Coaching the Whole Educator

Latest Episodes:

#202: The Eye Roll You Can't Stop Thinking About [Resistance Solution Session] Oct 04, 2026

Show notes

The strategy everyone nodded along to in August? It's thriving in one classroom and missing in action next door. And that eye roll from the back of the room is still living rent-free in your head.

In this first episode of Solution Sessions, a new weekly segment of Coaching the Whole Educator, Becca reads the opening pages of The Resistance Solution and names what most leaders feel but rarely say out loud: the emotional whiplash of thinking a teacher is on board, then walking into their classroom and finding nothing has changed.

When that happens, most of us reach for one of two explanations. Either some people just don't want to change, or we need more accountability. Both are understandable. Neither gets you very far.

Becca offers a different read: the eye roll, the polite nod, and the strategy that never shows up aren't verdicts on the teacher or on you. They're information.

In this episode:

Why uneven implementation is one of the most common pain points coaches and leaders report
The two default reactions to resistance, and why neither one works
One question to bring into your walkthroughs this week

Your challenge: Pick one classroom where the training isn't showing up yet. Before restating the expectation, ask, "What's getting in the way right now?" Then listen.

Wondering what resistance is costing your school? Take the free What Is Resistance Costing You? quiz and get next steps matched to where you are: https://www.thewholeeducator.com/resistance-quiz

#201: Your Staff's Hidden Superpowers: Building a Neuroinclusive Workplace Without Lowering Expectations Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

What if the colleague you've been describing as "quirky" is the most underused talent in your building?

In this episode of Coaching the Whole Educator, Becca Silver sits down with Justin Permenter of NDI Institute to talk about building workplaces where neurodivergent educators, coaches, and leaders can perform, contribute, and lead without lowering expectations. Roughly one in five people is neurodivergent, including people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. Yet most schools and organizations are built for neurotypical ways of working by default. Students get IEPs and 504 plans. Adults get a workplace that expects everyone to sit at the same table, the same way, on the same timeline.

Justin shares his journey from the classroom in Kansas City to international education in Qatar and his work with Franklin Covey's Leader in Me, plus the story of Omar, a 16-year-old autistic intern who outperformed full-time staff at the Waldorf Astoria within three weeks. Becca opens up about her own ADHD diagnosis and the moment she started seeing it as a strength instead of a deficit.

You'll learn:

Why accommodation and compliance checklists aren't the same as strengths activation
How curiosity (the C in NDI's CLEAR framework) replaces judgment when a colleague works differently
What "results alignment" means: keeping outcomes high while allowing multiple pathways to get there
One thing school leaders and instructional coaches can do tomorrow to lead more neuroinclusively

Perfect for instructional coaches, principals, district leaders, and anyone who leads adults in schools.

Resources mentioned:

Website: www.ndiinstitute.com

Webinar on October 6th: https://www.ndiinstitute.com/webinar

Free C.L.E.A.R. Framework: https://www.ndiinstitute.com/download

The Resistance Solution: Why Educators Resist and What They Need Instead: amzn.to/4pRCaa5

Resistance Solution Book Study Facilitator Training: https://www.thewholeeducator.com/book-study-facilitator-training

#200: Will Drivers: The Motivations Behind Every Conversation Sep 20, 2026

Show notes

Ever notice how the same piece of feedback lands beautifully with one person on your team and completely bombs with another? Robyn Jackson is back, and this time we're digging into Will Drivers, her framework for the four things that motivate every human being: mastery, purpose, belonging, and autonomy.

Here's the twist. Each driver comes with its own core question running in the background of someone's mind: how, why, who, and what. Once you know someone's dominant driver, you stop guessing why they're not responding to your coaching and start speaking a language they can actually hear.

We get into:

What Will Drivers are and where the theory came from
Why the people you connect with most easily probably share your dominant driver
How the same feedback needs to be delivered four completely different ways depending on who's receiving it
Why some of the meanest, most aimless, or most struggling people on your team are driven by the exact thing they seem worst at
The principal who couldn't get his staff moving because he was autonomy driven and they were mastery driven, and neither one understood the other
Robyn's reframe for ditching the shoulds: be curious, not furious

This one will have you diagnosing your own driver, your partner's, and probably three people on your leadership team before the episode is even over.

