When working with fellow educators, I always share, “What makes us professionals is that we always do the best we can with what we know. When we learn something new, we change our practice to do even better.”
Goal directed observation and planning, professional development, and instructional coaching are essential tools to improving student outcomes.
Consulting and Planning with School Leadership
The first step to systematic change, or improving practice within an existing system, is to identify what is going well and areas for growth. Online and in-person meetings with school leadership teams coupled with in-person classroom observations allow for strategic planning and goal setting. This foundational work helps us establish a plan for our partnership and sets goals to guide our work together.
Professional Development
Professional development sessions are an essential tool for improving teaching practices. Whether it is to develop deeper content knowledge, learn about new areas of research and methods for planning and teaching, or improving pedagogy, professional development sessions offer the opportunity to inform your team and create a common foundation. These sessions offer an opportunity for teachers to grow their knowledge as they move toward long term change and identify immediate steps they can take tomorrow in their classrooms.
Topics for Professional Development Include:
- Mathematics Content Progressions
- The Number Core and K-2 intervention
- Planning instruction for a multi-grade-level classroom.
- Bridging Multi-Year Gaps in Foundational Content in Mathematics.
- Differentiation in Mathematics- Accessible Content that Maintains the Rigor.
- Eureka Math and Eureka Math Squared implementation, content, and module studies. (Though I have extensive experience supporting the implementation of Eureka Math and Eureka Math Squared, I am able to support your teachers with mathematics regardless of your curriculum.)
- Connections to Grade-Level Content for Students with Multiple Disabilities.
- Universal Design for Learning- Designing Instruction for All Learners.
- Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract Progressions in Mathematics.
- Facilitating Student Discourse in the Classroom.
Instructional Coaching
Strategic planning and professional development at the school or district level are a very good place to start when your goal is to improve pedagogy and content knowledge. Instructional coaching is what supports leaders and teachers, empowering them to continue this work long after the professional development is over. The goal of instructional coaching is to support leaders within a district, building their capacity to facilitate ongoing growth and learning. Instructional coaching also provides a structure of support as teachers go back to their classrooms to implement the methods or content covered in professional development sessions.
Instructional coaching might look like:
- Online or in-person meetings with district or school coaches to brainstorm and plan for supporting teachers.
- PLC meetings held with teams of teachers who share common needs.
- PLC meetings focused on improving knowledge of specific content or implementation of curriculum.
- Opportunities to plan together and co-teach.
- Goal directed coaching cycles with a specific group of teachers.
- Planning and studying content in-person or online.