The Speducated Leader

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The Speducated Leader Coaching & training for special education leaders to increase their impact & capacity.

I wanted to share a little throwback from an interview I did with Dr. Erica Jordan-Thomas last year (shoutout to her for...
09/24/2026

I wanted to share a little throwback from an interview I did with Dr. Erica Jordan-Thomas last year (shoutout to her for her incredible support as I’ve grown The SPEDucated Leader). We were talking about business at the time, but looking back at the conversation, I realized how much of this applies to educational leadership too.

One of the harder things to learn as a leader is how little information someone else’s response actually gives you about your own value or effectiveness. Leadership has made me much more comfortable leaving some doors alone. When someone is apprehensive, disengaged, or simply not responding the way we hoped, it is easy to immediately turn inward.

And sometimes, you should try again. There are people who need another conversation before they trust you and staff members who might need time before they feel comfortable with change. I would never want a leader to interpret someone’s initial hesitation as a reason to stop investing in them.

But leadership has also made me much more comfortable leaving some doors alone.

I think part of becoming a more experienced leader is realizing that you can create the conditions for someone to engage without being able to control whether they actually do. You can communicate clearly, follow up, listen, make yourself available, and reconsider your own approach. At some point, another person still has agency in what happens next.

When something is not working, good leaders naturally look at themselves and ask what they could do differently. I think we should. But reflection can turn into over-responsibility when we assume that every outcome is ours to fix.

To be clear, I still believe in giving people grace and allowing relationships time to develop. I’ve just become much more thoughtful about where persistence is useful and where it is simply draining energy that could be invested somewhere else.

I wanted to share a little throwback from an interview I did with Dr. Erica Jordan -Thomas last year (shoutout to her fo...
09/24/2026

I wanted to share a little throwback from an interview I did with Dr. Erica Jordan -Thomas last year (shoutout to her for her incredible support as I’ve grown The SPEDucated Leader). We were talking about business at the time, but looking back at the conversation, I realized how much of this applies to educational leadership too.

One of the harder things to learn as a leader is how little information someone else’s response actually gives you about your own value or effectiveness. Leadership has made me much more comfortable leaving some doors alone. When someone is apprehensive, disengaged, or simply not responding the way we hoped, it is easy to immediately turn inward.

And sometimes, you should try again. There are people who need another conversation before they trust you and staff members who might need time before they feel comfortable with change. I would never want a leader to interpret someone’s initial hesitation as a reason to stop investing in them.

But leadership has also made me much more comfortable leaving some doors alone.

I think part of becoming a more experienced leader is realizing that you can create the conditions for someone to engage without being able to control whether they actually do. You can communicate clearly, follow up, listen, make yourself available, and reconsider your own approach. At some point, another person still has agency in what happens next.

When something is not working, good leaders naturally look at themselves and ask what they could do differently. I think we should. But reflection can turn into over-responsibility when we assume that every outcome is ours to fix.

To be clear, I still believe in giving people grace and allowing relationships time to develop. I’ve just become much more thoughtful about where persistence is useful and where it is simply draining energy that could be invested somewhere else.

You can be incredibly organized and still feel like you’re constantly behind as a SPED case manager.I think that distinc...
09/22/2026

You can be incredibly organized and still feel like you’re constantly behind as a SPED case manager.

I think that distinction matters because when case management becomes overwhelming, we tend to make organization the solution.

You are managing work that involves multiple people, competing timelines, compliance requirements, documentation, meetings, communication, and follow-up. Some of it is within your control, and some of it depends entirely on someone else doing their part. Meanwhile, you are still working inside a school where questions come up, students need support, schedules change, and the work rarely unfolds exactly as planned.

If you are new to case management, transitioning into a new role, or realizing that your current approach is no longer working, these are five systems I would start with.

And if you’re a school leader, take a look at the list from a different perspective: How many of these systems are you intentionally helping your case managers build?

For the SPED case managers, something new is coming just for you. Join the interest list: https://thespeducatedleader.kit.com/c153d5015b

09/15/2026

Sometimes teacher burnout comes from a hundred small things that happen repeatedly enough that people eventually stop noticing how much energy they are costing. And as leaders, some of those things can actually come from the ways we are trying to support our staff.

Here are five leadership habits I think are worth looking at a little more closely.

1. Always being available.

Being an accessible leader is a good thing. Your staff should know they can come to you when they need support. But if you have created a culture where every question, problem, decision, and minor inconvenience immediately comes to you, you may be unintentionally teaching people that nothing can move forward without you.

That is exhausting for you, but it is also exhausting for your staff. People need opportunities to make decisions, solve problems, and build confidence without constantly waiting for someone above them to weigh in.

