Professional Development Programs for Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners

The Hidden Sparks External Coach Program offers school-based training, coaching, and mentoring in understanding and teaching to diverse learners. Through this program,  a senior Hidden Sparks “external coach” spends a day a week working with teams of Judaic and general studies teachers, conducts classroom based student observations, provides mentoring for teachers, and facilitates monthly collaborative Hidden Sparks meetings to review learning profiles and teaching strategies for struggling learners.

Throughout the year, teachers learn about neurodevelopment, temperament and ecology in order to deepen their understanding of students. Specifically, they explore topics such as attention, memory, language, sequencing, social cognition, higher order thinking, and temperament as well as  strategies for working with students whose challenges are impacting their learning.

The Hidden Sparks Internal Coach Program trains peer coaches to help you meet your student’s diverse needs. They become resident experts and resources to your faculty in understanding and supporting all learners. The designated faculty member(s) will receive training and on-site mentoring in understanding and teaching to diverse learning styles, strategies for struggling students, and skill development to become peer coaches.

The Hidden Sparks Peer Coaching Program cultivates a supportive relationship between partner teachers so that they can work together to understand their students more deeply. Together, they will learn to combine their new knowledge of the Learning Lenses framework along with their teaching experiences to support students even more effectively. Participants will learn how to use observations of student behavior and/or student work to anchor their strength-based conversations with their peer coaching partner.  By the end of the year peer coaches will be able to meet independently at least once per month for productive discussions about their students using observations of students and/or observations of student work.

Hidden Sparks is available to customize coaching and workshop offerings to meet your school’s needs. Schools are welcome to use their Title I, IIA, & III funds to cover the cost of these services. Contact Sara Diament, Director of School Services, Sara@HiddenSparks.org to discuss.