Learning Carousel
The Learning Carousel consisted of eight tables and divided the attendees of the Second Annual Instructional Coaching Conference into eight groups. Each table had a speaker, someone featured in a chapter from Jim Knight’s book Instructional Coaching, A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction. The speakers: Devona Dunekack (Chapter 2), Ric Palma (Chapter 3), Jim Knight and Stacy Cohen as substitutes for Lynn Barnes (Chapter 4), Sue Woodruff (Chapter 5), Tricia McKale (Chapter 6), LaVonne Holmgren (Chapter 7), Shelly Bolejack and Vicki Vossler (Chapter 8) and Jean Clark (Chapter 9) gave 15-minute presentations on the chapters they were featured in to small groups. When the speaker’s time ended the groups moved to the next table and went through the same process with a new speaker, until they had visited all of the tables and chapters.
Chapter 2: What Does Coaching Look Like?
Devona Dunekack has been an educator for 24 years. She was a middle school teacher for 16 years, and then spent four years working as curriculum coordinator. She has been an instructional coach in the Pathways to Success program for five years and has been at Eisenhower Middle School for the past four. Devona is certified as a Strategic Instruction Model Content Enhancement Professional Developer and as a Learning Strategies Professional Developer. She is also a trainer of trainers for Randy Sprick’s Safe and Civil Schools and CHAMPs approach to classroom management.
Chapter 3: What Is the Partnership Philosophy?
Ric Palma is in his third year as an instructional coach on the Pathways to Success project at Topeka High School. Prior to being a coach, Ric taught language arts at Topeka High School for 12 years. Although he is now a University of Kansas employee, Ric continues in his role as the Topeka High School announcer and is known affectionately as “The Voice of the Trojans.”
Chapter 4: Partnership Communication
Jim Knight and Stacy Cohen substituted for Lynn Barnes, who could not be at the Conference. Jim Knight is a research associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. Jim also leads the coaching institutes and annual instructional coaching conference offered by the University of Kansas. Stacy Cohen has worked as an instructional coach for four years and has worked with Lynn Barnes on education projects.
Chapter 5: Getting Teachers on Board and Finding a Starting Point
Sue Woodruff is a nationally recognized leader in of school improvement efforts based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A leader of leaders for the Strategic Instruction Model and the Content Literacy Continuum, Sue spend her time identifying excellent instructional coaches and mentoring them for their districts. Sue was an instructional coach at Muskegon High School for 15 years. Muskegon High School received national recognition when it won the Pete and Carrie Rozelle National Award from the National Center for Learning Disabilities for addressing the educational and social-emotional needs of all children, including those with learning disabilities.
Chapter 6: Modeling, Observing, and Collaboratively Exploring Data
Tricia McKale has been an instructional coach at Robinson Middle School for the past five years. Prior to being an instructional coach, Tricia was a language arts teacher for four years in North Ottawa County in Kansas. Tricia is a nationally certified professional developer for Randy Sprick’s Safe and Civil and Civil Schools program and a certified professional developer for Learn Strategies within the Strategic Instruction Model. She is also coauthor of Coaching Classroom Management (Sprick, Knight, Reinke, & McKale, 2007).
Chapter 7: Focusing on the Big Four
LaVonne Holmgren has been an instructional coach at Landon Middle School for six years. She is a certified Strategic Instruction Model Learning Strategies professional developer, and she has received extensive professional development in Content Enhancement, Randy Sprick’s Safe and Civil Schools program, and Richard Stiggins’ Assessment for Learning. Prior to becoming an instructional coach, LaVonne was an elementary classroom teacher and a teacher of strategies for Grades K-4.
Chapter 8: How Coaches Can Spread Knowledge
Shelly Bolejack, for the past five years, has been an instructional coach on the Pathways to Success program at Highland Park High School, the school she attended as a student growing up. Prior to being a coach, Shelly taught middle school for 15 years. Shelly is an expert in the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning’s Content Enhancement and Learning Strategies Instruction and Randy Sprick’s CHAMPs program. During the two years she taught Pathways to Success writing strategies, her students led all other students in the district on the Kansas State Writing Assessment.
Chapter 9: Coaches as Leaders of Change
Jean Clark is an instructional coach at Bohemia Manor Middle School in Cecil County, Maryland. She became an instructional coach in 2004, but she says that she feels she has been a change agent for most of her professional life. Jean taught English for many years, and was one of the first Cecil County Teachers of the Year. Jean is a certified Strategic Instruction Model Content Enhancement professional developer, a writer and a poet.
