Instructional Philosophy
Education Alliance implements a "coaching" structure that utilizes Literacy Mentors (LM) to provide professional development activities. Our philosophy consists of seven key elements:
- Build Trust - Teachers are professionals and need to feel as though they are valued as professionals. This begins through high level, practical large group professional developments, followed by small group and then individualized instruction tailored to meet the needs of each teacher.
- Assessment - The Literacy Mentor Team (LMT), which includes the teacher, develops an individualized teacher development plan using data from classroom assessments, observations, interviews with school administrators and interviews with the teacher.
- Modeling - Appropriate instructional techniques are modeled through demonstration, videos, one on one instruction and observations of other teachers.
- Guided Practice - LM emulates and models skills that encompass curriculum, behavior, assessments and classroom environment.
- Self-Sufficiency - Teacher can incorporate new techniques and skills, will demonstrate the new technique or skill for other teachers, and welcomes new learning opportunities.
- Feedback - Interactive feedback allows the LM to provide feedback to teachers and for teachers to provide feedback to the LMs.
- Ongoing - The seven key elements are a continuous loop