On-Site Consulting and Training

The consulting and training program is in full swing! We are thrilled that in addition to our renewed schools, we have several new partner schools. We now have 24 professional educational consultants providing pre-k-8th grade coaching services to hundreds of classrooms across New York City, impacting thousands of students this school year. The heart of our program is our on-site, differentiated coaching work. Based on supporting initiatives and targeted goals, Institute consultants work with teachers and staff in numerous ways to improve teaching and learning. Walk into any partner classroom and you will likely find the consultant explicitly demonstrating best practices to differentiate instruction, modifying the classroom environment, providing resources and multiple ways of accessing curriculum, integrating social emotional learning into daily routines and lessons, and much more to improve student outcomes across our city. In addition to the in-class coaching, consultants work with teachers and school leaders to build professional learning communities. This may be through in-service trainings around a targeted area of interest or need, or facilitated collaborative conversations specific to each unique school community. In the end, the ultimate goal is to support teachers, staff and school leaders to meet the diverse and unique needs of all of their students and elevate academic, social and emotional growth.

Workshops
This year, the Institute’s Pre-K team rolled out professional development workshops geared toward specific Pre-K topics. These workshops bring together early childhood educators from multiple partner schools. The trainings focus on topics such as Preschool Special Education; Positive Behavior Supports; Creating Classrooms that Promote Resilience, Empathy and Joy; and Looking at Play Through a Development Lens. What makes these trainings unique is that they are offered in a series, rather than one-off workshops. By developing a series of trainings around specific topics, Cooke presenters are able to take participants’ learning and professional growth to the next level as well as provide opportunity for follow up on the content and pedagogy while working in classrooms.

Cooke School & Institute Collaborations
The Institute’s work isn’t confined to the schools with whom we partner. There are some key collaborations between Cooke School staff and the Institute, and between Cooke School staff and other organizations as well. These collaborations include offering support, guidance and connections to the ever-changing high school graduation and transition landscape, helping design a more robust internship program for students with disabilities, math curriculum development that involves real-life experiences, and integrating SmartBoard technology to meet the needs of diverse learners. We look forward to many more of these collaborations as the word of their value continues to spread.

Continuing Teacher Education Credits
Professionally-certified teachers are required to complete professional development hours. In order to do this, they must find relevant and compelling professional development sessions to attend from New York State-certified organizations approved to award continuing teacher education credits (CTLE).  Well, the good news is they need look no further! Cooke is now a NYSED-approved sponsor and can award these sought-after CTLE credits to Cooke teachers and partner school educators who hold their professional certification. This is really a fabulous opportunity for Cooke, and in fact, many Cooke teachers earned CTLE hours during our November 7th staff professional development day.