From Ochan Kusuma-Powell and Bill Powell:

Hello,

Just a short note to let you know that Bill and I were at the American School of The Hague last week and did the first 2 days of the CC Foundation Course with about 36 teachers, all very receptive.

At the end of the 2 days, a young man approached us. He is Irish, and told us that the word for soul in Irish is "ainm" (pronounciation 'anam') or "amnach" (pronounciation 'aunach'), that it referred to the deep structure, the inner core of the person and the light that comes from it. "Not the strength of the illumination, but the quality of it."

This young man told us he felt the light from his soul had been enhanced by his work in CC in the last couple of days.

We thought to share this with you.

 
 
From Jim Justice, Interim Director of Coaching, Kentucky Center for Mathematics, Northern Kentucky University:

Kentucky Mathematics Coaching Program Builds on Promising First Year

The Kentucky Center for Mathematics' (KCM) Coaching Program has been enthusiastically received by schools participating in its inaugural year. Susan Gordon, a math coach at East Jessamine Middle School, has seen firsthand how coaching has made a difference at her school. She says, "I love the collaboration that is going on as a result of math coaching. Teachers are working together with grade level partners to plan lessons, activities, assessments, and projects. It is amazing what teachers who work with one another can create!"

Launched in 2006 with funding from the state administered by the Kentucky Department of Education, the KCM Mathematics Coaching Program is a long-term initiative for improving the teaching and learning of mathematics in K-12 schools in Kentucky. The primary goal of the program is to increase student achievement by not only helping individual teachers craft better classroom instruction through conversations structured around effective planning and meaningful reflection, but also by promoting a heightened sense of community among all math teachers in their school building and, in some cases, their school district. KCM Coaches, who devote at least half of their time to coaching, lead this effort in multiple ways tailoring their approach to the teachers at their schools.

KCM Coaches are trained in Cognitive Coaching^SM, an approach to discussion in which coaches craft questions to help their colleagues clarify and expand their thinking when they are planning, reflecting, or problem-resolving. KCM Coach Jennifer McDaniel says, "Cognitive Coaching^SM has been the most effective and powerful training I have ever received. It has changed my conversations, my teaching, my perspectives, and my life in positive and worthwhile ways. I no longer waste energy on events that I have no control over and focus on resolving problems and improving math instruction by feeling empowered, empowering others, and working together to achieve understood and common goals."

Coaches also support teachers on site by locating and providing exemplary teaching materials and being available to model how to implement them with students. They collaborate with teachers in lesson planning, teaching, and reflecting on the impact of lessons on students' learning of mathematics. Marianne Dula, a teacher at Lagrange Elementary, describes how working with a math coach has impacted her students: "Our goal is to incorporate thinking strategies into use in our math lessons. [Our coach] has been in my room daily to guide us and provide the resources to spearhead this project!! I am thrilled with the conversations that are taking place with my students."

Math coaches often lead teachers in the essential task of analyzing student performance on math assessments and planning next steps so that student achievement goals can be met. Although program-wide gains in student achievement are expected in the long-term, Mike Mullins, Principal at Worthington Elementary School, states, "I believe [our coach's] help contributed to our test scores coming up 12 points, which means that more of our students were reached."

The KCM predicts that overall gains in student test scores will be preceded by positive changes in the coaches, followed by changes in teachers. Test results for coaches at the elementary school level confirm that these changes are occurring. At the end of their first year, these coaches demonstrated greater mathematical content knowledge on a test developed by the University of Michigan. Positive changes in the teachers with whom the coaches work are also being noted.

Denise Justice, a math coach for Raceland-Worthington Independent Schools, has observed changes in teachers' conversations. She says, "I see teachers now talking math. There is a number sense that I have not seen discussed before." Keith Embry, a math coach at Oldham County High School, is also seeing teachers collaborating now more than ever. He elaborates, "Because of this increase in communication, teachers are more focused on the Kentucky Core Content in their instruction and are discussing more successful teaching practices that are leading to observable student achievement."

For Principal John Riehemann, the resources and support provided by the math coach at Lloyd Memorial High School were crucial in another respect. He relates, "As an administrator, the greatest thing our school has received is two competent, happy first-year teachers who returned for their second year of teaching in our school. I feel the two teachers last year did not experience the level of frustration that our previous candidate did almost exclusively due to our math coach."

Now in its second year, the KCM Coaching Program currently provides training and support to 73 coaches, spread across grades K-12, in 38 counties throughout the Commonwealth. Coaches selected by a competitive process receive funds to cover training and expenses for the coach and their administrator as well as a budget for materials to be used for teacher professional development. Information about applying for the 2008-2009 school year is available on the KCM Web site (new window).

Schools returning to the program continue to build on the groundwork laid during year one. When asked, "What do you hope your school can achieve by continuing to support a mathematics coach?", Parkway Elementary School Principal Joan Cooke replied, "We hope to build instructional capacity by empowering the teachers through job-embedded professional development. The most profound impact occurs when we get teachers talking to teachers about teaching and learning!" Math coach Laura Smith at Yates Elementary in Lexington concurs, "The math teaching and learning I observe in classrooms is proof that when given effective resources, classroom teachers are more than willing to reflect on their teaching, take risks, and do whatever is necessary to meet the needs of all students."

 
 
From Carolyn Nixon, an American Educator:

This past Friday I completed Day 8 of the Cognitive Coaching Foundation Seminar^® with Carol Simoneau in Newton, KS. The excitement of the past month has been unbridled and unparalleled. For over two decades, I have sought to be a catalyst for changing the face of the public education system. It has been my great honor and blessed privilege to study the work of and be trained by Reuven Feuerstein. Unfortunately, enlightenment cannot illuminate the world until there are enough enlightened ones to "perturb the system" and cause it to reorder itself. Having been trained in the Theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability, Mediated Learning Theory, Instrumental Enrichment, and Dynamic Assessment, my journey has felt long, arduous, and lonely out here in the world of public education. No matter...I strive still for the mark...still believing that each of us has the power to change the world on a daily basis as we work and interact with students in American classrooms.

My dear friend and mentor, Dr. Ruth Burgess, first handed me information regarding your work many years ago, just a few months after she returned from studying with Dr. Feuerstein in Israel. Thank God I have come full circle. Sitting throughout the foundation training, I was reminded over and over again that teachers need to be MEDIATORS OF LEARNING. One thing seems certain; many American teachers will not be able to change minds until they first learn that they need and have the ability to change their own. How wonderful to perceive that Cognitive Coaching^SM has the potential to unlock the portal to a new dimension in the education of America's children, a dimension where we come face to face with and reevaluate basic assumptions about the nature of human intelligence and what it means to be educators in a democratic society.

A nation of passive learners is a field ripe with oppression and, ultimately, rebellion.

Thank you. There is new hope...new resolve in my heart and soul. My mind feels free again. I feel like a golden thread being woven into a beautiful and priceless eternal tapestry. Thoughts conceived and acted upon really do change the world.