Working with Schools

We often speak about our work with students and with families. But we also work with schools, in a number of different ways.

For most students we see, an important step even before we begin our evaluation process is to review information that has been prepared in the past by the school, generally IEPs and report cards. Then, we ask parents to provide the school/teacher(s) with several questionnaires (some proprietary and some standardized) dealing with academic and behavior issues. These are designed to give us a better sense of how a child is doing in school. It is important to keep in mind that some families prefer not to involve their child's school in the assessment process, at least not at this point. Although information from the school is very helpful, we understand and respect parents' preferences when they want to move ahead without letting their school know they are having their child assessed.

Sometimes, especially for very young students, there are reasons to visit a student's classroom for an observation as part of the assessment process. The findings of this visit are included as part of the information we use when creating the student's profile and preparing our report of our findings and recommendations.

Once the assessment is finished and our finalized report has been prepared, we generally speak to the school (in a conference call that includes the parents) about our findings. This call is included in our assessment fee and is done at no additional charge. If the family will be seeking -- or revising -- an IEP, we can arrange to have Dr. Yellin join the meeting by phone to explain our findings and recommendations. We have found this to be a very effective way for the school to understand what we have learned about the student and what strategies, services, supports, and accommodations we recommend.

Sometimes, our work with a school will begin when the school reaches out to us to ask us to evaluate a specific student, or when parents tell us that their school has urged them to come to us with their child who has been struggling.

We also go into schools -- and school districts -- to do professional development and to speak to parent groups. We have several talks to parent groups scheduled for March and April. Check our calendar in the next couple of weeks for full details. Dr. Yellin will speak to local parent groups at no charge.

Finally, our evaluations include an advocacy consultation with our attorney Susan Yellin, Esq., where appropriate. That consultation often includes suggestions for schools that may be a good fit for a particular student. Both Dr. and Mrs. Yellin regularly visit schools in the region and are familiar with many programs that will work well for the students we see.

Improving Professional Development with PDredesign

The topic of professional development has come up before on The Yellin Center blog, when we wrote about DIY ProD and Professional Learning Networks. We also view professional development programs as an important part of our work with schools and organizations and Dr. Yellin leads frequent workshops and webinars to educate teachers and other professionals about our neurodevelopmental framework for learning.

Teaching teachers has always been a huge professional interest of your blogger. It started back in undergraduate school, where my undergraduate research project involved looking into the best practices in professional development. This led to the creation of a series of training workshops and resources to support professors in integrating new technology into their pedagogy. It is really exciting to see time being invested, tools being developed, and new research coming out that will result in improving professional learning for educators. We spend so much time thinking about the best practices for helping a student grapple with a concept, and yet we rarely use the same teaching practices when training our educators.

The Gates Foundation has set out to change the way teachers are taught with their creation of PDredesign, a digital tool kit aimed at transforming professional learning. The ties between education improvement and the Gates Foundation go back years, and span multiple areas of national and global import. Your blogger had an opportunity to see this work in action back in 2015 at a Gates Social event. All of their projects are thoughtfully researched and seem to address a fundamental need in a very impactful way. However, this new tool to help empower districts to better support their teachers has us exceptionally excited.

Research on adult learning tells us that  instruction for adult learners needs to be specific to the particular needs of the learner. This is where the PDredesign readiness assessment comes in. This tool helps district officials identify and understand the learning needs of their staff. The program also houses tools for building an inventory of the products and resources already in the district. Using these tools, district officials are able to see what resources and ideas teachers aren’t using, while simultaneously highlighting the resources that are working, ensuring they are serving their staff’s needs. Using PDredesign allows districts to glean “actionable qualitative and quantitative data to design and implement a system” of professional learning that is correlated to the specific learning needs of their staff. Better yet, there is also a collaborative feature of the program that will allow districts to connect to other districts that are similar to them and share ideas about what is working and what isn’t.

Personal Learning Networks

Here at The Yellin Center, in addition to our work with K-12 students, we also work with college-level and professional learners. We also provide professional development for organizations and schools looking to integrate our neurodevelopmental model into their practices. We know that adult learners, similar to young students, benefit from a diversified, personalized learning experience.

We also understand that teaching adults can differ in several ways from how we typically instruct children. The theories that underpin andragogy, the method by which we teach adults, explicitly states the importance of fostering a deep rooted motivation to learn, utilizing hands-on learning experiences and offering learners a choice in what to learn. Therefore, when working with mature learners one wants to promote an environment of self-determination where learners are finding answers to real world problems they face in their everyday lives. Instead of teaching adults what to learn, the goal is to teach them how to learn, as well as how to seek out answers to their own personal needs. As such, it is vital to provide mature learners with materials, resources and strategies that can help promote learning after the workshop or initial learning has occurred.

One way to promote learning after the initial experience is to connect learners to personal learning networks (PNL), which are communities of learners who are looking to build a shared skill set. PNL’s promote collaboration and a sharing of skills among eager learners. They spark conversation and connect learners to experts in the area in which they want to grow. 

In the truly global and digital society we live in today there are several ways to connect learners to established learning communities. Social Media is a great place to start. PNL’s covering a range of topics exist on platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. The best way to get plugged in is to search key words associated with what you want to learn about, using LinkedIn or Twitter search. Explore the results and beginning following people who are discussing your interests. When you are ready, you can start sharing your own ideas, tweets and resources with the communities you become a part of. If you are interested in creating your own professional learning network, there are sites such as Ning, which allow you to create your own, personal social network.

There are also several communities, both online and in the real world, in which adult learners can participate. For example, anyone working in education often finds Edutopia’s community an incredibly valuable resource. Alternatively, for educators looking to boost tech skills, ISTE’s forums are a great place to start.  IT professionals will find a great community at Cisco Learning Network. Professionals across disciplines will be able to find a group and resources at Reddit or MeetUp. Professional development isn’t just about building functional skills for workers. As a leader of professional development, you want to inspire curiosity, and motivate professionals to discover new ways to learn and seek out how to integrate new ideas into their professional practice.