📖 The Resistance Solution: amzn.to/4pRCaa5

Book Study Facilitator Training: www.thewholeeducator.com/book-study-facilitator-training

About Robyn Jackson: Robyn R. Jackson is the founder of Mindsteps and the creator of the Buildership framework. She's spent years helping leaders move from compliance-driven management to real ownership, and her Will Drivers work grew out of motivation research she originally applied to students before realizing it works just as well on adults.

Connect with Robyn: 100PercentPrincipal.com — free weekly newsletter with practical tools for the challenges you're actually facing.

#199: Stop Waiting for PD: How Self Mentorship Builds Ruckus Maker Principals Sep 06, 2026

Show notes

**Join the Resistance Solution Facebook Community** https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19TRR5VfpX/

Danny Bauer of Better Leaders Better Schools joins Becca Silver to unpack self mentorship, why traditional PD falls short, and how to become a ruckus maker.

Most professional development follows the same script: someone else decides what educators need to learn, when they need to learn it, and how. Danny Bauer, founder of Better Leaders Better Schools and creator of the Ruckus Maker movement, calls this "permission-based development," and he thinks it is holding school leaders back.

In this episode, Becca Silver talks with Danny about self mentorship: a radical ownership model where school leaders define their own growth instead of waiting for central office to approve it. Danny shares real stories of principals who used self mentorship to build "sticky core values," eliminate outdated practices like midterms and finals, and protect their own boundaries without sacrificing results. He and Becca also dig into an uncomfortable pattern Danny has seen again and again: leaders who win Principal of the Year and then get placed on an improvement plan for doing the very work that made them stand out.

If you have ever sensed something was off in how your school or district operates but could not quite name it, this conversation gives you language and a starting question to explore it.

What You'll Learn

What self mentorship is and how it differs from traditional professional development
Why Danny calls conventional PD "permission-based development," and why that framing matters
Real examples of self mentorship in action: sticky core values, eliminating midterms and finals, and protecting personal boundaries as a leader
Why some of the most innovative school leaders get quietly punished for standing out
How systems resist disruption, and why that resistance is not personal
A simple question you can ask tomorrow to start thinking like a "Ruckus Maker"

**Join the Resistance Solution Facebook Community** https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19TRR5VfpX/

📖 The Resistance Solution: amzn.to/4pRCaa5

Guest Bio
Danny Bauer is the founder of Better Leaders Better Schools and the voice behind the Ruckus Maker movement in education. After years in the classroom and central office, Danny now helps school leaders build campus experiences worth showing up for through coaching, a mastermind community, and the Ruckusmakers Media Substack.
Key Quotes

Danny Bauer on traditional professional development: PD is often too little, too late, and disconnected, arriving on a schedule the system sets rather than the leader.
On self mentorship: it is a radical ownership over your own growth and vision, not a curriculum someone else hands you.
On why leaders get punished for innovating: fragile egos at central office sometimes resent when a subordinate gets the credit for doing something new.
On the mindset shift: the real question is not "can I change this," but what would need to be true for it to be different.

Timestamps

03:00 What is self mentorship, and how is it different from professional development
05:30 Why Danny renamed PD "permission-based development"
07:30 Real self mentorship stories: sticky core values, eliminating midterms and finals, protecting boundaries
12:00 The Ruckus Maker movement and questioning how school "has to be"
15:00 Why Principal of the Year winners sometimes end up on improvement plans
18:30 Systems built to stay alive, and why disruption meets resistance
20:30 Where to find Danny's free resources
22:00 One question to ask tomorrow to start your own self mentorship journey

Resources Mentioned

Better Leaders Better Schools: betterleadersbetterschools.com
Ruckusmakers Media (Danny's Substack of mini-books on leadership and school change)
The Art of Self Mentorship (Danny's free mini-book)

#198: What Great Lesson Planning Teaches Us About Great Coaching (with Lori Cohen) Aug 23, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Becca sits down with instructional coaching and lesson planning expert Lori Cohen (co-author of The PD Book) to talk about her new book, The Science of Lesson Planning, and what transformative lesson design can teach coaches and school leaders about building psychological safety in schools. They dig into psychological safety, the difference between coaching and "coaxing," and why celebration and reflection only work when they happen together.

