On the shoulders of education giants

COEUR d'ALENE — If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Coeur d'Alene School District teachers should be feeling pretty good about the work they do.

From four school districts and one university, 45 educators spent hours Dec. 13-14 peering into 18 classrooms of their counterparts to learn techniques of the teaching trade through the district's Deeper Learning Institute. The program's overarching goal is to align teaching beliefs and practices and to strengthen teachers' reflective abilities.

"This has been so great for me, especially since I studied secondary," said Ashley Torgerson, a first-year visual arts teacher at Woodland Middle School. "I’ve never observed an elementary classroom before. That gave me great insight because I can bring things from a fifth grade classroom into a seventh or eighth grade classroom. They apply because it’s all learning.”

This collaborative work helps close gaps between educators' beliefs for their students and what actually plays out in their classrooms. It emphasizes the complexity of teaching and how it can be improved when more than one teacher is involved.

Torgerson said an "aha" moment for her through this experience was the need to build a classroom community.

“A lot of times when you move from elementary to middle school, you kind of forget about the importance of building that community so that your discussions have deeper learning, your class has norms,” she said.

She said students are more comfortable to take risks in this type of setting because they understand it's OK to not have a right answer as everyone is figuring it out together.

"That was really awesome to see," Torgerson said. "And student ownership of their work and how they really wanted to help each other.”

This was the third year for the Deeper Learning Institute, which is influenced by the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s instructional rounds and Wendy Ward Hoffer's book "Phenomenal Teaching: A Guide for Reflection and Growth." 

The Coeur d'Alene School District has been engaging in this work for seven years. The district developed the institute as a way for teachers across grade levels and schools to share discourse, provide a mirror into each educator's own practice and celebrate teaching and learning that demands students more deeply think and demonstrate ownership.

“The whole point of the Deeper Learning Institute is to give teachers a visual of what dynamic teaching can be and what that impact is on students,” said Misty Lemburg, an instructional coach for the school district. “With phenomenal teaching, the instructional framework, there’s components from that we dive into."

She described phenomenal teaching as teachers moving from teacher-led to student-led discussions, which increases student engagement and empowers them in their educational journeys.

The five components of the framework are: Planning, community, discourse, thinking strategies and assessment.

“Our hope is that students become motivated to take charge of their own learning,” Lemburg said. "Students are not just learning from the teachers but learning from each other.”

Director of Curriculum Katie Graupman said one of the things she loves about the Deeper Learning Institute is the teacher conversations she overhears about how how varied the teaching framework can be when applied.

"You can make it your own, you can be the teacher that you are and still use this framework to help kids have agency and ownership in the classroom," she said. 

She said the quality of work happening in the Coeur d'Alene School District doesn’t happen everywhere.

"For people to know there’s this excellence that’s happening here and for people to hear about it is huge," Graupman said.

Melissa Lewis, Skyway Elementary third grade teacher, said the Deeper Learning Institute is a great opportunity to see incredible educators and to participate in discourse with the intention of developing and honing the teaching craft.

"It’s really encouraging to see the high levels of student engagement, the critical thinking and perseverance and the productive discourse amongst the students," Lewis said.

    Lisa McElroy, left, and Amy Skaugstad, both of the Lake Pend Oreille School District, confer Dec. 14 during a Deeper Learning Institute debriefing at Midtown Meeting Center in Coeur d'Alene.
  

    Teachers Jennifer Thomas, Fernan STEM Academy, left, and Ashley Torgerson, Woodland Middle School, observe Teresa Armstrong's class Dec. 13 at Borah Elementary during the Coeur d'Alene School District's Deeper Learning Institute.
  

    Instructional coach Troy Wassink leads a reflective discussion Dec. 14 during a debriefing as the Coeur d'Alene School District's Deeper Learning Institute concludes at Midtown Meeting Center in Coeur d'Alene.