1. Apprenticeship Reflection

I attended the virtual 2021 Content Literacy Leadership Institute sponsored by the KU-CRL. Professional Developer Apprentices from Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Texans, and Virginia all participated. There were 6 live, three-hour sessions with assignments in-between.  I appreciated the different perspectives that the participants from other states brought.  Previously, I participated in a Florida-based Professional Developer Institute for Content Enhancement which was great, but having educators from so many different states made the conversations even richer. I loved working in the small groups with them and finding out how they are using SIM in their states/schools.

Of the six modules, I found the modules of SIM as a Change Agent and the CliftonStrengths Finder to be the most helpful. In the SIM as a Change Agent, I had the opportunity to analyze a challenge and recommend a path based on the school's data. The feedback I received from my team that evening was quite helpful. In the CliftonStrengths Finder, I have identified areas where I can improve.

I greatly appreciated all the support and feedback from all the Professional Development Leaders (PDL) and the PDL Apprentices. Getting to meet and work with all of them was a big benefit of the institute being virtual, as well. 

Over the course of the past year, I have enjoyed the process of my apprenticeship in Learning Strategies. I have become a better coach (in training) for teachers who are implementing SIM Strategies within my building. I look forward to working with teachers in the future on SIM implementation. We faced some challenges with implementation and how to handle small groups, but were able to work together to find a model that worked best for teachers and students. I also enjoyed having conversations with teachers about additional strategies that can aid students, especially within English classrooms. Teachers were interested in writing strategies and we were able to reflect that within our SIM Plan for the middle school.

I was able to learning new strategies myself that were very successful within my own class, such as with The Self-Advocacy Strategy and Possible Selves. Students responded very well to Possible Selves. I did learn to make adaptations to meet the needs of my students and it worked well. I look forward to being able to discuss how to use these strategies within my Special Education Department and other departments in my school and division.

Attended SIM Update at JMU.

Virtual Zoom call with Helen Barrier and Dana McCaleb for SIM PDLS.

Mentor: Susan Trumbo
School Year 2019-2020

I attended the VaLI at JMU June 18-20, 2019 with Dana McCaleb and Helen Barrier as the SIM PDLs.  I was an apprentice at Luther Porter Jackson Middle School in Surry, Virginia from September 2019 thru June 2020 with Susan Trumbo as my Professional Development Mentor.  Under her tutelage, I have grown as a teacher and as a leader within the school district.  I am comfortable leading professional development and lending a hand to those teachers that may need extra help.  By going through this process, I am much more confident in myself and in my abilities to help my students when teaching the strategies. I also attended a virtual Zoom call on November 4, 2019.