C3 Connecting, Coaches, Cognition

Gretchen is a National Board-certified elementary school teacher from Charlotte, NC. In 2006, Gretchen received her bachelor’s degree at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 2010, she received her master’s degree in Curriculum and Supervision from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Gretchen taught grades 2, 3, and 5 before transitioning into the role of a New Teacher Developmen...

Adam Geller is the founder of Edthena and author of Evidence-Based Practice. He started his career in education as a science teacher in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2011, Adam has overseen the evolution of Edthena from a paper-based prototype into a research-informed and patented platform used by schools, districts, teacher training programs, and professional development providers.   Adam has writte...

Learner Agency: A Field Guide for Taking Flight is a boots-on-the-ground resource for those who wish to foster greater agency for students and adults alike within their classroom, school, or school system. Written by practitioners who have experienced the triumphs and struggles first-hand, the book offers a framework for moving from building knowledge to making meaning and applying the understandi...

Suzanne Dailey is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District, where she has the honor and joy of working with over 500 elementary teachers and 8,000 students. She teaches model lessons, facilitates professional development sessions, and mentors teachers to be the best for the students in front of them.            Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a fellow of the National Writ...

Nita Creekmore is an Instructional Coach who lives just outside Atlanta, GA. In the 19 years, she has been in education, she truly believes that in all aspects of the field, relationships must always come first. She has obtained a Bachelor’s in English, Master’s in Elementary Education, and Educational Specialist in Supervision & Leadership. She currently works for Bright Morning Consulting as a P...

Keith Young is an education coach, trainer, and writer. Keith was raised in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of northern Alabama. After a short stint at seminary, he pivoted to teaching secondary students for the U.S. government in Germany. In his first years of teaching, he developed a knack for leading and training colleagues. Eventually, Keith shifted full-time to training teachers an...

Starr Sackstein has been an educator for 20 years and is currently a full-time educational consultant, instructional coach, and speaker. Starr received National Board Certification in 2012 and was recognized as an outstanding educator that year by Education Update. Association and served as the New York State Director for JEA. She was named an ASCD "Emerging Leader" class of 2016 and had the oppor...

Michelle Harris, Senior Consultant at Instructional Coaching Group (ICG) has spent almost three decades as an educator, starting as a Special Education Paraprofessional in Salt Lake City, Utah before completing her Masters in Teaching at Pacific University and teaching middle school in El Cajon, CA and Beaverton, OR. She served as an instructional coach for teachers and students in a comprehensive...

  Episode Notes: -Lindsay comes from a family of educators. Lindsay’s first coach was trained in Jim Knight’s Instructional Coaching and she was asked to replace her years later. She had the opportunity to go to Kansas to learn from the Instructional Coaching Group. She found her passion for coaching in this time.  -Lindsay is very connected with Jim Knight's work. She also has bounced back and fo...

Valentina Gonzalez, the co-author of Reading & Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5, is a longtime educator who has served 20+ years in education in her own classroom, as a district facilitator for English learners, a professional development specialist for ELs, and as a consultant. Her work’s primary focus has been on literacy, culture, and language. Valentina delivers professional...

Matt Renwick is an elementary principal in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Previously he served as an assistant principal, athletic director, coach, and classroom teacher in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. Matt was recognized as a Friend of Literacy by the Wisconsin State Reading Association in 2020 and received the Kohl Leadership Award in 2021. His books include 5 Myths About Classroom Technology: How do...

Dr. Nathan D. Lang-Raad is an educator, speaker, and author. He is the Vice President of Strategy at Savvas Learning. Throughout his career, he has served as a teacher, elementary school administrator, high school administrator, and university adjunct professor. He was the Director of Elementary Curriculum and Instruction for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, as well as education supervisor a...

Episode Notes: -Student Centered Mentoring Book: Keeping Students at the Heart of New Teachers’ Learning -4 Core Beliefs for Success: Empower others to grow, Learning is Process and so is Teaching, Relying on others, and Setting Goals as well as keep trying. -Student Centered Mentoring - a collaborative approach for mentors and mentees that focuses heavily on the impact of students’ learning with...