In this episode:

Why great lesson planning is about more than activities and standards
How psychological safety gets built (and spent) in daily interactions, not just at the start of the year
The real difference between conventional and transformative practice: who holds control of the "right answer"
Why "coaxing" isn't coaching, and how it breaks trust
Why celebration and reflection have to happen together for real growth

📖 The Resistance Solution: amzn.to/4pRCaa5

Book Study Facilitator Training: www.thewholeeducator.com/book-study-facilitator-training

About Lori Cohen:
Lori Cohen has spent three decades in education as a teacher, instructional coach, school leader, consultant, and author. Her new book, The Science of Lesson Planning, releases in September through ASCD (preorders open now). She is also co-author of The PD Book: 7 Habits that Transform Professional Development (with Elena Aguilar) and Integrating Educator Well-Being, Growth, and Evaluation: Four Foundations for Leaders.

#197: Why Being Clear Can Feel Hard (with Jennifer Abrams): Do “Hard” Conversations Actually Have to Be Hard? Aug 02, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Becca sits down with Jennifer Abrams, author of five books on adult-to-adult communication in schools including Having Hard Conversations and Stretching Your Learning Edges, for a conversation on hard conversations, school culture, and adult development in education.

Topics covered in this episode:

The difference between resistance and a hard conversation, and where one line ends and the other begins
Why "niceness culture" in schools gets confused with kindness, and how it undermines belonging
The cognitive load behind clear communication, and why so many educators avoid it
The neuroscience of being right: why our brains reward judgment over effectiveness
The five capacities from Stretching Your Learning Edges: knowing our identities, suspending certainty, taking responsibility for communication, building resilience, and engaging in reciprocity
A simple, practical cue for naming dysregulation in a meeting, without shame
Robert Kegan's stages of adult development (instrumental, socialized, self-authoring, self-transforming) and how understanding them builds empathy across a school team

Guest: Jennifer Abrams, adult communication and school culture expert, jenniferabrams.com | LinkedIn | jennifer@jenniferabrams.com

Grab your copy of 📖 The Resistance Solution

Book Study Facilitator Training: www.thewholeeducator.com/book-study-facilitator-training

#196: The "We vs. Me" Test: Why the Same Staff Meeting Energizes Some Teachers and Drains Others (with Dr. Sheldon Eakins) Jul 17, 2026

Show notes

What if the pushback you're getting from teachers isn't about the initiative at all, but about a hidden cultural mismatch in how your school defines belonging?

In this episode of Coaching the Whole Educator, Becca Silver sits down with Dr. Sheldon Eakins, author of Meaningful Classroom Management, What Are You Bringing to the Potluck?, and Leading Equity, to explore a dimension of belonging that rarely gets airtime in school leadership conversations: individualism versus collectivism.

Dr. Eakins explains why American schools are built around individualist norms (GPAs, valedictorians, teacher of the month, "stay in your classroom") while many students and staff come from collectivist backgrounds where success is defined by "we," not "me." When leaders don't recognize this mismatch, the result looks like resistance, disengagement, and retention problems.

In this episode, you'll learn:

How individualism vs. collectivism shows up in staff meetings, PLCs, and professional development, and why "sit and get" works for some educators and alienates others
Dr. Eakins' LENS framework for leaders: Look for biases, Examine communication, Notice group dynamics, Shift perspective
How to separate facts from interpretations when you catch yourself labeling a colleague "rude" or "disengaged"
Why introversion and extroversion are NOT the same as individualism and collectivism
Practical ways to design staff culture that balances individual recognition with collective connection

This conversation is essential listening for instructional coaches, principals, and district leaders working on teacher retention, staff culture, psychological safety, and buy-in for change initiatives.

