Notes
Janelle Korb and I met on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, for our first coaching meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to get to know one another, learning more about each other’s professional and personal life by discussing a series of questions that I had shared with Janelle prior to the meeting. I found Janelle to be “bubbly” and enthusiastic and it is obvious that she loves her job and the children that she teaches. I learned that Janelle has been teaching for 24 years and has taught at nearly every grade level. As she is currently teaching in 4th grade, she says that having experience in so many grade levels gives her excellent insight into what students need to know and be able to do at grade levels below and grade levels above 4th grade. She sees this as a real advantage in understanding struggles that students may have.
When asked about her experience with the concepts in the Foundations of Literacy Course, Janelle indicated that she actually had gone through LETRS training several years ago, so is familiar with concepts in the course. She also said that one of her team members went through the Foundations Course last year and observed the ways in which her students had been helped through implementing course concept.
When asked about her biggest concern about the class, she said, “Actually getting into the class!” She is having struggles with getting the course in her Canvas site and is working with several KU people to solve the problem.
Janelle walked me through a typical day in her classroom which starts with a “soft start perhaps focusing on some math problems, or some other way to get the students engaged with learning for the day. Wit and Wisdom is next, then Phonics, Spelling, Small Group reading, recess/specials/lunch then math and math small group, social studies/science and finally social and emotional learning activities.
The guiding principles in Janelle’s classroom community spirit, emphasizing team building not team destruction. She described a room that was very energetic, often noisy, with an emphasis in bravery in answering questions. She discussed the importance of students feeling safe as they answer questions and there is never punishment for a wrong answer.
Janelle feels as though there is good support for implementation of curriculum and instruction in their district. For example, there is a curriculum resource person (not sure of title) that assists in finding and preparing resources to meet the needs of individual students.
The discussion then turned to thoughts that Janelle might have or applying the principles of the course to work with students. Once again, she discussed how she had seen growth in the students of her co-worker last semester and hoped that she might be able to help two of her students in the same way. She indicated that she had two young ladies who want to want to learn, but are having issues, especially in reading. She wants to be able to find out why they are struggling and develop a goal to help them to grow. We will work on crafting a specific goal for this work the next time we meet.
I told Janelle that I would like her to send me a video of her classroom between now and our next meeting so that I can become familiar with the space where learning in her classroom occurs! In subsequent meetings we will be looking at videos of her instruction, specifically focusing on the goal we set to work with the struggling students.
We set meeting dates for subsequent meetings and ended our session with a fun “This or That” game, just to get to know each other better. Ironically, Janelle uses the same game with her students to teach them debate strategies!!