Professional Contributions

Several years ago, District 47 adopted Professional Learning Communities as a primary system for content area teacher collaboration. For four years, I facilitated grade-level PLC meetings as a teacher leader.

In this role, I helped the teams establish goals and objectives, planned weekly meetings based on these goals, facilitated meetings, provided training on new curriculum, and served as a liaison between the team and administration.

With my PLC team, I have helped teachers write assessments, calibrate scores, collect and analyze data, and plan for instruction based on team analysis.

I am most proud of leading our PLC team through several major and challenging district changes such as adopting new writing curriculum, changing our system of common assessments, implementing reading and writing workshop, and writing/adopting a new reading curriculum.

During the 2015-2016 school year, I was fortunate to serve on the building and district RtI committees and was asked to author the Hannah Beardsley RtI website, a resource outlining RtI policies and procedures for reading, math, and behavioral RtI.

https://sites.google.com/a/d47.org/hbms-rti/home

During the 2012-2013 school year, one of my responsibilities as a middle school assistant principal was to structure and facilitate a building-wide RtI program intended to support select students in reading. I worked individually with each language arts teacher to analyze existing assessment data on all students, amass a list of all students requiring tier 1, 2, or 3 interventions, set individual learning goals for all RtI students, and arrange an intervention schedule with learning specialists.

I also provided training on planning for intervention groups and tracking progress using intervention logs and assessment tools. Over the course of the school year, we ran three full cycles of intervention and saw incredible progress in our RtI students as a result of a collaborative effort.

See more information about RtI and our intervention block proposal under "Instructional Collaboration."

When Scholastic released the new Traits Writing curriculum in 2013, District 47 was one of the first K-8 districts to adopt the program. I was very fortunate to work with editors from Scholastic to film Traits Writing lessons to be used for Scholastic’s teacher training videos. These videos, filmed in District 47 classrooms, were featured online for other districts to use as a training resource when adopting the new curriculum.

District 47 was in the process of developing a full K-8 Common Core-aligned language arts curriculum. I was honored to serve on the seventh-grade writing committee.

Our process began with training in rigorous curriculum design and then we developed eight integrated units of study. All of the committee members have provided professional development in our individual buildings to help our teammates incorporate the units into instruction.

Link to course material: https://sites.google.com/a/d47.org/ipad-ero/

As an iPad pilot teacher, I was able to provide summer coursework for teachers interested in incorporating iPads into their instruction. My co-teacher and I used a challenge-based approach in our classes and teachers became acquainted with the basic functions of the iPad. We also looked at how the apps and services available on the iPad applied directly to student learning and classroom instruction.

As teachers became more comfortable with technology integration, and we were able to provide weekly PD sessions about SAMAR, digital workflow, presentation apps, digital portfolios, digital storytelling, and digital book clubs.

Anytime I can support literacy by participating in a school or district event, I grab the opportunity. In recent years, I have been able to orchestrate teacher "vignettes" to show during morning announcements geared to encourage kids to read. One of them involved our principal getting a pie in the face! I was also able to volunteer for the PADS Sleep-out for Shelter by reading "bedtime stories" to students as one of the evening's activities.

In District 27, I volunteered to help our librarian with Edible Book Covers and promoted Book Match. I also volunteer for Music in the Library each year.

At Wood Oaks Junior High, I served for two years on the Middle School Grading Committee. Our goal was to refocus building-wide grading practices to remove behavioral factors from academic assessment.