Grab your copy of 📖 The Resistance Solution

Book Study Facilitator Training: www.thewholeeducator.com/book-study-facilitator-training

Connect with Dr. Sheldon Eakins:
IG: @sheldoneakins

Twitter: @sheldoneakins

Website: purposeful247.com

Books: Amazon

#195: The Resistance Tax: The Hidden Costs of Misunderstood Resistance Jul 11, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Coaching the Whole Educator, Becca Silver explores the hidden costs schools and districts pay when resistance is misunderstood.

She calls it the resistance tax: the quiet drain on resources, relationships, and results that happens when leaders respond to resistance with pressure, compliance, or more accountability instead of understanding what is driving it.

Becca breaks down five major forms of the resistance tax:

• The turnover tax
• The implementation tax
• The time tax
• The trust tax
• The student success tax

She also shares why resistance should be treated as information, not defiance, and how educational leaders can begin identifying where their organization may be paying more than they realize.

The episode also introduces The Resistance Solution and the Resistance Solution Book Study Facilitator Training, a train-the-trainer experience designed to help schools and districts build the internal capacity to diagnose resistance, strengthen ownership, and lead sustainable change.

If your organization is struggling with teacher turnover, initiative fatigue, low buy-in, inconsistent implementation, or stalled change efforts, this episode will help you see the true cost of resistance in a new way.

[Book Study Facilitator Training] www.thewholeeducator.com/book-study-facilitator-training

Grab your copy of 📖 The Resistance Solution

#194: Stop Assuming Great Teachers Make Great Mentors Jun 14, 2026

Show notes

What if one of the biggest missing pieces in teacher retention is how we support mentor teachers?

In this episode, Becca talks with John Pascarella, professor of clinical education at USC and Chief Academic Officer of the USC Race and Equity Center, about why mentor teachers are often asked to support new teachers without the training, role clarity, compensation, or coaching they actually need.

They unpack why being a great teacher does not automatically make someone a great mentor, how mentoring adults requires a different skill set, and why schools need to stop treating mentorship like informal volunteer work.

This conversation is for instructional coaches, school leaders, district leaders, and teacher leaders who want to strengthen new teacher support, improve teacher retention, and build more effective mentoring systems in schools.

John's Info:

Faculty profile | CCTE Policy Brief (free download, includes my brief on mentor teachers) | Learning Policy Institute (Stanford University)

Grab your copy of 📖 The Resistance Solution

Access the FREE book resources here.

#193: When High Expectations Meet Resistance: What Should Leaders Actually Do? Jun 08, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Coaching the Whole Educator, Becca Silver talks with Principal Kafele about what happens when high expectations meet resistance in schools and how leaders can respond without slipping into compliance-driven leadership.

Together, they explore how school leaders can create a true culture of high expectations, not by demanding instant transformation, but by helping educators experience steady, measurable growth. Principal Kafele shares why leaders must connect expectations to a larger purpose, build authentic relationships with staff, and understand what is beneath the pushback before deciding how to respond.

This conversation digs into the difference between teacher resistance, overwhelm, and low expectations, and why leaders cannot diagnose those differences without ongoing trust, coaching, and collaboration. Becca and Principal Kafele also discuss the role of leadership identity, including how the way leaders see themselves shapes how they respond to hesitation, pushback, and resistance.

Listeners will walk away with practical insight into how to:

Hold high expectations without leading through compliance
Recognize growth as progress, not perfection
Build a school culture where expectations become normal behavior
Respond to resistance with curiosity instead of judgment
Strengthen leadership identity during difficult conversations
Support educators through change while maintaining clear standards

This episode is especially valuable for principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, district leaders, and school leadership teams who are navigating resistance to change, supporting adult learning, and working to build cultures of growth, accountability, and meaningful progress.

[BOOK] Grab There Resistance Solution: Why Educator Resist and What They Need Instead HERE!

Grab your copy of 📖 The Resistance Solution

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