Biographical Info

Areas We Address

A day school would engage with us if they are looking to develop or enhance:

• Their ability to meet the range of academic, social and emotional needs of their students.
• A school-wide familiarity with learning differences and systems for talking compassionately with and about students’ strengths and struggles to help students thrive.
• A school-wide professional, evidence-based, language and approach to help understand and address students’ academic and social-emotional needs.

They also seek us out because we are not a “one-and-done” professional development organization. Rather, we provide scaffolded, on-site support for teachers in their classrooms, support for school leaders, and intensive multilayered training, capacity-building assistance, and customized onsite and virtual coaching.

Expected Outcomes

Working with us, a school should expect to accomplish:

High-level, thoughtful professional development that is sensitive to diverse learners and to teachers at different professional stages. It can also expect to be guided to embed best practice systems of student observation, teacher reflection, guided peer coaching, and teacher collaboration.

For most of the schools this includes:

• Developing a professional, robust, and strength-based language that fosters empathy and can shift the tone of conversations around students.
• Use of a framework for thinking about students’ strengths and challenges and extending this knowledge to develop supportive strategies.
• Embedding best practices that guide thoughtful and supportive peer coaching and collaboration, and professional learning communities.
• Many schools achieve a deeper knowledge and toolbox of instructional and differentiation practices, and strategies for enhancing the degree to which social-emotional needs are addressed in classrooms.
• Skilled application to both Judaic and general studies.
  Support for how to talk to students about their learning strengths and struggles.

Key Activities

We help schools achieve their goals by implementing the following:

• Encouraging participation from teachers, school leaders, guidance and support services personnel in one or more of our intensive deep dive training sessions, such as our signature Learning Lenses course, differentiated instruction workshops, and observation and peer coaching intensives
• Supportive follow-up onsite and/or virtual coaching in the above areas as well as general instructional techniques and classroom management. Coaching allows for participants to be supported by a mentor while trying out their new toolbox of skills as they internalize their new learning
• Mentoring faculty experts and teacher leaders who can be resources to other teachers, thereby cultivating internal support systems
• Consultation on developing collaborative systems for faculty meetings and a culture of observation, reflection, and collaboration
• Topical workshops on areas related to SEL and Diverse Learners customized to the school’s needs
• Wrap-around webinars on a broad range of topics
• Helping schools identify how they can access Title funds to support their goals

Setting Expectations

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect schools to:

• Be open to forging a deep partnership with Hidden Sparks that is open, strategic and reflective, so that we can work together to best support the school, its faculty, and students.
• Be open to evaluation assessment and monitoring of goals, successes, and areas for growth, and celebrate achievements
• Be committed to devoting time and energy to joining us in our mission of nurturing the Hidden Spark within each child so that all the school’s students thrive
• Ensure all levels of administrative support are in place for participating teachers (coverage) and that school leaders actively support the program

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect administrators to:

• Be active participants in our programs, to learn our language and approach, and be knowledgeable so that they can set an example to their faculty teams and provide ongoing support for participation
• Support the participation of faculty by ensuring systems are in place in terms of scheduling and coverage to allow for the teacher’s full participation in our programs
• Remain committed and invested partners to the goals jointly set forth for Hidden Sparks’ program in this school, including the ongoing reflection and evaluation of the program’s efficacy

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect classroom teachers to:

• Engage fully in the training and coaching by being open to learning about different learning profiles, collaborating with colleagues for the benefit of the students, open to integrating new ideas and approaches, and being reflective about your coaching experience
• Be full participants by actively engaging with our content
• Provide honest constructive feedback on how we can best support them
• Understand that investing in themselves and their professional growth is an investment in their students