Center for Learning & Teaching

About L+T

OES’s Learning and Teaching Growth and Development (L+T) program nurtures a culture of peer collaboration and feedback in which teachers are committed to the practice of intentional experimentation through an annual cycle of goal setting, feedback, and reflection.  We believe that by centering teachers as learners we: 

• model for the students authentic learning, intentional improvement, and consistent innovation; 
• recognize and therefore appreciate each other’s strengths and contributions;
• collaborate in order to problem solve and thrive;
• nourish our own need for learning and therefore rejuvenate;
• reinforce that professional growth and development are at the heart of all that we do at OES.

The Instructional Strategist Team

OES’s commitment to these beliefs is evidenced in the Instructional Strategist program, which ensures that every classroom teacher Pk-12 has a dedicated coach and partner in their individual growth. Instructional Strategists are committed to building and maintaining a faculty culture of growth and learning in order to best serve OES students. Our work is guided by the criteria for excellent teaching identified by The Tree and a belief that all teachers, with appropriate support, can develop and implement a highly effective student-centered inquiry pedagogy. Because we believe that an OES education develops lifelong learners who will use their power for good, our team works to empower teachers to hone their practices and aspire to the Essential Competencies as the outcomes for all.

The Instructional Strategist team, who themselves work collaboratively to hone their practice as coaches and lead learners at OES, believe:

• At the heart of excellent teaching is a commitment to the growth and development of children. 
• Our work honors how challenging it is to be a teacher.
• Teaching is a craft/art/science that needs to be refined every year in order to be accessible to and inclusive of the students in front of us now. 
• Access to learning requires teachers knowing and seeing all the many gifts our students have, and this requires many perspectives. 
• Learning and growing is rejuvenating and ensures that all teachers have collaborative support to develop.
• In order to best serve the students at OES, it is necessary to continually refine our practice towards a shared understanding of what inquiry-based pedagogy looks like.