2. Rescuing too quickly.

This one can be hard because sometimes you genuinely can fix the problem faster. A teacher is struggling, a parent is upset, a student is having a difficult day, and your instinct is to step in.

But if leaders consistently jump in before teachers have a chance to problem-solve, staff can start to believe that leadership is responsible for making every difficult situation go away. Over time, that does not build capacity. It builds dependence.

Sometimes the most supportive thing you can do is ask, “What have you tried?” before immediately offering the answer.

3. Adding without subtracting.

This might be one of my biggest leadership pet peeves.

Another initiative. Another meeting. Another form. Another tracker. Another “quick” thing teachers need to start doing.

We rarely stop to ask what can come off their plate when something new goes on it.

Every new expectation has a cost, even when that cost is only time and mental energy. If you want your staff to engage meaningfully with something new, take a look at what you can simplify, eliminate, or pause first.

4. Rewarding overwork.

Sometimes we unintentionally send the message that the people who stay late, answer emails at night, volunteer for everything, and somehow manage to do twelve people’s jobs are our “most committed” teachers.

But if the same people are constantly being praised for doing more, we have to be careful about what we’re actually rewarding.

Commitment should not require chronic exhaustion.

5. Avoiding hard conversations.

This one is uncomfortable, but avoiding a difficult conversation rarely makes the underlying problem disappear. It usually just gives the problem more time to grow.

When leaders avoid addressing performance issues, unclear expectations, team conflict, or patterns that are affecting the school, the burden often shifts onto everyone else. The people doing what they are supposed to do start carrying the weight of what nobody wants to address.

Sometimes clarity is one of the kindest things you can give a team.

None of this means leaders are intentionally burning out their teachers. Most leaders I know are actually trying incredibly hard to support their people. But good intentions do not always produce the impact we hope for.

So as you think about your leadership this year, it might be worth asking yourself a different question: What am I doing that I believe is supportive, but might actually be creating more work, dependence, or stress for my team?

That question might tell you more than another staff survey ever could.

09/15/2026

Teacher burnout doesn’t always come from one huge problem. Sometimes it comes from small things that happen so often we stop noticing how much energy they cost.

As leaders, some of those things can even come from how we’re trying to support our staff.

1. Always Being Available

Being accessible matters, but if every question, decision, and problem comes to you, you may be teaching your staff that nothing moves forward without you. People need room to problem-solve and build confidence independently.

2. Rescuing Too Quickly

Sometimes you really can fix the problem faster. But when leaders always jump in, we can create dependence instead of capacity. Sometimes “What have you tried?” is more useful than immediately providing the answer.

3. Adding Without Subtracting

Another initiative. Another meeting. Another form. Another tracker. We’re great at adding expectations and much less intentional about asking what can come off the plate. Every new expectation costs time and mental energy.

4. Rewarding Overwork

When the teachers who stay late, answer emails at night, and constantly take on more are praised as the “most committed,” we should pay attention to what we’re rewarding. Commitment should not require chronic exhaustion.

5. Avoiding Hard Conversations

Avoiding difficult conversations rarely makes problems disappear. It usually gives them more time to grow, while everyone else carries the weight. Sometimes clarity is one of the kindest things you can give a team.

None of this means leaders are intentionally burning out their teachers. Most are working incredibly hard to support their people. But good intentions don’t always produce the impact we hope for.

So ask yourself: What am I doing that I believe is supportive, but might actually be creating more work, dependence, or stress for my team?

That question might tell you more than another staff survey ever could.

Last week, our team officially kicked off the 2026–2027 fiscal year, and I left feeling really excited about what this n...
09/14/2026

Last week, our team officially kicked off the 2026–2027 fiscal year, and I left feeling really excited about what this next chapter is going to look like. There is something different about starting a new year with a team that has grown, evolved, and is bringing even more experience and perspective to the work.

We spent the day doing what I think professional learning should actually look like: talking through real situations, working through scenarios, challenging each other’s thinking, and figuring out how we would respond when things do not go exactly as planned. Because in education, they rarely do.

We also spent time team-building, including with our administrative staff, because supporting schools well takes more than having talented people on a roster. It takes trust, communication, shared expectations, and a team that knows how to work together when the work gets complicated.

That part was especially meaningful to me. As The SPEDucated Leader continues to grow, I want us to remain grounded in the same thing that has always mattered to me: providing schools with support that is practical, thoughtful, and connected to what educators are actually experiencing.

I’m heading into this school year feeling refreshed, grateful, and genuinely excited about the people I get to do this work alongside. We have a bigger team, new perspectives, and a whole lot of work ahead of us.

