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Edited by: TJVNews.com
“In every sport, athletes at all levels of experience,work with coaches to improve their skills. That’s what we are trying to do for Jewish educators”, says Debbie Niderberg, co-founder and ED of Hidden Sparks. “
“But how do you move the needle and help Jewish day schools in a deeper way? By deepening school capacity, and that is the goal of Hidden Sparks Internal Coach mentoring program, which has trained and mentored over 400 school educators and leaders to be resident coaches and learning experts in their own schools. “
NY-based Hidden Sparks hosted a two-day training workshop this week aimed at developing teachers’ capacity as educational coaches within their schools. Proven to significantly improve classroom instruction and student development, teacher coaching provides sustained, hands-on support tailored to individual educators’ needs, increasing the school’s capability to better support their students.
Hidden Sparks, celebrating its 18th year, was founded to deepen an understanding of learning and behavior. It develops and facilitates professional development programs in Jewish Day schools with new approaches for teaching all kinds of learners, particularly those who struggle in mainstream classrooms.
“Our vision is to create learning models that place a student’s strengths, as well as their weaknesses, at the forefront of training educators in how they need to teach,” explains Rabbi Elisha Hus, Director of School Services at Hidden Sparks. “Our techniques create an environment where teachers have the tools and foresight to adapt to new and increasingly diverse styles of learning that respond to the changes in our children and how they are best able to thrive.”
Central to the organization’s mission and approach, it trains and mentors internal leaders to be resident experts in teaching and learning, and to guide other teachers, thus raising the level of expertise across the school while seeding a culture of mentoring.
“Hidden Sparks taught us theories and skills for how to understand students and provided us with practical ways to apply these skills within our schools,” said Mindi Laks, a social worker at YDE Girls Elementary School. “We learned to look beyond the behaviors and struggles a child might have and be curious about what the driving force behind them is and then utilize the appropriate strategies to help children succeed.”
The two-day training welcomed 14 educators from six different schools in the tri-State area, having already learned the Hidden Sparks’ framework by previously participating in a four-day training this past year.
Over the past 18 years of operating, Hidden Sparks has trained hundreds of coaches and worked with over 400 schools.
