Public Impact

Personalize learning for educators, not just students

By Casey Jackson, first published by EdNC, May 18, 2021

“Can you please be my coach?”

With tears rolling down her cheeks, this was what a young, second-year teacher asked me in the middle of a professional development session in 2018.

I was sitting at a table with new faces, in a new state, in a new role as a multi-classroom leader (MCL) in Vance County, North Carolina. The session presenter had asked us to role-play a guided-reading lesson, and this young woman had bravely volunteered to play the role of teacher. As the others played the students, I played the teacher’s coach. Although I had some administrative experience helping teachers, I had not yet gone through MCL training to learn how to appropriately coach the teaching team I would lead. Read more…

The Support Baltimore Teachers Deserve—Now and Post-Pandemic

By Sidney Thomas, first published by The Baltimore Times, April 30, 2021

A tweet I saw asking teachers to share one book they would recommend for new teachers jolted me back to my first year of teaching in 2008. My school gave me a copy of The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry and Rosemary Wong, told me to read it, and then released me into the classroom to figure out how to be an effective teacher.

The book was my only “support” that year. Whenever I asked for additional help to become a better teacher, I was told to go back to that book. Yet, even after rereading it, I still struggled. Read more…

From Action Plan to Teacher of the Year—in One Year

By Staci Bunn; first published by EducationNC, November 9, 2017

“You didn’t give up. And you listened a lot—you understood where I was coming from.” Multi-Classroom Leader® Stacie Bunn interviews her team teacher, Expanded-Impact Teacher Kenyetta Davenport, about how Bunn’s support helped her zoom from being put on an action plan to becoming teacher of the year. Read More…