Teaching Today

In his 2011 New Yorker article, "Personal Best", Atul Gawande said, “No matter how well trained people are, few can sustain their best performance on their own. That’s where coaching comes in.”

In education, we’ve seen the role of professional coaching shift from presentations, to workshops, to one-on-one and small group professional development.

What's the difference between coaching and teaching? How does a coach support a teacher in being vulnerable, self-reflective in their practice, and open to taking new risks?

In the past, teaching and learning was centered around finding information and remembering it. But advances in technology have fundamentally changed our relationship to information, allowing us to have it at our fingertips, and we must consider how this shift impacts the focus of education. What skills do students need in order to succeed in the future — especially one that's increasingly unpredictable?

Special guests:

- Clarinda Choh | Director of Staff Development, Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore

- Dr. Edgar McIntosh | Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment for Scarsdale Schools

- Ken Bonamo | Principal, Scarsdale High School

- Dr. Ruth Vinz | Professor of English Education, Teachers College

- Dr. Suzanne Choo | Assistant Dean & Associate Professor, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Part professional development, part artist collaboration, and part non-for-profit publisher, the Student Press Initiative (SPI)'s mission is to revolutionize education by advancing teacher leadership in reading and writing instruction. Through publication, SPI raises the bar for what, how, and why students write.

What makes the SPI approach to writing instruction so powerful, and how does it impact students and teachers?

Special guest

- Michelle Demeroukas, NYC ENL Department Leader and ELL Coordinator

Predicated on a belief in the power of play in the secondary classroom, Literacy Unbound seeks to unbind traditional approaches to the teaching of reading and writing, troubling the divide between critical and creative thinking, and demonstrating that intellectual rigor ultimately requires both.

How can you use Literacy Unbound approaches to support students in moving their reading experiences beyond the book, and allow their creativity to flourish?

Special guests:

- Dr. Adele Bruni Ashley, Teachers College, Columbia University

- Colin Russell, New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science II

- Dr. Marcelle Mentor, Teachers College, Columbia University

Developing literacy skills is a challenge for students of all ages. But students with special needs, and those who are new to speaking English, experience obstacles in literacy that impact their ability to learn even more than their counterparts.

What are the best ways to include English language learners (ELLs) and students with special needs into academically diverse classes? What unique challenges do these students experience?

Special guests:

Dr. Laura Rigolosi, Curriculum & Literacy Specialist

Jacqui Stolzer, Senior Professional Development Coach

The New York City Department of Education recently integrated the philosophy of Advanced Literacy into their Instructional Leadership Framework (ILF), which focuses on teaching in linguistically diverse communities and instruction across content areas — all centered around four literacy hallmarks.

How is this different from other approaches to literacy? How are schools adopting Advanced Literacy, and are their efforts making an impact?

Special guest:

Selin Alicanoglu, Flushing High School

For years, it’s been said that we need to have a serious discussion about race in this country, but that discussion is often put on hold until another tragic incident is discovered by the media. All the while, schools across the country are wrestling with generations of racial inequality.

How do events like the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others impact students and educators? How do educators deal with explicit and implicit bias in school? What does equity in education look like?

Special guests:

Darius Adamson, Orange County Public Schools

Dr. Beverly Cross, University of Memphis

Cheryl Green, Coplexity

Accessing academic vocabulary can either be a student's greatest strength or their greatest struggle, and as they move into high school, command over content-specific vocabulary has a major impact on performance.

What does academic vocabulary entail? Why is it difficult for students to expand their vocabulary? And is literacy in different disciplines really all that different?

Special guests:

Kate Moore, Science/Special Education Content Specialist

Christian Wu, Mathematics Content Specialist

We often see students begin to struggle with reading as expectations shift from learning to read, to reading to learn. Struggling with this shift can have implications on a student's ability to meet learning demands across all content areas, especially as they move into middle and high school.

How can you recognize a struggling reader? What prevents students from becoming more fluent readers? What can parents do to support and motivate their students' reading?

Special guest:

Dorothy Barnhouse, Author & Educational Specialist

Teachers confront students' emotional responses to reading on a daily basis, particularly as more complex texts are introduced.

We're unpacking the idea of a "complex text", reflecting on why reading can elicit such emotional responses, and focusing on how teachers can support readers of all ages.

Special guest:

Dr. Laura Rigolosi, Curriculum & Literacy Specialist