Instructional Improvement: An educational leader integrates principles of cultural competency and equitable practice and promotes the success of every student by sustaining a positive school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
Summary ExperiencesStandards-Based Teaching & Learning
Teacher Video Collection for Professional Development Coaching for Gifted Follow-Up Coaching |
Key Learnings
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Artifacts: Standards-Based Teaching & Learning for ELA and SS
As part of my secondary TOSA position, I directly supported the Language Arts and Social Science department chairs for 9 schools: 4 middle, 4 high, and 1 alternative middle & high. Support was in the form of monthly meetings, co-facilitation of school department meetings when requested, facilitation support during department specific release day professional development, and many one-on-one planning and consulting meetings. The following artifacts represent a small part of this work: a meeting agenda with notes, sample learning targets and learning progressions, sample Planned Course Statement drafts.
Artifacts: Secondary Elective Leaders Workshops
The following are the presentation, agenda, and sample tools for the Secondary Courses: From Standards to Effective Instruction project described on the Effective Management page.
Artifacts: Standards-Based Proficiency Grading
I worked with school leaders and teachers to transition to standards-based proficiency grading. This work involved crafting definitions, revising policy, developing and facilitating professional development, and working with IT on technology support systems. Most of this work can be seen on the Socio-Political Context page. What is below is a handout from a mini-workshop I designed to help teachers understand the options and implications for Standards Analysis. This is how a teacher collectively evaluates all the individual performance assessments a student has demonstrated for a specific standard to determine the mastery level for that standard.
Artifacts: Video PD Collection
Professional development via video is a long-term goal of the Verge Learning professional development website. In the short-term, I helped begin the video collection process by filming teachers, editing film, teaching others to video and edit, establishing a channel on School Tube for our district videos, developing protocols and instructions for uploading videos to School Tube, setting up a temporary portal for video access via a filter/category system within our internal share site, and training school leaders and TOSAs to use the video systems in place for immediate PD with teachers. The artifacts below are the three tutorial guides I created for TOSAs and Administrators to begin publishing and accessing raw video.
Artifacts: Coaching for Gifted
As a district TOSA for Talented & Gifted, I lead professional development with teachers on best practices in gifted instruction. This takes place in workshop formats, school teams, and one-on-one. In one elementary school I modeled the Jr. Great Book Shared Inquiry process with small groups of blended, 3/4 and 5/6 gifted students. Teacher teams met with me prior to the modeling and we debriefed what they saw and what they could do in their classrooms after. In another school, teachers volunteered to participate in classroom observations from which a small team of TOSAs crafted questions and support materials. Teacher teams then met with the TOSAs to review goals, support materials, and create instructional goals. In most conversations with teachers, perfectionism comes up and I talk about helping kids experience safe and positive failure. Below is a link to a reflective blog I wrote about Intentional FAILure.
Artifacts: Follow-Up Coaching
In working with teachers to improve their practice, I have found that follow-up coaching in the classroom is essential to creating meaningful and lasting change. The button below links to a blog post I wrote about a specific follow-up coaching technique I have used.