Innovation Team & Methodology
Vision Statement
Empower diverse learners* to collaborate in order to develop equitable and inclusive learning environments, which leads to actions that impact student growth and potential.
*A Learner is everyone/anyone
Definition
Professional learning is designed to refine and expand knowledge, skills, attitudes, and practices in order to impact student growth through intentional, continuous, and collaborative engagement.
Beliefs
- High Expectations: Ambitious goals lead to powerful actions and outcomes.
- Diversity: Diversity and inclusivity strengthen an organization and improve its decisions and outcomes.
- Impact: Evaluation and reflection strengthen performance and results.
- Collaboration: An organization’s culture and climate build shared responsibility for learning that encourages student growth.
- Shared Leadership/ Expertise: As a cooperative wide community we can solve our most complex problems by tapping internal expertise and knowing when to utilize outside resources.
- Empowerment: Learners develop personalized plans that are relevant and meaningful to support their continuous improvement.
Professional Learning Standards*
- Learning Communities: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students occurs within learning communities committed to continuous improvement, collective responsibility, and goal alignment.
- Leadership: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students requires skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate, and create support systems for professional learning.
- Resources: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students requires prioritizing, monitoring, and coordinating resources for educator learning.
- Data: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students uses a variety of sources and types of student, educator, and system data to plan, assess, and evaluate professional learning.
- Learning Designs: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students integrates theories, research, and models of human learning to achieve its intended outcomes.
- Implementation: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students applies research on change and sustains support for implementation of professional learning for long-term change.
- Outcomes: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students aligns its outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards.
*Adopted from Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning
Professional Learning Innovation Team
The TrueNorth Professional Learning Innovation Team is hard at work! Their goal is to create a student-centered cooperative-wide professional learning system. Thank you to these dedicated team members from across the cooperative:
- Amy Holaday, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, District 35
- Chimille Dillard, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, District 203
- Denise Matthews, Director of Student Services, Equity, and Inclusion, District 36
- Jenny Sterpin, Director of Special Education, District 115
- Jeff McHugh, Director of Teaching and Learning, District 67
- Becky Mathison, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, District 31
- Amy Cohan, District Services Coach, TrueNorth
- Kristen Ninni, Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Design and Innovation, TrueNorth
- Lindsay Kiraly, Director of Professional Learning and Coaching, TrueNorth
- Carol Michels, Director of District Services, TrueNorth
- Lauren Randazzo, ELS/SLE, TrueNorth
- Sharon Sheehan, Math Teacher/Instructional Coach, District 225
- Sami Fahey, Instructional Coach, TrueNorth
- Tracy Roehrick, Assistant Principal Lake Bluff Elementary School, District 65
- Lauren Schulman, Director of Student Services, District 30
- Rachel Pollera, Special Education Teacher, District 30
- Ivy Sukenik, Principal Sunset Ridge School, District 29
- Amy Zima, Early Childhood, TrueNorth
- Tracy Hellner, Parent Facilitator, TrueNorth
- Vanessa Reakes, Instructional Coach, North Shore District 112
- Lisa Rand, Teaching Assistant, TrueNorth
- Erin Karson, Professional Learning Specialist, TrueNorth