Strengthening Inclusive and Instructional Practices - Learning Coaches 2-Day Workshop

Who should attend

Learning/Instructional Coaches, District Leaders and AISI Leads

About this learning opportunity

Literacy and numeracy are foundational to learning. This means going beyond the basic skills of reading, writing and solving simple mathematical problems to acquiring, creating, connecting and understanding information. Literacy and numeracy is a shared responsibility. School authorities, school leadership staff, teachers of all grades and subject areas, parents, communities and learners must all work together.

This two-day learning opportunity aims to support your personal and professional capacity needed to create a coaching culture in which every educator has something to learn and something to contribute to the collective knowledge of the profession.

 You will have the opportunity to:

• recognize and name the characteristics of effective teaching

• improve instruction/learning by planning, implementing, and refining robust lessons with rich content

• learn how to provide job-embedded professional development with colleagues

• address both the "big picture" and day-to-day work of accelerating professional learning in schools through the strategic and systemic use of learning coaches, instructional coaches and lead teachers

• create a coaching and teacher leadership model that supports teachers in addressing differentiated and diverse student learner needs

• use curricular materials mindfully in ways that align with the intent of the Alberta Programs of Study

You will engage in role plays, analyze video clips of classroom and coaching episodes, compare and contrast mathematics and literacy lessons, and experience new tools and learning modalities that will enhance your repertoire all while building your network with others.

Lucy West and Katherine Casey will also present the same session in Calgary on September 19 and 20, 2012. http://www.crcpd.ab.ca/programs/month/september/2012

This learning opportunity is subsidized as a result of a grant from Alberta Education to support implementation.

About the facilitator(s)

Lucy West, founder and Executive Director of Metamorphosis Teaching Learning Communities, has been an innovator in the development and implementation of research-based educational coaching, lesson studies and professional communities of practice designed to professionalize teaching and improve student learning and achievement from Kindergarten through High School since 1993.

Lucy West established Metamorphosis^TLCafter her role as Director of Mathematics Instruction in New York City’s Community School District 2. The district modelled professional development practices that have now become household names—content coaching, walk throughs, professional learning communities, lesson study, to name a few. Lucy is the co-author of the book, Content-Focused Coaching: Transforming Mathematics Lessons, which set a high standard for educational coaches and is used by districts nationwide and in Canada to guide coaching initiatives. http://www.metatlcinc.com/

Katherine Casey consults and provides professional development in literacy instruction, mathematics instruction, and instructional leadership.  She is a Senior Consultant at the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington, where she works with school districts in California, Washington, Louisiana, and Alaska on the improvement of instruction in order to close the achievement gap.  Ms. Casey’s work in schools is multi-layered:  she works with site leadership teams to research and analyze student performance in order to plan and implement effective professional development; models effective teaching practices in classrooms with students; and coaches alongside the coaches and teachers to improve teacher practice and student achievement.  She honed her instructional leadership work as an instructor in the Educational Leadership Development Academy at the University of San Diego where she supported the leadership development of vice principals and principals in San Diego Unified Schools.  Ms. Casey began her teaching career in New York City where Lucy West coached her as a mathematics teacher leader and Donna Santman coached her as a reading workshop teacher.  She is the author of Literacy Coaching: The Essentials (Heinemann, 2006). www.katherinecaseyconsultant.com