Differentiation as a Support for Engagement with Dr. Shaime Cortes, ep. 180

Differentiation as a Support for Engagement with Dr. Shaime Cortes, ep. 180, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:01

Trying to get coaching cycle started and feeling like you just can’t make it work. I’ve got the email course for you. Realistic coaching cycles is a mini course sent right to your inbox. It’s five days of short videos that will teach you exactly what you need to do to start coaching cycles. document your work with a teacher and help them implement the learning you’ve done together. Get it for free at buzzing with MS b.com slash cycles and start your coaching cycles today. Hey, Coach, I know you’re out there hustling to get into classrooms and provide feedback that actually improves instruction. But meeting your teachers needs when you’re looking at a stack of sticky notes is just about impossible. I want to share a coaching tool that I know you’ll love. digiCOACH is an app you can use on your phone designed for busy coaches like you and your administrators to it’s the perfect way to record your observations and notes when you visit a classroom. Collect data about what’s going on at your school and differentiate your coaching support based on the patterns you see. Some of my favorite features includes the reports and did the coaches pre written strategies and coaching tips to provide specific feedback and help in those moments when you just don’t know what to say. Ready to check it out and make your workload so much lighter. Head to digiCOACH.com And tell them Ms. B sent you to try it out for free and provide actionable feedback to your teachers. Welcome to instructional coaching with Miss V, where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach and every coach does do. I’m Chrissy Beltran, an elementary teacher who became a coach, and I had to create my own coaching program that worked. Now I teach coaches how to design their coaching programs, build a school wide action plan and use differentiated strategies to support teachers. Plus, I’ve got a special spot in my heart for literacy coaches. Now let’s dig into the episode. Hey, coach, and welcome to episode 180. Differentiation as an engagement strategy with Dr. Shaima Cortez. Today, we are continuing our little mini series that we started last week about coaching for engagement. Last week, we talked about some specific strategy that we can use for engagement. And then this week, we’re going to dig into differentiation as a way to get kids engaged. Sometimes the reason kids are not engaged is because they literally cannot do what we’re asking them to do. And so that’s where differentiation comes in. So my guest today is Dr. Sharma, Cortez and she’s going to help us dig into how we can support differentiation in the classroom, and what that can look like. And she has so many great examples of this. Now, before we quit, or before I get into the episode, I don’t know why. So before we quit, before I quit introducing this topic, I want to remind you of my mini coaching cycles, Crash Course you can grab it BuzzingwithMsB.com/cycles. And that is free. And it will walk you through the five steps you can follow to conduct a really simple short coaching cycle doesn’t have to be complicated. Let’s just get them get in there and get them done. And you can even make coaching for engagement, your your focus your goal with the teacher. So these are gonna give you some great ideas in this episode today about how you can coach for engagement. And we’re gonna keep digging into this topic again next week. Let’s go ahead and welcome our guests today to the podcast. So let’s welcome Dr. Shaima Cortez to the podcast. Welcome. Hi. Thanks

Dr. Shaime Cortes  03:14

so much for having me. Thank you.

Chrissy Beltran  03:16

Yeah, thank you for being here. I’m glad we could get this arranged. And I would love for people to get to know you a little bit before we get started on the shop talk. So if you could introduce yourself briefly, I would love to learn a little bit about who you help and how you spend most of your time and energy at work.

Dr. Shaime Cortes  03:34

Okay, I’m Dr. Simon Cortez. I am an instructional reading coach I’ve been doing that for this is my fifth year. I spend most of my time with supporting K through five literacy teachers. And we spend a lot of time doing collaborative planning. I try to get into classrooms as much as possible to support them through coaching cycles, observations, walkthroughs, whatever it is that my teachers really need. I also do pull groups. So I spend time working with the kiddos as well.

Chrissy Beltran  04:03

Awesome. And then I would also love to know this is kind of a fun getting to know you question what is your go to movie TV show or book something that you go back to over and over again,

Dr. Shaime Cortes  04:12

um, of TV show. So like my my kitty side, I guess or my nerd side? I really love the show Avatar The Last Airbender, it’s one of my favorite shows. And I have all the graphic novels and books and stuff that go with the show. So when I feeling kind of down and just kind of watch that and brings me comfort, I like that show.

Chrissy Beltran  04:28

I love that. It’s your it’s your go to show and fandom, right? It’s like all

04:34

Yes, for sure. Okay, so

Chrissy Beltran  04:36

let’s talk about engagement. Because this episode today is about differentiation as an engagement strategy basically as a way that we are making sure that our kids are to have the opportunity to be engaged. So how can you if you could explain to us a little bit about how differentiation is related to engagement that would be great.

Dr. Shaime Cortes  04:53

So before talking about how it’s really I think we need to, like define the difference. integration is. So for me differentiated instruction is very much like student aware instruction, right? Understanding the needs of your kids, and then being able to adapt based on the needs of your students. And you can differentiate the content, what they’re learning the process, how they’re learning it, and then the product, or how they’re showing you what they’ve learned. I think that differentiation is definitely related to engagement, because then students can have a more authentic way of accessing the content, because you’re meeting their needs, right. And I think it adds to the trust and culture of the classroom as well, because you’re considering their needs as part of your instruction. You know, for example, if you have like a high population of Esau students and understanding their language needs, you can incorporate like dual language books. As part of your content. I know we all have our curriculum and things that we’re supposed to use. But we as teachers can have that take the opportunity to differentiate our content or based on what the interests of our students are based on their culture, their language needs. And I think that also, as far as engagement, the process Kagan structures are a great way to differentiate the process of how you’re teaching, think pair, share, mix, pair share, getting them up out of their seats, especially if you have a lot of ADHD, kiddos, right. I have ADHD, and I cannot sit for a long period of time. In fact, I’m fidgeting right now, you can’t see that. So I have my fidgets and my tools to help keep me focused. So those are also things that you can provide for for kiddos as part of their learning because it is really hard to stay together for a really long time, especially your little ones, right? Like kindergarten or first grade. They haven’t learned all those coping strategies yet, to be able to sit and focus for a long time. I think that it breaks up the monotony of sitting and giving them multiple opportunities to engage with each other through conversation. As far as the process sometimes also adding in that thing per share for those kiddos that you call on them that just kind of stare at you. Like I don’t know what to say like they know the answer, but they’re not really sure you give them that time to like, share with a friend. Um, then you see them all talking and engage with whatever question is you’ve asked, then you can call on them, they feel okay, I feel more confident now to respond because I had a chance to affirm my response with a buddy. And then also, I think that it when you differentiate instruction, you consider the needs of your kids, you see the buzz, or you can see and feel the buzz of learning happening in your classroom, right? The kids are not just sitting and kind of just waiting for you to pull a random stick. Essentially, you can feel learning happening, you can see it, you can hear it because I think that in especially a literacy classroom, it shouldn’t be quiet. There should be discussion there should be you’re hearing them sounding out words, if you’re doing foundational literacy and that kind of thing. I hope that answered the question in a bit of a roundabout way.

Chrissy Beltran  07:48

Yes, we have lots of connections between differentiation and engagement, which is logical, right? Because yeah, kids who are supported in doing what we’re asking them to do, are more likely to do it will have given them the tools and the skills and the supports that they need to actually cognitively engaged with the content that we’re asking them to engage with. Yes. So then you mentioned a couple of reasons, in your like, kind of your introduction to differentiation. But what are some of the reasons that we need to differentiate for students, maybe some of the student needs that they have, that we are kind of responding to with different, you know, product process content delivery? Well,

