Mon Dec 19 2016, 5:30pm
District Meeting Room
Regular Meeting

REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Teaching and Learning Report

To: Michael Green

From: Asha Riley

Date: December 14, 2016

Re: Teaching and Learning Report

 

Learning Forward Conference:

Last week the principals and I attended a conference in Canada organized by Learning Forward. By far this conference beat all expectations. It was an outstanding learning opportunity. Each of us attended a variety of sessions, but we agreed to all attend a few together.  We have not had a chance to debrief with each other yet but look forward to furthering our learning together and plan to take some steps together to improve student learning based on what we gained from the conference.

Instructional Coaching: 

In Woodland, we have two full-time elementary coaches and one teacher leader who spends part of her time providing instructional coaching at the high school. Research indicates the most effective forms of professional development in education are achieved through the job embedded support of an instructional coach.

Our instructional coaches are dedicated professional development experts who work with teachers to increase student achievement through improved teacher effectiveness. Instructional coaches provide job‐embedded professional development, with an emphasis on inquiry‐based learning, differentiated instruction, and collaborative practices. 

Instructional coaches typically serve multiple roles, including designing and modeling lessons for teachers, observing instruction and providing teachers with feedback, facilitating professional development activities, analyzing student data, staying abreast of current research, and supporting school, and district improvement plans.
 
In our recent survey of new teachers, staff indicated regular meetings with our instructional coaches as invaluable to their success this fall.  With this in mind, I hope to expand coaching to include a part time coaching position in the middle school next year.