Miriam Plotinsky is an author and instructional specialist who addresses challenges in both teaching and leading across schools with a wide range of differentiated needs. A strong advocate for student-centered learning, she provides coaching and professional development for teachers and administrators.
Her first book, Teach More, Hover Less: How to Stop Micromanaging Your Secondary Classroom (2022), is a practical guide to a student-centered instructional approach that removes the necessity of teacher micromanagement. Her second book, Lead Like a Teacher: How to Elevate Expertise in Your School (2023) addresses how to close the “empathy gap” between administrators and teachers by bringing forth the instructional expertise and perspectives of teachers. Her third book, Writing Their Future Selves: Instructional Strategies to Affirm Student Identity (2023) explores the value of giving students a strong sense of academic identity across content areas. Miriam’s fourth book, Small but Mighty: How Everyday Habits Add Up to More Manageable and Confident Teaching (ASCD, 2024) looks at habit stacking and its connection to teaching and learning. Next up is Not Just Talk: Increasing Student Participation Through Speaking, Listening, and Writing, Grades 3–12 from Solution Tree, which will address how we can mitigate a steady decrease in student language input and output. Miriam is working on the second edition of her first book (Teach More, Hover Less) with Solution Tree as well, so there is a lot in the pipeline!
Miriam writes for a wide array of education publications and is a regular guest on international podcasts, and she also provides professional learning for teachers and school leaders nationwide (see her contact page to get in touch!). She is a National Board-Certified Teacher with additional certification in administration and supervision.
When she’s not doing all things education, Miriam is a fitness fiend who also enjoys spending time with her husband, three children and a needy little dog.
She can be found on the Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn, Insta, and the site formerly known as Twitter (though she only lurks sporadically on that last one).