Dr. Shaime Cortes  08:31

I mean, the reasons for differentiation are simply why we have so many different learners in our classroom. And that I think, can be one of the reasons why differentiation can can the concept can be so overwhelming for teachers, like I have Esau students, I have students with varying disabilities, I have gifted students in my classroom, I have students that are coming from poverty or have experienced trauma, like how do I instruct them in that because they bring all that with them to the classroom? Right? So like the list goes on. So the reasons for differentiation are kids, right? Because they are all different. They’re all different learners. And they all have these different needs. Specifically students who just as a disabled person myself as having ADHD, that’s something that’s kind of central to my heart as a teacher. Because students with disabilities it can be difficult to it can it can seem really overwhelming, like this piece, like how do I include them? And how do I teach them? How do I get them to engage especially when the the variation of disabilities can be so wide? And it can be easy to kind of relegate that responsibility to a special education teacher, like oh, they when they come in, they do the differentiation. But really, we’re all responsible for that for that for that kid. Oh, this email class, right? The special education teacher the regular education teachers want to say that. So I think one of the ways that at least as again, as ADHD person, like let’s say, going to the carpet, that’s something that our primary teachers do, because differentiation is also the physical environment, not just the academic part. Um, so a lot of times we talk about nobody listening, or we’re trying to make all the kiddos sit a certain way on the carpet to show I’m learning are ready to learn when really not, not all kids are gonna find that accessible. I know that I can’t sit a certain way for a really long time on a carpet as a as a grownup, so the kiddos also have that. So even differentiating how they can sit on the carpet, like maybe some kids will sit crisscross applesauce, some kids can sit with their legs straight, some with their legs to the side, maybe the kiddo doesn’t want to come to the carpet, and they want to stay seated at their chair. That’s okay, you can differentiate that way as well. For students that might have difficulty with you know, occupational therapy in my head might need an occupational therapy because they need work on their pencil grasp, the students can you can talk corporate technology, they can respond, I know, I my school, we have the benefit of being one to one. So they can like record on their iPad, their responses with their group. And then you can access that content later, they can have it they’re accessible, they can also write into it, they have difficulty with writing, they can type on the iPad as well. And then it also saves us when they can refer to it later, which I think is a really cool thing. So there’s lots of different ways, I think you can use technology to help you differentiate, you can also differentiate like the texts that the students are reading. So let’s say your benchmark is central idea. That doesn’t necessarily mean they all have to be reading the same text, it could be something differentiated by, you know, the level of the of what skill they’re working on, and what they what they would also like to learn about. And I think that technology really does help in that area. And what can that look like? So it can look like technology being incorporated to help the kiddos, it can look like us being more understanding of the sensory needs and the physical needs of our students in the classroom. It can look like tearing your questions. So for example, not to say that we’re going to,

12:05

like watered down the content that we’re going to give the kids it’s more like, for example, if I have a question for a kiddo that is

Dr. Shaime Cortes  12:13

compare and contrast these two characters in a specific text, let’s say, and I know this student is reading several, several years below grade level, we might start with let’s identify who the characters are we talking character a character B, tell me about this character, we might do a teacher, and we’re writing notes about the one character and then we write notes about the other one. Okay, now tell me, how are they the same? How are they different? Whereas another kid, I can just say, compare and contrast these two characters. With this kiddo, I might have to go to the teacher and all the different sides before they could get to that. And that’s okay. Because he just needed that extra support. And it took me it didn’t take me long to do it as far as tearing my questions. But I think that that has to be intentionally planned. Also, when you’re actually doing your you’re planning, because you start with your benchmarks, we’re also thinking about, okay, which questions? Can I ask my kids? How can I ask those questions? Which ones am I going to ask certain students and really thinking critically about that, to your questions can also be a way to differentiate for the kiddos to get them to be able to access the content, because we want them to all access that benchmark or that grade level, benchmark. But how we get there is that differentiation process?

Chrissy Beltran  13:21

Okay, so I really love some of the examples that you gave there. And I want to go back to something that you mentioned, I think it was like the three different kinds of categories of places that you can differentiate, I think you said, products, right, like what the actual students actually creates to show their learning of content, the way it’s constructed? Can you talk a little bit more about those and kind of define them, like really, just clearly, so people can kind of get in their head, okay, this is what like, whatever I’m looking at my school day, this is how this, you know, could look. So

Dr. Shaime Cortes  13:50

as far as the content goes, I think that that’s really, as a literacy person, as a literacy teacher, you’re talking about what the children are learning. So our benchmark is going to be the same. So if my benchmark against central idea, I’m teaching nonfiction, but let’s say when they’re working in their groups, and like, I know these kids really like sharks, or these kids really, like robots or something, I can find different texts, the way that I’m teaching. During my mini lesson, I can use my text about I don’t know, running or something. And then I’m modeling. This is how you figure out the central idea. But then when I release you into your pairs, you can each read about something that you’re interested in. That sounds really scary. But we have so many different like articles and things we can find online now. Right? Listen, when I first started, we didn’t have that kind of access to things. Now we did not write like I didn’t even have curriculum maps. I had

Chrissy Beltran  14:41

that I would have the standards from the state. We did not even have textbooks, which was actually illegal at the time.

Dr. Shaime Cortes  14:49

I did have I did have textbooks and we did have our standards and things like I was I started as a sped teacher. So the access to certain resources a little different sometimes, but content is really for me. It’s like what the kids are Reading, writing. And even like, it doesn’t have to be an article, you can chunk it into like these task cards instead, that makes it more manageable for the kids. If they see, like this huge, long thing, it’s like, oh my gosh, that’s so scary. I don’t want to read all of that, especially if it’s like a packet brings them out, right? And I

Chrissy Beltran  15:17

want to read a packet. I love to read, but I don’t want to read a packet. No.

Dr. Shaime Cortes  15:23

No, I hate packets. Just you could just take the same article, chunk it into pieces, and then like pair that that paragraph with the question. And you’re differentiating that way. It’s the same article and they don’t need to know that they just know is a little task cards. And you can play scoot, or do a carousel around the room. That’s more of like the how part I’m getting into the process. You’re

Chrissy Beltran  15:44

planning a lesson now is what you’re doing.

Dr. Shaime Cortes  15:48

How can I get the kids to learn this? Instead of them just getting reading and then answering questions because a lot of times literacy can kind of turn into that, like the literacy block or like we’re reading another passage, answering questions. Yay. Literacy can be so fun, if you like really engaged kids with what they like want to read, I know a lot of us sometimes will have a lot of flexibility and being able to change the content. Sometimes we have to use that specific curriculum. So it’s a little difficult to differentiate sometimes with that, depending on your district and the requirements and whatnot. But the process, those Kagan structures, oh my gosh, they’re so helpful. Right time on the carousel, posting the questions around the room, the kids can go in pairs around the room is that having a sit at their desk, being able to work with a buddy, think about the question here with their pair, and then share out during the mix pair share. So they can talk to different kids in the rooms. They’re not always trying to buddy with the same kids and they get to know each other, that process can be really helpful. And then the product where this they’re showing you what they know, right? And for example, right? A lot of times it’s answering questions, if it’s an open ended response, and like writing is really scary, especially I’ve had, and I’ve haven’t looked too much into this, but I feel like because ADHD is near to my soul, a lot of times you have difficulty with writing and writing is really overwhelming because of the executive function that’s related to writing and so much, it’s the cognitive load of it can be so much providing them with some kind of STEM or sentence starter. I know that’s more of a scaffold, but on also our paragraph frame, so it’s not as scary when they’re producing that product for you. We’re having them respond to a recording on their iPad, or something, they’re showing you what they know, the benchmark isn’t that I have to write what the central idea is, I just have to determine it and tell you and I have to show you that I can determine the central idea doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to wait it out. But you know, that’s just depends on the kids, and identify the relevant details that go with it, or however it is that your benchmark is worded. But the product part I think can really be really exciting opportunities for like different projects that the kids can do, they can. Running a Facebook status, it’s a little I think, old would have been exciting for me as a kid, but maybe even doing like little videos or things like that, where they can show what they know can be really fun. I think for the kids, depending on of course, I wish benchmark your teaching and what the outcomes of that benchmark are supposed to be. Yeah, I

Chrissy Beltran  18:23

love that. Like in your example earlier about comparing, you know, you can have kids sort characteristics, and that is comparing, right? Are they similarity? Are they a difference, or you can have them writing a whole compare contrast paragraph, and it’s just different ways of demonstrating that they have learned this standard and that they can explain it. And they’re just demonstrating that learning in different ways. And that’s your like your product. Yeah. So I think that thank you so much for clarifying those, the content, the process and the product. And that’s those are three areas that we can think about, whenever we’re supporting teachers in differentiation, in terms of like opportunities that they have to differentiate. And then that depends on your kids, right, the whether they need the content differentiated, whether they need the product differentiated. And I would say that differentiating the process is pretty standard. I mean, we should be doing this, you know, pretty nice, provide different opportunities for kids to learn, like some kids need manipulatives Some kids don’t, we have to respond to what they need, you know, whenever they are doing the work, we need to notice these patterns and observe and really get to know our kids as as learners as well as people so that we can provide them with the tools that they need. That’s something we talked about with my students all the time. I remember when you’re I had a student who had macular degeneration and then it was pretty extreme. I mean, her vision was it was going it was it was really it was feel it’s it’s a horrible, you know, disease. And so she had you know, like a little dome over her you know, that she could like a little glass magnifying dome that she could roll over her pages and she had like a special screen because this is all in olden days. So it was like a whole computer thing that had to be set up in my classroom and You could put pages underneath that, and it would you know, change the, you know,  on like green on black or black. I mean, she could choose the way if she wanted it to. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah.

20:10

Yeah, it was huge. Or just take it out. She didn’t use it because it does take up the whole desk. So yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  20:15

I understand. Exactly. So if we had to have an app, so every year we had these conversations, and that was a great example to students, because they’d be like, Oh, well, you know, where she’s doing this really cool little don’t thing you know? And it’s like, well, everybody gets what they need. In here. Everybody gets what they need to be successful. I wear glasses, you don’t if I put glasses on everybody in the room? Because I have to wear glasses to read, everybody would not be getting what they need. Yes, right. That would actually hurt some people. Some people need this to learn. Other people need that to learn, everybody’s going to get what they need in here. And so that was kind of a conversation that we had, because I know that a lot of teachers can be kind of like, Well, how am I going to explain why they’re doing this and why they’re doing that. Just it like a matter of standard practice, they get over it, the kids get used to it immediately. If I mean, especially for differentiating by interest, then they immediately kind of understand, oh, this is better for me, I get to read the thing I like

Dr. Shaime Cortes  21:11

that reminds me of flexible seating, when it like was like, I don’t wanna deal with that, because I think that is important. But it kind of became all the rage on like Pinterest, and everyone’s like buying all these things and, and that really flexible, it really depends on the needs of the kid, because the flexible seating you’re using might not work for the needs of that kid. So if you go out and you buy, I don’t know, 20, bouncy balls, all of a sudden you have 20 kids bouncing, bouncing, and you’re like, oh my gosh, this isn’t working. But really, it’s because all of them don’t need a bouncy ball. Maybe they just be able to sit on the carpet while they’re working, or the need to stand right in the room. And I know that one of my students was having like, in a small group, he was having a and I did a video on it. Because it was just so impactful for me having these conversations with the kids and having them tell you what they need. And even the littles can actually verbalize these things through modeling, like you were talking about, and having that and having those conversations, but you just have a really hard time and he was like poor coring off the back of the walls. And I’m like, What is going on? This was not happening before. And you know, we had a very heart to heart conversation. He said, I need to sit in the front of the room, I need to be like next to you. And after each section, can you tell me if I’ve done it, right? Because he needed that immediate feedback of if I’m doing it right before he could continue. And once I did that, it was like night and day with him. As a in he’s an ADHD er as well. So it was parking off the back. So I originally I thought, Oh, if I put him in the back, you’ll have time to like, move around and will distract anybody. But that wasn’t what he needed. That’s what. So when I had that conversation with him, he said, I need to be in the front, I need to be next to you, I need you to tell me this, if I did it right or wrong before I can move on to the next thing. And he was it was so much better after that. So I think adding in the compensation of having the modeling that for kids, and then also having them articulate what is the best learning position for you? Is this like, you know, whatever strategies did it did work? Well, even I’ve seen teachers do like after centers where they meet with the kids, and they get to talk about their learning. And if that specific center actually worked to help them learn what they were doing said, Well, this game, I didn’t really understand it. Or like, I don’t really like the task cards, it’s kind of boring for me, can I do something else? Or I don’t really like doing summaries after I read my AR book, you know, you need some kind of accountability piece, they say, but having the kids involved in those conversations, I think can help you better determine as a teacher, what differentiation is working, what strategies are working, which ones are not, I think I

Chrissy Beltran  23:46

love that. So that’s one way that we can kind of determine if engagement is or if differentiation is working in our classrooms is by talking to our kids, you know, getting some feedback from them saying is this helping you? You know, are there any other indicators of engagement work or differentiated working? And is that is improved engagement, a good indicator of differentiation working?

Dr. Shaime Cortes  24:10

I think that to identify when differentiation is working, I think that it’s improved engagement is an indicator of that. But also, you should see an improvement in your data, right? I think that we talk. I think that sometimes data is like a four letter word. Like it’s scary. It’s like, oh my gosh, you know, especially with the and I understand why with the connection that it has to like state testing and everything that comes with that. But observational data as a teacher can be so valuable if you’re like watching as the students are learning and seeing how this differentiation strategy is working in your room, you should see an increase in responses. You should see like feel that buzz in the room of the students learning the variation in their responses to you as well when they’re actually able to respond in a way that is accessible for them. Whether it’s through the iPad with a paragraph stem or sentence starters. When they’re talking to each other sometimes Those accountable talk stems can be really helpful too, because they don’t necessarily know how to respond to each other in an academic conversation. Let me see. And also, when you’re tearing your questions, you should see that the students are actually able to respond to those questions now, whereas before, let’s say you just gave this blanket question. Yeah. And then you get all the stairs are like, Oh, that’s really easy to see right at work. But also, when the data from formative assessments from exit tickets, I can’t, I think can be really powerful. Depending on if they’re open ended or multiple choice, you can easily book it, which kids got it, which kids counting on it, and which kids Oh, they’re still struggling, you know, and that helps to inform your reteaching and your intervention. Because differentiation can happen during whole group and small group. And during your intervention time, right is something that’s embedded throughout the day. And your groups should be flexible based on the data that you’ve collected. And then once you create those flexible, flexible groups based on skills and things like that, when you’re working with them in that small group, you can also differentiate there to like, maybe I’m working on task cards with this group, but the next group coming in, maybe he has a more difficult, more complex article, or more complex tasks to do depending on what their levels are, it just really depends, again, on the needs of the kids, we are not going to know what the needs of the kids are, without careful observation. And we thought analysis of that data. And I think that that is also where a coach can come in. And really help you especially if you’re like a newer teacher, you don’t necessarily know which differentiation strategies to use, a coach can come in and observe, see how the differentiated strategies you’re using are working with the kiddos, and help you analyze student work, they can help you analyze data from formative assessments. So I think that for understanding of differentiation is working your room. Coaches are invaluable in that, because you don’t have to do it alone, right. So differentiation can be scary. But especially if you have an experienced math coach, you have an experienced literacy coach, or maybe just a coach is doing both. Because some coaches do have to do both subject areas, you can definitely reach out to that person. And they’re an invaluable tool to help you determine if it’s actually working or not as a second pair of eyes, because you’re in the middle of teaching, and you’re going and you’re doing all these things. But a coach can sit in the room and like watch and see things that you might not necessarily see the teacher because you’re in the thick of it. That’s

Chrissy Beltran  27:25

right, yeah, they can record their data as well, their observational data, and then share that with the teacher and kind of give them a perspective, because you’re right, you don’t see every little thing that happens. And then at the end, you’re like I think this went well, or I don’t know if it went well, it can kind of leave you a little fuzzy. But if you have that information from a third perspective, it can really kind of give you a picture of what was going on in your room and whether things were working at the time. Yes. So then based on that, you talked a little bit about about a coach going into support the to the teacher, and that’s you know, that’s who already exists as an instructional coaches. So what are some things that you’ve done to support teachers, in differentiating in their classrooms, especially if they’re kind of reluctant or overwhelmed to try it, they’re not really sure how to go about it, what have been some things that have worked for you?

Dr. Shaime Cortes  28:12

I think the first thing of course, you’re building rapport with your teachers. And then and then leading the conversation on what is working in their classroom, and what is not, because I think that when you have a culture of learning and a kind of growth mindset at your school, and that can depend on your admin and that sort of thing. But that aside, I think it’s easier to have those conversations when the school culture is set around learning and having a growth mindset and coaches coming in as support that we’re not there to like, you know, be spies or whatever. But in having conversations with the teachers at my school, they’re very open and like this is working for me, this is not working, how can I help this area of my classroom that isn’t working for us when I’m coming in? And I can do an observation, Tally certain things if that’s not working, like maybe certain students are disengaged from the lesson, let’s say and then I’m in the room watching I can kind of see maybe figure out help the teacher figure out why that is. And then once we can figure out the why then we can determine what strategies would best work in the classroom and then that’s when I can come in, if they’re comfortable with me coming in to model a specific strategy or if they’ve already been using let’s say, they’ve been doing some Kagan structures in their classroom, but they’re kind of like shaky with it, like can you come in and teach with me we can do a co teach kind of situation. Or if we can also do video coaching, like where they record their lesson and then we come in we come in together later during planning and then we watch it and we you know, discuss it together and see like what worked what didn’t work, what were your glows and grows right, where what our next steps are. So those are just different ways, but just being in there to support the teacher in the way that they want to be supported and not in the way that like I think it should go because really the law Learning in the growing should be led by the teachers. In my opinion,

