Improving Teaching Skills to Helping Struggling Children
New York, Mar. 17, – My biggest challenge as a teacher is dealing with difficult classroom behavior – often, just getting struggling students to pay attention requires a lot of work, Jill Goldberg said. Her colleague, Joan Roberts, explained, “We need to find new ways to motivate our children and do a better job in helping children with learning difficulties succeed.”
Goldberg, who teaches at Shaarei Zion Ohel Bracha, Boys division, and Joan Roberts, a teacher in the school’s Girl’s division, were two of the 19 participants in a recent day-long Hidden Sparks Internal Coach Course, the first of five sessions in the intensive training program. Recommended by their school principals, these new internal coaches represented eleven schools in the Greater New York area. Hidden Sparks brings together administrators, teachers, school psychologists and learning specialists to improve schoolroom practices to better educate diverse learners in Jewish day schools.
“What can we do to help children with learning difficulties become more successful? How can we improve the way teachers look at struggling children?” Rona Novick, Ph.D., Educational Director, Hidden Sparks, asked, as she explained the role of an Internal Coach. Simply put, Novick said, “The goal of an internal coach is to improve the skills of teachers in their schools. It’s all about observation, reflection, collaboration, planning and doing – a continuous loop based on what we see.”
With this in mind, Claire Wurtzel, Educational Director, Hidden Sparks, discussed collaborative problem solving, beginning with “Giving and Receiving Feedback.” Modeling well-honed teaching skills that encourage careful listening, Wurtzel talked with participants about their own experiences when they were given feedback. Using their own experiences as a springboard, they agreed that feedback is best heard when a level of trust has been established with the teacher. The feedback should be a description of the observation delivered in non-judgmental language, and it should be feedback that can be acted upon.
As the internal coaches discussed their new roles, they raised a number of practical questions, from concerns about critiquing peers to addressing challenges inherent in working with diverse professionals, and dealing with potentially sensitive religious and secular issues. With a reassuring smile, Executive Director Debbie Niderberg explained that these concerns will be addressed as internal coaches enhance their skills through personal mentoring and the interactive sessions which include case studies, role-plays and group facilitations.
A seasoned teacher, Joyce Schonbrun, director of the Wasserman Learning Center at Bnos Bais Yaakov of Far Rockaway, really understands how the coaching model can change the equation. Schonbrun, who is new to the Internal Coach Course, described how the Hidden Sparks experience has “lit the match” for so many Bnos Bais Yaakov teachers. “Sara Reichman, our Hidden Sparks Coach, has increased our awareness. She has illuminated the multiple lenses through which a student should be viewed. Hidden Sparks sessions have helped our faculty elevate their understanding of classroom issues and develop plans of action to help stave off negative situations .”
Schonbrun’s administrators and teaching peers were enthusiastic about Hidden Sparks’ internal Coach Program. “I am excited to have this opportunity for professional development because I feel that it will help solidify the mission of our Learning Center and strengthen many of the collaborative activities that the professionals do behind the scenes to better understand the learning styles of their students.”
Today, an estimated 264 external and internal coaches and teachers in 30 Greater New York Jewish day schools, representing roughly 320 school classrooms, use the innovative Hidden Sparks program. In addition, the Hidden Sparks program is in place at seven Jewish day schools in the Boston area, with approximately 58 teachers.
Hidden Sparks’ current curriculum and approach is based on several key principles: that the most effective way to help those with learning or behavioral difficulties is to increase the tools and understanding of classroom teachers to help all children in a school; and that to achieve long-term sustained impact in schools the program should be school based and must build internal school capacity and expertise.
Niderberg explained, “This is a strategic model for helping a school develop a language for looking at the whole child, accomplished by training and nurturing a cadre of school-based experts, supported by knowledgeable and invested school leadership. Our goal is to work with schools to build teams of ‘Hidden Sparks’ trained educators who will be a source of expertise and professional support to their colleagues, for the students, and for parents.”
By Marcia P. Neeley
Hidden Sparks, an innovative new organization at the forefront of advancing Jewish education, hosted its Third Annual Coach Retreat on January 13, 2010 at the Queens Botanical Garden. Thirty Yeshiva/Jewish day school educators attended workshops to enhance their skills in their roles as mentors on teaching to diverse learners.
