Jessica Epperson

by Vicki Seeger

Session Time: 09/15/2026 2:45 pm | Phase: Verify Perspective | Session Length: 0:30

Notes

Coachee Note 1:

Date: 9/15/2026 2:45 p.m.

Name: Jessica Epperson

Current Grade Level: 2nd Grade

Next coaching session date/time: 9/29/2026 2:50 p.m.

 

Coaching Session #1 – Verifying Perspectives

  1. This or That

Movie first or book first?

Fiction or non-fiction? For non-fiction reading, