Ideas were SO practical. I have already implemented many into my practice and they work!
Having the time to interact and share ideas with teachers all over the world. Hear their experiences and how they teach reading and writing.
The course was packed with really practical take-it-with-you strategies and schedules. I really appreciated the planning templates and systems.
I like the expertise and knowledge in the science of reading and appreciate the deep understanding and the insights they shares during conference.
A lot of affirmation about what I am already doing, as well as some "permission" to shed and try new things. I have pages and pages of great notes!
Honestly, the way it was presented. Natashya explained everything so clearly and showed me so many new ideas on how to implement phonics more effectively in my classroom.
I really liked that it broke down each part of the workshop with lots of easy to understand examples and demonstrations. I also like all the added resources to help you get started!
All the opportunities of sharing experiences with the other coaches. Also, the course content is very practical, making me think about using the new strategies as soon as possible.
I liked the practical examples provided, like sentence starters. Also, having us complete certain sentence and paragraph activities provided the reinforcement to do the same in class.
I thought this training had the best trainers. There was great use of technology, collaboration, movement, breaks, etc. to make this a great training. I really love the access to all the resources after the training too.
There were some affirming information as well as new ideas. As a third grade Teacher I have come across a lot of information that focuses specifically on k-2, so this course gave me some ideas and resources to use for the old grades.
Hannah Fernweh is knowledgable and so thorough and thoughtful in the examples she uses, and in her responses to questions. I found her inclusion of research and focus on ELL with specific language backgrounds particularly helpful and inclusive.
An important moment during the course was when we analysed Frameworks for success because that gave me ideas of how to introduce language choices to my students, making them aware of the purpose of using different languages and making agreements with them.
Thank you so much for a fabulous launch of our deep dive into UFLI! EKC has such wonderful workshop leaders. So warm and engaging, clear and articulate, knowledgeable and open. We just loved it. We feel so lucky to be learning and working alongside EKC this year.
I wanted to send a quick note letting you know how fantastic Natashya is (as if you didn't already know!) Every time I meet with her I feel that my practice gets the updates it needs. She can support us where we are at and I know she can take us so much farther. She is phenomenal!
Heather was generous to share her wealth of experience and a great range of resources and advice that were relevant and up-to-date. I cam away from both sessions inspired to read more and to start a diversity audit in my library, starting with biographies. This was an excellent course.
There were so many!!! I think really just the idea of breaking all of the skills down to make them accessible for all students, and the idea of then practicing them together. Lucy has great ideas, but sometimes we are asking kids to do things they just don't understand. This has been AMAZING!!!
The sessions were excellent. Many strategies were shared with the participants showing us that there is an unlimited number of tips and ways that can help teachers in the classroom. All given situations made me reflect upon my teaching and how deeper I can "scaffold" facilitating my students' learning.
There were tons of ah-ha moments for me during the course. The course explained the why and showed the how. As teachers, we can't expect great writers if we don't start at the very beginning and explicitly teach sentence structures and give students sentence mentors and time to practice creating their own.
Discovering EKC Community has been a game-changer for me. It's a user-friendly platform packed with valuable resources and a supportive community of educators. Whether you're a newbie or a veteran, it's easy to access and navigate. I've found fresh teaching ideas and connected with inspiring educators. Highly recommend!
Because of the community of EKC, I was able to expand my knowledge on how important it is for early learners to learn Word Play: Symbolic Expression. I really like how engaging and how informative the session were explained by the presenter. It made me curious to try it with my students this year. Thank you EKC community.
My favorite thing about the community is getting ideas/advice from other international school teachers. I have already benefitted so much from the access to Padlets and planners that I have been able to use in my own teaching and in planning with others. I paid for my membership and feel. like it is definitely good value for money as the knowledge base in literacy keeps growing and changing.
I received a lot of affirmations regarding my beliefs and current practices in reading instruction, including that: - You can’t get into comprehension before you give students the code; - Orthographic mapping is important; - Phonemic awareness is directly linked to reading success; - If the kids are skipping or guessing, they need to develop the orthographic processor, and many others!
Diving deeper into the #ScienceOfReading, reflecting about what literacy practices to keep, retire, and evolve with a group of amazing @ssischool educators! @EKC_Literacy #EvolutionsInReadingInstruction
As Director of Learning at a K-12 school, it is so important that we are able to provide professional learning that aligns with our goals as an organization AND meets the diverse needs of all the teachers in our community. That is no easy task! So far, we are having great experiences in EKC. Erin and all of the consultants are knowledgeable, warm and accessible. They are the ultimate connectors.
Feeling so #fortunate and #privileged @DAAElementary to have two amazing educational consultants on campus this week! Thank you for sharing your brilliance with us, @cailinminor from @EKC_Literacy and @meganholstrum
Dove deeper into #translanguaging by taking another amazing @EKC_Literacy course, looking for ideas to bring back to my colleagues. Made a connection right away to the splendid picture books that thoughtful @cecigomez_g brought from Italy. Any book can be a #mentortext
@EKC_Literacy you did it again! A brilliant two days of #literacyscience and Next Steps with Miles, Hannah and Natasha was engaging and #joyful. @DAAElementary has left with so many actionable learnings! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
I'm excited about everything I've encountered connected to Erin Kent Consulting. We recently had a few sessions with Natashya Hays at our school (American School of The Hague). She was nothing short of fabulous! We are still unpacking all that we learned during her relatively short time here. My team has been browsing the resources she gave us access to and experimenting with the lesson structure she modeled for us. We are very grateful for all of it.
Productive weekend spent digging into the #ScienceOfReading and rethinking our literacy practices with @EKC_Literacy and some amazing @ssischool colleagues. Love learning alongside you all! @KladovaTatiana @Sam9house #lifelonglearning #literacy #EvolutionsInReadingInstruction
Shout out to @MissIvyLi and Natasha Hays from @EKC_Literacy for a great week of #literacy #PD on #WritersWorkshop! Appreciate all the in-depth discussions, hands-on activities, and practical tips. Lots of takeaways for supporting #EAL students in writing! #StamfordHK #CognitaWay
A hugely impactful week working with @nhays70 and @EKC_Literacy. So many take aways, including that when we know better, we do better. So grateful for colleagues that are always willing to examine what that means and how it impacts our youngest learners.
I love learning! Nothing ever stays the same and we should always be open to new ways of thinking, been on some reaffirming and enlightening PD in the last couple of weeks. Thank you @kjinquiry and Natashya Hayes from @EKC_Literacy
I decided to work on this course asynchronously during my China quarantine, and I greatly appreciated how clearly the course materials were laid out in the Padlet. I could take my time reviewing the videos, PPTs, additional reading/resources, etc. In particular, I appreciated the investigation sequence for word study: question, investigate, analyze, and transfer. As an EAL teacher, I could see how this structure might be useful for small group/individual work in the classroom.
I'm not sure I realized the potential and power of Zoom PL until I spent a morning with @literacylala from #ErinKentConsulting. Such an amazing way to come together and reflect on our identities, values, and beliefs around early childhood education. #powerofplay #TheASDoha twitter.com/Abby4221/stat...
The practical and useful approaches that can be used by any school (not just the well funded international schools around the world) were instantly imbedded in my teaching. The knowledge, adaptability and unparalleled love of literacy learning was contagious. When I’m a school leader, Erin Kent consulting will be on the top of my list for development and guidance. I have had the privilege of taking part in a a workshop for 3 days in Dubai as well as year-long work internationally (virtual). The team was quick to answer questions, offer ideas and again, share the love of literacy. In 21 years being in education, hands down the best PD and consultation I’ve ever been a part of!
We just wrapped up a week of learning with Courtney Hughes of EKC. Courtney's advocacy for rigor, equitable access for all students, and a balanced approach to making shifts in our literacy instructional practices make the journey we, as a school, are about to embark on so easy and doable. Her lab sites were a great way to immerse ourselves in how to work and engage with students in both whole-class and small-group instruction. I would highly recommend partnering with EKC and Courtney if you are just starting or are already looking at reading instruction through the lens of the science of reading. So grateful for our collaboration with EKC! -Shafali, American Embassy School, New Delhi.
My hope was to gain a few new strategies to add to my toolkit, and I was able to do this. I strongly believe in the importance of structured dialogues/discussions with emphasis on voice equity, so I will definitely be using the ""Questions, Connections, and Comments"" thinking routine. At first, I wasn't sure if talking chips would work well for my 8th graders, but I actually think they would, especially at the beginning of the year to reinforce the importance of hearing multiple perspectives. Overall, I love how well-organized the course was. The Padlet is clearly labeled and not too overwhelming, and I always appreciate it when facilitators give think and talk time. I worked on this course asynchronously while I was in quarantine, so I didn't get a chance to talk with others. I did, however, pause to reflect and think about upcoming collaborations with teachers. Thanks for a great course!
We just wrapped up a week of professional learning at Cayman International School. Homeroom teachers, teaching assistants and learning support teachers from Kindergarten to Grade 5 engaged in building shared knowledge through demo labs, co-teaching labs and planning labs with the goal of strengthening instructional practices to build strong literacy foundations for all students. In the lower elementary grades, teachers focused on supporting students’ word recognition and foundational reading skills. In upper elementary grades, the focus shifted to comprehension and morphology, unlocking the meaning and structure of words, and exploring how to do it in an interdisciplinary way. Parents also joined us for a session on strategies to support literacy at home. Thank you Erin Lillis Kent for the support behind the scenes and Natashya Hays for a fantastic week of learning for all!
Can I mention two standout moments :)? The first one is when Hannah explained the continuum of instruction, and how explicit teaching lowers the cognitive load and the discovery/inquiry in learning makes the cognitive load higher. This was helpful as there were conversations and moments when explicit teaching is undervalued and inquiry-based learning is misused. The context provided by Hannah clearly explained how this continuum works for different kinds of learning/learners. The second standout moment is the process of how we teach: from set objectives to choose a text, to choose a focus and then teach. Los of our teachers have been learning this process, when our school is moving along with the standard-based teaching, as teachers are so used to finding a "good" text and then try to align it with the standards/objectives, and then teaching "everything" with the same text. I myself have been working hard to shift to set clear content and language objectives as the first step of teaching.
Ideas were SO practical. I have already implemented many into my practice and they work!
Having the time to interact and share ideas with teachers all over the world. Hear their experiences and how they teach reading and writing.
The course was packed with really practical take-it-with-you strategies and schedules. I really appreciated the planning templates and systems.
I like the expertise and knowledge in the science of reading and appreciate the deep understanding and the insights they shares during conference.
A lot of affirmation about what I am already doing, as well as some "permission" to shed and try new things. I have pages and pages of great notes!
Honestly, the way it was presented. Natashya explained everything so clearly and showed me so many new ideas on how to implement phonics more effectively in my classroom.
I really liked that it broke down each part of the workshop with lots of easy to understand examples and demonstrations. I also like all the added resources to help you get started!
All the opportunities of sharing experiences with the other coaches. Also, the course content is very practical, making me think about using the new strategies as soon as possible.
I liked the practical examples provided, like sentence starters. Also, having us complete certain sentence and paragraph activities provided the reinforcement to do the same in class.
I thought this training had the best trainers. There was great use of technology, collaboration, movement, breaks, etc. to make this a great training. I really love the access to all the resources after the training too.
There were some affirming information as well as new ideas. As a third grade Teacher I have come across a lot of information that focuses specifically on k-2, so this course gave me some ideas and resources to use for the old grades.
Hannah Fernweh is knowledgable and so thorough and thoughtful in the examples she uses, and in her responses to questions. I found her inclusion of research and focus on ELL with specific language backgrounds particularly helpful and inclusive.
An important moment during the course was when we analysed Frameworks for success because that gave me ideas of how to introduce language choices to my students, making them aware of the purpose of using different languages and making agreements with them.
Thank you so much for a fabulous launch of our deep dive into UFLI! EKC has such wonderful workshop leaders. So warm and engaging, clear and articulate, knowledgeable and open. We just loved it. We feel so lucky to be learning and working alongside EKC this year.
I wanted to send a quick note letting you know how fantastic Natashya is (as if you didn't already know!) Every time I meet with her I feel that my practice gets the updates it needs. She can support us where we are at and I know she can take us so much farther. She is phenomenal!
Heather was generous to share her wealth of experience and a great range of resources and advice that were relevant and up-to-date. I cam away from both sessions inspired to read more and to start a diversity audit in my library, starting with biographies. This was an excellent course.
There were so many!!! I think really just the idea of breaking all of the skills down to make them accessible for all students, and the idea of then practicing them together. Lucy has great ideas, but sometimes we are asking kids to do things they just don't understand. This has been AMAZING!!!
The sessions were excellent. Many strategies were shared with the participants showing us that there is an unlimited number of tips and ways that can help teachers in the classroom. All given situations made me reflect upon my teaching and how deeper I can "scaffold" facilitating my students' learning.
There were tons of ah-ha moments for me during the course. The course explained the why and showed the how. As teachers, we can't expect great writers if we don't start at the very beginning and explicitly teach sentence structures and give students sentence mentors and time to practice creating their own.
Discovering EKC Community has been a game-changer for me. It's a user-friendly platform packed with valuable resources and a supportive community of educators. Whether you're a newbie or a veteran, it's easy to access and navigate. I've found fresh teaching ideas and connected with inspiring educators. Highly recommend!
Because of the community of EKC, I was able to expand my knowledge on how important it is for early learners to learn Word Play: Symbolic Expression. I really like how engaging and how informative the session were explained by the presenter. It made me curious to try it with my students this year. Thank you EKC community.
My favorite thing about the community is getting ideas/advice from other international school teachers. I have already benefitted so much from the access to Padlets and planners that I have been able to use in my own teaching and in planning with others. I paid for my membership and feel. like it is definitely good value for money as the knowledge base in literacy keeps growing and changing.
I received a lot of affirmations regarding my beliefs and current practices in reading instruction, including that: - You can’t get into comprehension before you give students the code; - Orthographic mapping is important; - Phonemic awareness is directly linked to reading success; - If the kids are skipping or guessing, they need to develop the orthographic processor, and many others!
Diving deeper into the #ScienceOfReading, reflecting about what literacy practices to keep, retire, and evolve with a group of amazing @ssischool educators! @EKC_Literacy #EvolutionsInReadingInstruction
As Director of Learning at a K-12 school, it is so important that we are able to provide professional learning that aligns with our goals as an organization AND meets the diverse needs of all the teachers in our community. That is no easy task! So far, we are having great experiences in EKC. Erin and all of the consultants are knowledgeable, warm and accessible. They are the ultimate connectors.
Feeling so #fortunate and #privileged @DAAElementary to have two amazing educational consultants on campus this week! Thank you for sharing your brilliance with us, @cailinminor from @EKC_Literacy and @meganholstrum
Dove deeper into #translanguaging by taking another amazing @EKC_Literacy course, looking for ideas to bring back to my colleagues. Made a connection right away to the splendid picture books that thoughtful @cecigomez_g brought from Italy. Any book can be a #mentortext
@EKC_Literacy you did it again! A brilliant two days of #literacyscience and Next Steps with Miles, Hannah and Natasha was engaging and #joyful. @DAAElementary has left with so many actionable learnings! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
I'm excited about everything I've encountered connected to Erin Kent Consulting. We recently had a few sessions with Natashya Hays at our school (American School of The Hague). She was nothing short of fabulous! We are still unpacking all that we learned during her relatively short time here. My team has been browsing the resources she gave us access to and experimenting with the lesson structure she modeled for us. We are very grateful for all of it.
Productive weekend spent digging into the #ScienceOfReading and rethinking our literacy practices with @EKC_Literacy and some amazing @ssischool colleagues. Love learning alongside you all! @KladovaTatiana @Sam9house #lifelonglearning #literacy #EvolutionsInReadingInstruction
Shout out to @MissIvyLi and Natasha Hays from @EKC_Literacy for a great week of #literacy #PD on #WritersWorkshop! Appreciate all the in-depth discussions, hands-on activities, and practical tips. Lots of takeaways for supporting #EAL students in writing! #StamfordHK #CognitaWay
A hugely impactful week working with @nhays70 and @EKC_Literacy. So many take aways, including that when we know better, we do better. So grateful for colleagues that are always willing to examine what that means and how it impacts our youngest learners.