Chrissy Beltran  30:04

yeah, love the video coaching. That’s one of the strategies that I have really grown to love over the years because it is such a great way to help teachers reflect on what’s going on kind of like you’re saying another, you know, another pair of eyes in the classroom. But that pair of eyes is like this impartial recorder, that’s going to record everything. And then you can look at and go, Oh, what, you know, I just didn’t see that. I mean, when you see yourself, it’s always different than what you imagined it to be, you know? So. So yeah, I think that’s a really great strategy for this specific area, because they can see whether kids are responding to certain things, whether kids are using the differentiation strategy, as it was shared with them, maybe they’re not even using it. Like I have known, people who would differentiate by giving kids like a 100 is chart, for example, you know, during math, and it just sits around the table, because they never taught the kid how to use it. You know, it’ll sit there on the table for like, months, and then they go, Well, he never uses it. Well, you never told him. Yeah, does

31:01

he know? It’s very apparent? Oh, yeah.

Chrissy Beltran  31:04

He’s just he literally has no clue and, you know, just poking at stuff. So yeah, it’s really, it’s really helpful to give people a picture of what’s going on, because we all have blind spots, all of us, you know, and we just, you just can’t avoid it, because it’s a very human profession. And so you kind of focus on the things that are really important to you, but then you maybe don’t notice the things that are eluding you, you know, year after year, they just get away from us. So I think that’s a great tip. Though, if people want to keep learning from you, where can they do that?

Dr. Shaime Cortes  31:38

Well, I’m mainly on Instagram at Dr. Cortes writes, I have tried to post other social media platforms, but that’s where I am mostly.

Chrissy Beltran  31:47

It’s hard to maintain more than one spot. I mean, it’s it’s like a lot of work. And then you’re like, what is the return on this?

Dr. Shaime Cortes  31:55

Yes, but incidentally, Instagram has a great teaching and coaching community of educators. It’s just really awesome. You can learn from so many different people, and I’ve met so many different people like you. And it’s just it’s been, I mean, so much PD, like micro PD view, is just amazing. I love Instagram. I think I agree. I agree.

Chrissy Beltran  32:13

I whenever I’m trying to learn more about something, I search for the hashtag, I hunt down some accounts, and then I start just paying attention to that. So it kind of like, creeps into my brain without me having to do a whole lot of effort. It just like puts itself in there. So nice.

32:26

I love it. I

Chrissy Beltran  32:27

love how accessible it is. Yes, exactly. Thank you so much for joining us today. This was great information. And I’m sure coaches are going to be better prepared to support their teachers in differentiation.

Dr. Shaime Cortes 32:37

Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.

Chrissy Beltran  32:43

That was so much great information from Dr. Cortes. And I’m so glad that she joined us on our podcast today to share about her experience and supporting teachers in differentiation. It’s a long road and not everybody is always ready to start on that path right away. But you can definitely create the opportunity for the conversations. And the video coaching strategy was such a great recommendation in the situation. And I think that she really gave us a lot of things to think about in terms of how we can differentiate and what that can look like for different kids. So I hope you got a lot out of this out of this episode. If you are looking for how you can provide teachers with feedback about your observe lessons, or even video coaching lessons, I have some classroom observation forms that could be very helpful to you. If you go to buzzing with Miss b.com. And search in the shop for classroom observation forms, I actually have placed on each form where you can record data. And then it has questions that will help you discuss that data with the teacher and come up with some good reflections and some next steps together. So definitely check those out. You also can grab for free my mini coaching cycles, Crash Course that’s BuzzingwithMsB.com/cycles. Because that course is going to help you get into those classrooms. Work with teachers. And so you can actually use engagement as your focus and support teachers in modeling co teaching that you know visiting a call colleague, all of these great strategies once you get in the door. So next week, we’re going to continue our work on engagement. And we’re going to talk about coaching for engagement with Gretchen Bridger. She’s going to help us dig into some specific strategies that we can use. We kind of started getting into that today. We’re gonna dig into it even more on the next episode. And until then, happy coaching!

Chrissy Beltran  34:36

now that you’ve got so much to think about, head over to buzzing with bisbee.com to grab some free downloads, become a VIBEE, and check out the podcast show notes. Happy coaching!