PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR

SCHOOLS & DISTRICTS

I help secondary ela teachers master inquiry-driven unit design so they can help their students improve their critical thinking & analytical skills.

Below you can find an overview of the professional development offers I provide for schools and districts.

  • INQUIRY

  • GENRE

  • choice

TRANSFORMING YOUR TEAM INTO THE CONFIDENT, INNOVATIVE TEACHERS YOU KNOW THEY CAN BE.

Teachers are the backbone of everything that needs to happen in your school. With every training I provide, I not only aim to transform their thinking, but to instill the confidence they need to implement our work through every unit they teach.

INQUIRY

Engagement through Essential Questions:

THE SIGNATURE TRAINING THAT ALIGNS, INSPIRES, AND TRANSFORMS ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS.

By the end of this training, teachers will be equipped with the templates, strategies, and firepower to completely ditch novel-centered unit planning and fully embrace inqiury-centered design. Teachers will be trained on the four core components of writing an Essential Question, aligning assessments to skills and the question, and building out formatives, supplemental, and close reading work from the heart of the EQ.

starting at $3999

GENRE

Whole Class = Whole Success: Genre Units

HARNESS THE UNIQUE POWER OF OUR CONTENT AREAS TO HELP STUDENTS WRESTLE WITH THE BIG QUESTION: SO WHAT?

From dystopia, to poetry, to memoir, to historical fiction, genre units present a powerful way for us to shape a unit around an Essential Question and get student to start moving beyond plot-based recall types of work and into meaningful, analytical, and critical responses. This PD will present teachers with three complete genre-novel unit templates as well as the training to build additional units, scaffold them for students of all abilities,

starting at $3999

CHOICE

Lit Circles: Embracing Inquiry & Choice

THE FOOL-PROOF METHOD FOR DEVELOPING LIT CIRCLES FOR MULTIPLE UNITS AT ALL COURSE LEVELS.

Starting with a jaw-dropping Essential Question, teachers will learn how to use that EQ to build out a dynamic, choice-driven literature circle units. Teachers will learn how to run fuss-free book club discussions, select supplemental text materials, and write formative and summative assessments that focus on skills while students are all reading something different. Departments will walk away with templates to recreate all units discussed in the training.

starting at $3999

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WHY WORK WITH AMANDA?

Amanda’s PD is different: it’s created BY teachers FOR teachers. Every component of the training is designed to meet teachers where they are and empower the skill sets teachers already bring to the table.

Teachers will leave the training with the tools to keep going in a new, more cohesive and more effective direction; teachers will NOT feel like you’ve just plopped a “new initiative” on top of them.

All of Amanda’s trainings come with a minimum 1-hour complimentary follow-up coaching call to be used at any time. This will not be a one-time dump of ideas on your teachers: they will have time to implement what they’ve learned and follow up with Amanda once they’ve had some time to work on their plans.

WHAT TEACHERS & STAFF HAVE TO SAY:

  • “I already have two units 95% done because of this training.”

    Aaron P - 10th Grade Teacher

  • “I have used essential questions in my classroom but have not necessarily in a meaningful way. I cannot wait to start planning more units around essential questions and really using them to guide my assessments as well as the supplemental activities."

    Haley T - 9th Grade ELA Teacher

  • “I'm going to try and implement the weekly plan that was shared with us during the training, and sticking to it. I want to create and implement Sesame Street Quizzes as well as utilize my novels for Close Reading, instead of whole class reading.”

    Phillipa A. - 11th Grade Teacher

  • “I would very much like another training with Amanda in the future. I plan to use many of the tools revamping some of my lessons and quizzes.”

    Cheryl R. - AP Lang & AP Literature

  • "Thank you so much for everything, everyone left saying that was the best PD we have ever had as a team!"

    Aliya C. — Jemison High Department Chair

  • “I have several things that I can implement IMMEDIATELY (style of trackers, close reading focus docs), and I have a few things that I will slowly implement (the bigger picture of her presentation).”

    Tim T. - 9th Grade ELA. Teacher

  • "What a wonderful PD. The presenter was engaging and incredibly knowledgeable. I look forward to working with her in the future and implementing some of her strategies."

    Obasi O. - 11th Grade Teacher

  • "Such a great and informative time shared with Amanda! The format of her workshop allowed for take-aways, reflection, and planning. Educator led and it showed!”

    Anastasia K. — 7th Grade ELA Teacher

  • “It was amazing to see a whole district of teachers engage in a way that I have not seen before!”

    Bob C. — District 211 Division Chair

  • "Amanda is very energetic and passionate about her work. I came out of this workshop with lots of ideas.

    Colleen H. -8th Grade ELA Teacher

  • "This is the first PD that I have ever attended that I left with actionable things AND curriculum that doesn't require me to use valuable time to create more. "

    Rebecca W. - IB Team Leader; 11th & 12th Grade ELA

TAKE THE FIRST STEP:

FILL OUT OUR REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FORM BELOW AND AMANDA WILL PERSONALLY REACH OUT WITH AN AGENDA AND QUOTE FOR YOUR SPECIFIC SCHOOL’S NEEDS. PLEASE LEAVE AS MUCH DETAILED INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE!