellence Every Day

·      John Antonetti, Personal Response: Am I safe to share my thinking?

·      William Martinez, Signing the Song: The Power of Belonging

Pre-Conference All-Day Workshop Presenters

·      Jim Masters, Beyond Why and What – Getting to How School Leaders Make a Difference

·      Ken Williams, Better Teachers, Better Results: Where Students Learn Because Of US

·      Willow Sweeney, Top 20 Moves for Building Effective Staff and Student Relationships

·      Brendan Houdek and Caleb Shomaker:  Executive Speaking Coaching Seminar

Breakout session preference selection, featuring national presenters and SAM practitioners, will open December 1.

SamTastic Weekly Tip: 10/20/25 - Transactional or Generative?

This week’s Tip: Transactional or Generative?

When students are asked at the end of a lesson, “Do you have any questions?” the response is often silence.  Principal learning guru Mike Rutherford suggests a way to change the silence to engaged responses.

“I was in a 6th grade classroom recently and I heard another version of “Are there any questions.”  As the end of the lesson drew near, the teacher paused, took a breath, let it out slowly, and said “Now… what are your questions?” Hear the difference?  This simple change in phrasing led to a wholly new set of student responses.  “Now, what are your questions?” comes loaded with a completely different set of implications than does “Are there any questions?”

I’ll exaggerate a bit for effect, but baked into “Are there any questions?” is the message:  If you’ve been listening carefully, thinking clearly, taking good notes, and have avoided distractions, you probably won’t have any questions.  Just in case, though, here is an opportunity to make up for your lapses in learning. 

Are there any questions? “Now, what are your questions?” implies a different message…  If you’ve been listening carefully, taking good notes, thinking curiously, and giving yourself fully to your learning, then at this moment, there is no way you won’t have a bunch of great questions.  Let’s hear them!

The teacher may continue.  “Some of your questions may be simple, factual questions and that’s OK.  I’m sure I didn’t explain everything just right.  Some of your questions, however, will be deeper, such as, why is this important?  How or when might this not work?  What else is similar to this?  How does this make you feel?  

Going a little deeper, I think that “Are there any questions?” implies that a transaction is in progress.  I’m the teacher.  I’m teaching this lesson.  You’re the students.  You’re paying attention.  I’ll do my part.  You’ll do your part.  We’ll take a few questions at the end in case the transaction was flawed in some way.  It also implies the too simplistic principle that questions all have answers, and correct ones at that.  “Now, what are your questions?” is generative, rather than transactional.  It implies that the lesson is just getting started.  Now comes the good part… the connecting, the curiosity, the deeper layers, the schema building.  It’s OK, desirable even, to pose questions to which there are no right or wrong answers, or questions whose answers will need to be searched out as a part of one’s ongoing curiosity and interest.  So… sometimes a simple rephrasing of the teacher’s words can make a big difference in students’ thinking and learning.  I’m grateful and appreciative that I was present when this skillful 6th grade teacher demonstrated this so powerfully.  Of course, there is so much more to know and discover about the simple practice of asking and answering classroom questions.  This topic has been well researched and the literature available to seekers is deep and broad.  Now, what are your questions?”

Mike Rutherford, Rutherford Learning Group, www.rutherfordlg.com

---

19^th Annual National SAM Conference

Registration link:  https://registration.samprocess.com/ 

A few things to consider when planning to attend:

Ø The conference is January 15-18. 2026.

Ø To be eligible to attend, you must be a SAM team member doing the process with efficacy, NSIP staff, Board member or presenter.

Ø The conference will be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Marriott Harbor Beach Resort

Keynote Speakers

·      Will Parker, Principals Matter: Living your Best Life as an Educator

·      Will Bowen, You Can’t Complain Your Way to Success

·      Tracie Swilley, The PrinciPAL Effect: Setting the Vibe, Energy, and Excellence Every Day

·      John Antonetti, Personal Response: Am I safe to share my thinking?

·      William Martinez, Signing the Song: The Power of Belonging

Pre-Conference All-Day Workshop Presenters

·      Jim Masters, Beyond Why and What – Getting to How School Leaders Make a Difference

·      Ken Williams, Better Teachers, Better Results: Where Students Learn Because Of US

·      Willow Sweeney, Top 20 Moves for Building Effective Staff and Student Relationships

·      Brendan Houdek and Caleb Shomaker:  Executive Speaking Coaching Seminar

Breakout session preference selection, featuring national presenters and SAM practitioners, will open December 1.