Day 1 — Understanding Why Instructional Leaders Belong in Classrooms

Decisional information; three reasons to visit: better decisions, stronger relationships, enhanced professional development

• The three reasons principals need to be in classrooms — and why “checking on teachers” isn’t one of them
• Why the most important information for running your school can only be found in one place
• How classroom visits strengthen professional relationships in a way that hallway conversations never will

Day 2 — Following the High-Performance Instructional Leadership Model

Introduction to all 7 characteristics; what separates high-performance visits from check-the-box walkthroughs

• Seven characteristics that separate high-performance classroom visits from traditional walkthroughs
• Why visiting each teacher roughly 18 times a year is both ambitious and achievable — with a specific daily target
• The role of a “third participant” in every post-visit conversation that keeps the focus on growth instead of judgment

Day 3 — Acknowledging Related Models

How this approach compares to formal observations, mini-observations, data-collection walkthroughs, coaching, and learning walks

• Why the most common walkthrough models quietly train teachers to perform rather than improve
• The sampling problem that makes most classroom observation data scientifically meaningless
• The feedback paradox: why giving more suggestions can actually slow teacher growth

Day 4 — Conducting Your First Two Cycles of Visits

Planning a realistic schedule; the success rate formula; trust-building in Cycle 1, evidence-based focus in Cycle 2

• Why your first full cycle of visits should involve zero notes, zero feedback, and zero agenda
• A simple formula that accounts for the reality that half your scheduled visits will get interrupted
• The reason you should visit entire teams back-to-back — and what it signals to your staff

Day 5 — Thinking Ahead to Your Third Cycle

Low-inference note-taking; the “broken questions” technique; linking to your instructional framework

• The note-sharing practice that eliminates teachers’ fear of “secret dossiers”
• A questioning technique that invites deep reflection by saying less, not more
• What changes in your understanding of your school after visiting every classroom three times

Day 6 — Making Time to Visit Classrooms

Parkinson’s Law; reducing emergency interruptions; scheduling short blocks throughout the day

• The scheduling law that explains why you’ll never “find” time for classroom visits — and the formula that creates it
• Why scheduling six blocks to complete three visits isn’t pessimism — it’s the math of a principal’s day
• The one conversation with your staff that can cut your “emergency” interruptions in half

Day 7 — Keeping Your Communication Channels Under Control

Staying current vs. staying caught up; inbox-based vs. stream-based media; the Delete/Complete/Delegate/Defer system

• The difference between “staying caught up” and “staying current” — and why only one of them matters
• Why some of your most-used communication tools are silently sabotaging your productivity
• A four-word processing system that can empty your inbox every day without working late

Day 8 — Managing the Work You’re Not Doing Yet

Separating planning from doing; electronic task management; capture, triage, organize, schedule

• Why the anxiety of not knowing what’s waiting for you keeps you chained to your desk
• The mental trick of separating planning from doing — and why it frees you to leave the office
• How keeping your task list under ten items prevents decision paralysis without dropping balls

Day 9 — Organizing Your To-Do List

The PEEP approach; organizing by due date, time required, energy level, and context

• A four-letter organizing principle that puts every task in its place without a complicated system
• Why organizing by action beats organizing by category — and how to set it up in minutes
• The due-date discipline that makes the difference between a trusted system and a guilt-inducing list

Day 10 — Maximizing Your Mental Energy With Habits

The habit loop; ego depletion research; five strategies for conserving mental energy throughout the day

• Why over 40% of what you do each day requires almost no conscious thought — and how to make that work for you
• The brain science behind why processing email first thing in the morning drains the energy you need most
• How to replace an unproductive afternoon habit with classroom visits by hijacking the same reward

Day 11 — Going Beyond Data Collection and the Feedback Sandwich

Why data collection undermines professional conversations; what’s wrong with compliment-suggestion-compliment