I love learning! Nothing ever stays the same and we should always be open to new ways of thinking, been on some reaffirming and enlightening PD in the last couple of weeks. Thank you @kjinquiry and Natashya Hayes from @EKC_Literacy
I decided to work on this course asynchronously during my China quarantine, and I greatly appreciated how clearly the course materials were laid out in the Padlet. I could take my time reviewing the videos, PPTs, additional reading/resources, etc. In particular, I appreciated the investigation sequence for word study: question, investigate, analyze, and transfer. As an EAL teacher, I could see how this structure might be useful for small group/individual work in the classroom.
I'm not sure I realized the potential and power of Zoom PL until I spent a morning with @literacylala from #ErinKentConsulting. Such an amazing way to come together and reflect on our identities, values, and beliefs around early childhood education. #powerofplay #TheASDoha twitter.com/Abby4221/stat...
The practical and useful approaches that can be used by any school (not just the well funded international schools around the world) were instantly imbedded in my teaching. The knowledge, adaptability and unparalleled love of literacy learning was contagious. When I’m a school leader, Erin Kent consulting will be on the top of my list for development and guidance. I have had the privilege of taking part in a a workshop for 3 days in Dubai as well as year-long work internationally (virtual). The team was quick to answer questions, offer ideas and again, share the love of literacy. In 21 years being in education, hands down the best PD and consultation I’ve ever been a part of!
We just wrapped up a week of learning with Courtney Hughes of EKC. Courtney's advocacy for rigor, equitable access for all students, and a balanced approach to making shifts in our literacy instructional practices make the journey we, as a school, are about to embark on so easy and doable. Her lab sites were a great way to immerse ourselves in how to work and engage with students in both whole-class and small-group instruction. I would highly recommend partnering with EKC and Courtney if you are just starting or are already looking at reading instruction through the lens of the science of reading. So grateful for our collaboration with EKC! -Shafali, American Embassy School, New Delhi.
My hope was to gain a few new strategies to add to my toolkit, and I was able to do this. I strongly believe in the importance of structured dialogues/discussions with emphasis on voice equity, so I will definitely be using the ""Questions, Connections, and Comments"" thinking routine. At first, I wasn't sure if talking chips would work well for my 8th graders, but I actually think they would, especially at the beginning of the year to reinforce the importance of hearing multiple perspectives. Overall, I love how well-organized the course was. The Padlet is clearly labeled and not too overwhelming, and I always appreciate it when facilitators give think and talk time. I worked on this course asynchronously while I was in quarantine, so I didn't get a chance to talk with others. I did, however, pause to reflect and think about upcoming collaborations with teachers. Thanks for a great course!
We just wrapped up a week of professional learning at Cayman International School. Homeroom teachers, teaching assistants and learning support teachers from Kindergarten to Grade 5 engaged in building shared knowledge through demo labs, co-teaching labs and planning labs with the goal of strengthening instructional practices to build strong literacy foundations for all students. In the lower elementary grades, teachers focused on supporting students’ word recognition and foundational reading skills. In upper elementary grades, the focus shifted to comprehension and morphology, unlocking the meaning and structure of words, and exploring how to do it in an interdisciplinary way. Parents also joined us for a session on strategies to support literacy at home. Thank you Erin Lillis Kent for the support behind the scenes and Natashya Hays for a fantastic week of learning for all!
Can I mention two standout moments :)? The first one is when Hannah explained the continuum of instruction, and how explicit teaching lowers the cognitive load and the discovery/inquiry in learning makes the cognitive load higher. This was helpful as there were conversations and moments when explicit teaching is undervalued and inquiry-based learning is misused. The context provided by Hannah clearly explained how this continuum works for different kinds of learning/learners. The second standout moment is the process of how we teach: from set objectives to choose a text, to choose a focus and then teach. Los of our teachers have been learning this process, when our school is moving along with the standard-based teaching, as teachers are so used to finding a "good" text and then try to align it with the standards/objectives, and then teaching "everything" with the same text. I myself have been working hard to shift to set clear content and language objectives as the first step of teaching.