Workshops by renowned educators included topics such as “Collaborative Problem Solving” with Claire Wurtzel, an Educational Director for Hidden Sparks, Director of Professional Development at The Churchill school, and former chair of Special Education at Bank Street College; “Facilitating Group Meetings” with Dr. Rona Novick, an Educational Director for Hidden Sparks and Director of the Doctoral Program in Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University; ”Refining Observation Skills” with Hidden Sparks Mentor, Karen Kruger”; and “Application of Differentiated Instruction to Judaic Studies” with a Hidden Sparks Coach, Judith Talesnick.
Workshop topics reflect the Hidden Sparks goal of building long term capacity within schools by nurturing a cadre of experts in the school who are trained to better understand and teach children with social, emotional and learning differences.
“Taking a close look at how children learn by breaking down the learning process into specific problem areas really helped me to think about ways to work around a child’s weaknesses and support his or her strengths in a focused, disciplined way,” explained Rachel Neuman.
“I had not thought about the learning process with such a systematic approach,” she said. “My mind is full of ideas of how I might be able to integrate this thoughtful process into my work with children with learning difficulties.”
Neuman, a special education teacher, was one of nearly 30 participants who gathered at Hewlett High School for the Hidden Sparks sponsored workshop: “Looking at Student Work,” the morning session of the New York Board of Jewish Education’s Professional Development Day, on November 11, 2009.
A workshop leader and Hidden Spark’s Internal Coach Coordinator and Mentor, Esther Kramer explained that one of her primary goals was to empower teachers to use their inner resources and strengthens creatively to help their students understand how their brains work and how to overcome breakdowns in their learning process.
Debbie Niderberg, Hidden Sparks Executive Director, emphasized “If the classroom teacher is trained to recognize a memory or attention issue and can give that student strategies to overcome this difficulty, the student’s performance and self esteem are enhanced, the teacher has succeeded and has averted the consequences of a frustrated student, and the school benefits from having greater capacity to address a range of students most effectively.”
Welcoming more than 80 Hidden Sparks’ internal and external coaches to the afternoon workshop, Niderberg acknowledged the fine work of participating teachers and schools. Celebrating its fourth year, Hidden Sparks continues to address the needs of struggling students with its unique approach – combining professional development in learning and positive behavioral support, guided classroom observation and one-on-one coaching.
With just that in mind, the afternoon session focused on specific learning behaviors, such as memory and ways of helping students form concepts and store information. Essentially, this workshop explored different methods and techniques of mental representation and various approaches to enhancing a student’s ability to collect and manage ideas and images.
“Knowledge about how children learn and how powerfully and effectively a teacher can shift the landscape was very inspiring,” said Sara Reichman, Ph.D., a psychologist and Hidden Sparks coach. She continued, “ The excitement in the room was incredible. I know that all involved will take the warm feelings and added knowledge back to their schools and continue to find the ‘hidden spark’ in all the children with whom they work.”
The participants from across the Greater New York area who gathered here represented a diverse blend of Jewish day schools with a broad range of students, learning situations, and challenging classroom environments. The opportunity to share, explore and discuss ways of working with struggling students in a warm collaborative venue can certainly be a heady experience. But it is a key part of the learning process for the teacher who participated in the workshop.
By providing coaching support and teacher training in 28 yeshivot and day schools in the New York and Boston areas, Hidden Sparks remains steadfast and committed to helping schools deepen their skills for understanding and teaching to diverse learners.
By Marcia P. Neeley, New York, NY, November 11, 2009
An outstanding success, Hidden Sparks completed the first year of Hidden Sparks WOW, an innovative distance learning program for educators in Jewish day schools. During this inaugural year, there were 265 participants in our classes, from 59 Jewish day schools in 35 cities across the United States and Canada.
Free, short-term classes allowed educators to participate from home in interactive professional development by phone and/or online with leading educational experts. They provided teachers with concepts, strategies and tools to deepen their understanding of the ways in which students learn and behave.
Classes covered Language, Learning and Literacy: Foundations of Academic Success; The Role of Memory in School Success; Communicating with Parents; Social Cognition: The Science of Relating; Attention; De-escalating Intense Behavior; An Overview of How We Learn; Analyzing a Lesson; Analyzing Your Teaching Style; Analyzing Student Work; Strategies for Peak Performance: Effective Tools for Organizing Your Students; and Exploring Learning Processes in a Judaic Studies Curriculum.