• Why counting specific teaching behaviors during walkthroughs does more harm than good
• The three hidden problems with the classic compliment-suggestion-compliment approach
• What teachers actually want from their principal after a classroom visit — and it’s not advice

Day 12 — Facilitating Evidence-Based Conversations

Asking genuine (not leading) questions; grounding conversation in specific evidence; sample question stems

• Five question stems that open genuine professional dialogue instead of triggering defensiveness
• Why the best post-visit conversations treat the teacher — not the principal — as the expert
• The critical difference between a leading question and a genuine one, and why teachers can always tell

Day 13 — Bringing a Shared Instructional Framework Into the Conversation

Framework as arbiter rather than opinion; grain size; broken questions for teacher reflection

• Why opinion-based conversations about teaching inevitably become judge vs. defendant
• The concept that determines whether you have enough information to evaluate what you saw — and principals get it wrong constantly
• How a shared framework lets you discuss teaching quality without personally passing judgment

Day 14 — Developing Skills for High-Impact Conversations

Making conversations professionally rewarding; listening when teachers ask for feedback; managing defensiveness

• Why the most productive conversations often end without action items or clear conclusions
• The reason you can pursue compliance or growth in a conversation, but never both at the same time
• What to do when a teacher’s self-assessment doesn’t match what you observed — and why forcing the issue backfires

Day 15 — Handling the Toughest Conversations

Responding to resistance; discouraging dog-and-pony shows; keeping conversations on instructional track

• What to say when a teacher makes it clear you’re not welcome in their classroom
• The well-meaning principal behavior that accidentally trains teachers to put on a show every time you walk in
• How framework language keeps a difficult conversation on track when a teacher tries to shift blame

Day 16 — Building Your Feedback Repertoire

Types and timing of feedback; matching feedback approach to teacher readiness

• Why reusing your best phrases across teachers isn’t lazy — it’s how you scale quality feedback
• A writing template that makes post-visit emails feel personal while taking a fraction of the time
• The professional development move that earns instant credibility: learning to speak your teachers’ curricular language

Day 17 — Balancing Your Formal Evaluation Responsibilities

Integrating walkthroughs with formal evaluation; documentation strategies

• The 80/20 rule applied to teacher evaluation — and why equal time for every teacher is a mistake
• Why waiting until year-end to form your evaluation judgment is intellectually dishonest and wastes student learning time
• A writing format that makes high-stakes evaluation documents clear, evidence-based, and difficult to dispute

Day 18 — Identifying Improvements From Classroom Visits

Spotting patterns across classrooms; moving from individual feedback to school-wide improvement

• The research on relational trust that explains why being in classrooms builds loyalty — and being absent breeds suspicion
• Why the information you gain from frequent visits is something no one else in your school possesses
• How consistent classroom presence fills a trust vacuum that teachers otherwise fill with assumptions

Day 19 — Opening the Door to New Models of Professional Learning

Using visit data to inform PD; moving beyond one-size-fits-all professional development

• A memorable phrase that captures what too many schools actually are — and why classroom visits break the pattern
• Why video-based peer observation is less threatening than in-person visits, and how to introduce it
• The subtle shift that makes public celebration about learning rather than teacher performance — and why the distinction matters

Day 20 — Choosing an Instructional Focus for an Observation Cycle

Selecting focus areas based on evidence; aligning with school improvement goals

• Three qualities every observation focus must have — and why most schools get at least one wrong
• Why hunting for a specific teaching strategy during brief visits gives you only a 20% chance of seeing it
• The common evaluation trap of judging every question by its level on Bloom’s taxonomy

Day 21 — Scaling Classroom Visits Across Your School and District

Building capacity beyond one leader; district-wide implementation strategies

• The two-word leadership principle that does more to spread the practice than any policy mandate
• Why the assistant principal in charge of discipline may have the most to gain from daily classroom visits
• The oversight mistake district leaders make when they assume classroom visits are happening just because principals say they are