Notes
Date: 9/15/2026 3:15 p.m.
Name: Chelsea McCormick
Current Grade Level: 2nd Grade
Next coaching session date/time: 9/29/2026 3:15 p.m.
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Coaching Session #1 – Verifying Perspectives
- This or That
Movie first or book first? Chelsea saw Spiderman recently.
Fiction or non-fiction? Chelsea loves picture books and uses them extensively in her classroom. She reads one to her students nearly every morning.
Handwritten notes or emails to a close friend? Because of time, Chelsea texts or calls friends.
- Learning about your background
Who or what influenced you to become a teacher? Chelsea had great experiences throughout her education. She wanted to become a teacher since she was little.
What experiences have you had as a teacher including districts, schools, grade levels? Chelsea taught in DeSoto for 14 years before coming to the Olathe District. She has taught in Olathe for 7 years. She received her undergraduate degree from Graceland and her Master’s degree from KU.
- Examining your professional beliefs
What is something you strongly believe in when it comes to educating children? Chelsea believes that you must make connections with students and that they feel safe and happy at school. In addition to academic learning, she believes that the social parts of school are equally important for her students.
What do you consider to be the single most important literacy strategy you use in your classroom? Chelsea believes that small groups for reading are key. This is when she listens to each student reading and learns more about their reading behaviors and skills.
What do you want to gain from coaching related to literacy practices?
How are the district’s curriculum materials helping or challenging for your students? Chelsea likes 95% including the additional books for phonics (books for the students that are specific to the skills they are learning). She finds Wit and Wisdom difficult because of the level of reading that is expected and because of how long is spent on a text. She feels like they are reading the same book over and over again.
What are you leaning toward as far as an academic goal for your students during the coaching process? Chelsea needs help with interventions that are not currently working, but wants to narrow down what she is going to focus on based on what she is learning in the KU course.
- Work for next coaching session
Narrated tour of your classroom
Assigned classroom video
Ideas for goals based on challenges in the classroom and problems of practice from your Canvas course
- The Foundations of the Science of Reading
- Assessments
- Oral Language
- Phonological & Phonemic Awareness
- Phonics (Encoding and Decoding)
- Fluency
Write down the challenges that you might face in working on implementing your goals for discussion at our next session.