CULLOWHEE (November 3, 2015)—Two sets of Burke County teachers have created resources their schools and students can benefit from right away thanks to work done at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, a national leader in professional development.
First, Rutherford College Elementary teachers Pamela Isbell and Suzanne Jensen came to NCCAT to create reading intervention activities for struggling students. They were able to create a total of 300 different activities while in Cullowhee that included four of five different written response activities for each reading level.
Then Angie Coates, a second grade teacher, and Myra Leonhardt, a first grade teacher, from Oak Hill Elementary in Burke County came to NCCAT. This team developed resource kits to be utilized in the classroom for research-based reading interventions.
“The time here was invaluable—we really couldn’t have done this volume of work if we hadn’t been here,” Leonhardt said.
These kits contained folders of materials immediately usable by teachers and students specifically targeting the Five Essential Components of Reading.
“This are K–5 resources that our school can use right away. We have a plan of how to share them,” Coates said.
Both Coates and Leonhardt thanked Oak Hill Elementary principal Cathy Williams for allowing them to come and have the time to create these valuable school resources.
Coates and Leonhardt heard a presentation from Isbell and Jensen on what they did at NCCAT and it sparked the idea.
“And when we saw the opportunity to come, we knew this was a good option for us,” Coates.
The NCCAT Solution and Planning Teams program (formerly known as Research and Development Team programs) offers educators an opportunity to meet in a residential setting devoid of distraction to create and advance departmental, school, or district-wide projects. These projects might consist of new programming, research, planning, or curricula. For more on this program visit http://www.nccat.org/programs/research-and-development-teams-0