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Welcome to J. Sterling Morton High School District 201 Instructional Coaches

WHAT IS AN INSTRUCTIONAL COACH?

"Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance. The allegiance of coaches is to the people they work with; their success depends on it. And the existence of a coach requires an acknowledgment that even expert practitioners have room for improvement." (from Personal Best: Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?  – Dr. Atul Gawande)

 

Instructional coaches partner with educators to increase student learning and engagement by providing job-embedded professional development that builds capacity through effective instructional practices.

As Morton 201 Instructional Coaches we promise to:

  • Support teachers to improve and sustain student achievement through modeling of demonstration lessons, co-teaching, co-planning, observations with feedback, and facilitation of teacher reflection through coaching cycles.
  • Gather information and/or resources or develop resources for teachers to support their professional growth and to demonstrate best practices in alignment of curricula and assessments to standards.
  • Provide support to teachers in implementing best practices and methodologies that can be used to support teaching, learning, and district goals.
  • Assist teachers in the collection and analysis of data; models the use of data in co-planning lessons and reflecting on co-taught and demonstrated lessons.
  • Meet with PLC teams for the purpose of planning next steps for student and school improvement.
  • Support teachers to learn specific and differentiated strategies that enable teachers to meet the needs of all learners.
  • Collaborate with teachers to help them learn to more efficiently identify the instructional needs of students, to set learning goals and targets, and to problem solve to develop and implement best practices to support continuous academic growth of students.
  • Provide professional development on best practices for instruction across the curriculum.
  • Develop collaborative and professional working relationships with colleagues, school faculty, and administrators.
  • Read professional journals, books, and research; attend seminars, conferences and workshops to continuously update professional knowledge.
     

Instructional Coaches by Campus

  • East: Jim Dobrzanski, Lauren Keppler, Carol Medrano, Sophia Faridi
  • Freshman Center: Angela Barrera, Libby Comeau, Benjamin Dobes, Omar Sanchez
  • West: Elizabeth Reyes, David Lopez , Natalie Perejda, Carolyn Wittersheim