-The PD Book: 7 Habits that Transform Professional Development by Elena Aguilar and Lori Cohen  The PD Book -This book grew organically out of leading PD and reflecting on leading PD. It felt like the next thing to work on and bring to the front. -Imagining PD like a party - wanting PD to not be draining, but instead enlivening, exciting, and nourishing. What if PD could feel more like a party or...

Michael Bungay Stanier helps people be a force for change. He’s best known for his book The Coaching Habit which has sold over a million copies and has thousands of 5-star reviews online. His latest book How to Begin helps people be ambitious for themselves and for the world and, find their Worthy Goal, and start something thrilling, important and daunting. He founded Box of Crayons, a learning an...

Formerly a high school English teacher and a new teacher coach in Palo Alto Unified School District (Palo Alto, CA), Jennifer Abrams is currently a communications consultant and author who works with educators and others on new teacher and employee support, being generationally savvy, effective collaboration skills, having hard conversations and creating identity safe workplaces.    Jennifer’s pub...

Rebecca Frazier, Ph. D., has centered her professional career around learning and sharing how to become an effective coach in a variety of situations. When teachers feel encouragement and love as well as being supported by a technically skilled and competent coach, both the positive energy to persevere and the skills needed to meet difficult challenges are produced. This holistic way of delivering...

Kyle Schwartz is in her tenth year of teaching, this year as a reading teacher at Doull Elementary in Denver, Colorado. Her first book, I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids focuses on realities that students face and how educators can respond to their students’ needs by building relationships. Her second book, I Wish For Change: Unleashing the Power of Kids t...

Becca Silver is the founder and CEO of The Whole Educator. She is a highly energetic and knowledgeable trainer who approaches leadership development with transformational coaching skills and strategies. Becca is a former educator, instructional coach, life coach, and executive coach. Her training programs and customized one-on-one coaching work focuses on fostering teacher buy-in and bridging know...

This episode is a compilation of ‘Dear Coach Letters’ for you to enjoy and to help wrap up this year right for all our favorite coaches!    Hear from our special guests: Adam Geller Website: https://www.edthena.com/ Twitter:@edthena Suzy Evans Twitter:@SuzannahEvans2 Betsy Ball Twitter:@1BetsyBall  Mary Phillips Twitter:@growinglearners Dr. Sean Corey Twitter:@LegacyElem David Baker Twitter:@David...

Karen Smith is an Elementary Language Arts Coordinator in St. Vrain Valley School District and is Cognitive Coach trained. Episode Notes: -Model of coaching to onboard for literacy depends on the individual she is coaching and the context. -Pull from Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle - Identify, Learn, and Improve -Minimum Skills Competencies - What do our Students need to know, understand and be able to...

Episode Notes: -Formative Assessment Expert started as a Band Director and Musical Performance specialty. -Dr. Shelby Wolf - Children’s Literature -Leading Impact Teams Building a Culture of Efficacy with Barb Pitchford -Collective work of many coaches going in and seeing that on some teams one member may be doing most of the work, looking to create collective efficacy. It was always about what th...

Kathy Perret is an instructional coaching consultant and co-author of The Coach Approach to School Leadership (ASCD 2017) and Compassionate Coaching (ASCD 2021). As the founder of Kathy Perret Consulting, she empowers school leaders, instructional coaches, and classroom teachers in their professional growth. With over 30 years of experience in the field, Kathy hosts onsite and virtual professional...

Tyler Tarver, Ed. S is the Dean of NLC College. Tyler speaks at conferences across the country on various topics related to teaching, administration, efficiency, technology, social media, and culture. He has amassed over 14 million views on YouTube and 60k subscribers. Tyler is a Dean of an HBCU College located in Arkansas. He also created and maintains TarverAcademy.com, where he helps students/t...

We talk to Dr. Diane Lauer, Dr. Sean Corey, Kelly Addington, Mandy Warren, and Nicholas Meyer to reflect back on the last year of coaching and teaching to hold onto our new learnings. We analyze a year of pandemic learning and pull out the positives that we want to pull forward to next year's teaching.   Episode Notes: Teacher’s Perspective: Explore various learning models from this year: in-perso...