Hidden Sparks has been named one of the nation’s 50 most innovative Jewish nonprofits in Slingshot ’09-’10, a resource guide for Jewish innovation. Slingshot, now in its fifth year, features organizations, leaders, and programs that have taken an innovative approach to addressing age-old concerns of identity and community in Jewish life today. The organizations listed in Slingshot are selected from among hundreds of nominees across the country.
Hidden Sparks is a nonprofit fund whose purpose is to help children with learning differences reach their full potential in school and life. Hidden Sparks develops and supports professional development programs for Jewish day schools to help increase understanding and support for teaching to diverse learners.
“It is important to understand that this is not a special education program – it is targeted to struggling learners in mainstream schools and classes. Essentially, we are helping the classroom teacher, who is the first line of defense, gain a deeper understanding for why a student is struggling, and the skills and strategies for teaching them most effectively. It’s a win-win situation for all,” explains Debbie Niderberg, Co-founder and Executive Director of Hidden Sparks. Continuing, she said, “If the classroom teacher is trained to recognize a memory or attention issue and can give that student strategies to overcome their difficulty, the student’s performance and self esteem are enhanced, the teacher has succeeded and has averted the consequences of a frustrated student, and the school benefits from having greater capacity to address a range of students most effectively.”
While Hidden Sparks is currently serving Jewish day schools, the school centered coaching model can be replicated in any school, and will serve as a basis for a new collaboration with the Churchill School, serving New York public schools. Being selected by Slingshot is a wonderful opportunity as it exposes us to a vibrant funding community, a valuable vehicle as we work to grow our capacity and take our programming to the next level,” Niderberg added.
“For the fifth edition of Slingshot we received an incredible group of nominees. The evaluators had their work cut out for them,” expressed Will Schneider, the Director of Slingshot. He went on to say, “In a difficult economic cycle, we believe that many organizations cannot survive without placing an emphasis on innovation, and the 50 organizations featured in Slingshot ‘09/’10 prove that innovation can be the organizational engine for sustainability.”
Inspired by the guidebook, a group of next-generation donors launched The Slingshot Fund, a collective giving mechanism to support the future of innovative Jewish life in North America. Now in its third year, Slingshot has already contributed over $1 million to innovative Jewish nonprofits. 2009 Slingshot Fund investor Dave Moss shares, “Through Slingshot, young philanthropists are able to pool resources and knowledge and in so doing send a message to the Jewish Community about what the next generation of funders considers important.”
Slingshot was created by a team of young funders as a guidebook to help funders of all ages diversify their giving portfolios with the most innovative and effective organizations and programs in North America. Now in its fifth edition, Slingshot has proven to be a catalyst for next generation funding and offers a telling snapshot of shifting trends in North America’s Jewish community.
Working together with The Churchill School, a grant from the Milstein Foundation will underwrite the development of a model pilot to create an innovative and transformational curriculum and training program for teaching struggling students with learning differences and behavioral challenges. Hidden Sparks and The Churchill School believe this innovative paradigm will be an enormous contribution to Jewish day schools nationwide and to the field as a whole.
For this collaboration, Hidden Sparks will be responsible for dissemination and oversight of the curriculum and training program to Jewish schools nationwide. The Churchill School will oversee dissemination of the training and curriculum to public and non-Jewish private schools.
The Churchill School and Center, a private, non-sectarian public school for learning disabilities located in Manhattan, serves children from New York in grades K-12 and has a professional development arm (The Center) for parents and other educators. (Link here for learning opportunities offered by The Churchill School and Center)
In September 2009, the Diverse Learners CoP will transition from the auspices of PEJE to become a collaborative effort between Hidden Sparks and Hebrew College, Newton, Massachusetts. The goal of the Diverse Learners Community of Practice is to improve best practices in the education of diverse learners in Jewish Day School settings by bringing together administrators, special educators, and teachers through our regularly scheduled conference calls and ongoing online discussions.
In assuming the mantle of leadership for this important initiative, Hidden Sparks and Hebrew College hope to:
Increase knowledge in the Jewish day schools and supplemental schools about learning and children’s social, and emotional development in order to increase understanding for and ability to meet the needs of the child with special needs as well as the struggling child in mainstream Jewish day and supplemental schools.
Enhance skills to support children with special needs in Jewish day schools and supplemental schools.
Please contact Sandy Miller-Jacobs at Hebrew College CoP.DL.SMJ@gmail.com or Debbie Niderberg at Hidden Sparks dknider@hiddensparks.org with ideas and thoughts you would like incorporated into the continuing vision of the Diverse Learners CoP.