If you’re looking for support this school year and want to work with one of our exceptional education facilitators, we’d love to partner with your team. Reach out to learn more about bringing The SPEDucated Leader to your school.

I’ve talked about other characters from Abbott Elementary, but somehow I’ve never gotten around to Ava. Which feels slig...
09/08/2026

I’ve talked about other characters from Abbott Elementary, but somehow I’ve never gotten around to Ava. Which feels slightly ridiculous considering that leadership is literally what I spend so much of my time thinking and talking about. 😂

So, is Ava Coleman actually a good leader?

My answer is…sometimes. And before anybody starts typing in all caps, I am obviously not saying Ava is a perfect principal. She has made enough questionable decisions for an entire leadership coaching series. But I do think she has some strengths that are easy to overlook because she is also Ava.

For one, she understands people. Ava knows her staff, their personalities, and the dynamics of her school. She can read a room, she knows when something is going on, and she often understands the human side of a situation in ways that more polished leaders can sometimes miss.

She is also confident, willing to challenge the status quo, and not particularly interested in doing something simply because “that’s how it has always been done.” Now, her confidence occasionally outruns her actual competence, which is…a separate conversation. But schools do need leaders who are willing to question outdated practices and make decisions.

Where Ava struggles is with consistency. Her instincts can be good, but leadership cannot run on instincts alone. At some point, relationships need to be supported by clear expectations, accountability, follow-through, and systems that work even when the leader is not personally involved.

And honestly, that is what makes Ava interesting to me. She has many of the qualities that cannot easily be taught, but she would benefit from strengthening some of the skills that make leadership sustainable.

So what do you think: Is Ava actually a good principal, or are we letting charisma do a little too much of the heavy lifting?

And yes, I mean STEAL. Take the ideas, write them down, share them with your team, use them in your next coaching conver...
09/02/2026

And yes, I mean STEAL. Take the ideas, write them down, share them with your team, use them in your next coaching conversation, bring them to your next PD session. I’m not precious about it.

Because honestly, there is already enough advice floating around education that sounds great until somebody asks, “Okay… but what does this actually look like in my classroom?”

That question is a big part of why I created this free on-demand webinar.

I’m walking through some of the coaching ideas I come back to again and again when working with educators, particularly in special education. We’ll talk about why generic coaching can miss the mark, what makes professional support actually useful, and how we can move beyond simply giving teachers another strategy to try.

Because if you’re leading educators, you already know that handing someone a list of strategies and saying “hope this helps!” is not exactly coaching. 😂

And if you’re the educator receiving that list, you’re probably sitting there thinking, “Okay, but you don’t know my students.” Fair.

Good coaching has to account for the actual classroom, the actual students, the actual barriers, and the actual person trying to make it all work.

That’s the philosophy behind The SPEDucated Collective too. We’re interested in moving educators beyond surface-level advice and toward strategies that make sense in real classrooms.

So whether you’re a teacher looking for a few new ways to think about your practice or a leader thinking about how you can better support the educators on your team, I think you’ll get something out of this.

So yes. Go ahead and steal my coaching tips: https://thespeducatedleader.kit.com/14a6e21bdc

Let them enjoy these last few quiet moments before somebody needs help with a behavior plan, somebody has a question abo...
09/01/2026

Let them enjoy these last few quiet moments before somebody needs help with a behavior plan, somebody has a question about an accommodation, a teacher wants to talk through a student, or a meeting somehow turns into, “Can we get SPED’s thoughts on this?” You already know how quickly it happens. The people with the deepest expertise in the building can become the people everyone quietly expects to have an answer for everything.

That is part of what makes special education leadership so complicated. Your SPED team is supposed to be a source of expertise, collaboration, and specialized support, but when the systems around them are not clear, expertise can turn into dependency. A teacher has a question, so SPED gets called. A student is struggling, so SPED gets called. A classroom is having a difficult time, so SPED gets called. Eventually, you can have an incredibly capable SPED department spending a huge portion of its time responding to problems instead of building the capacity of the people around them to prevent or address those problems in the first place.

As a leader, you have a lot of influence over whether that becomes the culture of your school. The goal is not to make your SPED team less available. It is to make their expertise more powerful.

And this is worth thinking about before the year gets too far underway. Before the requests start rolling in, take a look at the structure around your SPED team. Are you building a school where specialized knowledge is shared, or one where everyone waits for the SPED department to step in? Are teachers gaining confidence, or are they becoming increasingly dependent on one department?

Because I would really love for the SPED team to have a great year, too. If you are heading into this school year thinking about how to strengthen your SPED systems, build staff capacity, or create more sustainable support structures, book a call with me. We can talk through what is happening in your school and see whether The SPEDucated Leader is the right fit for your team.

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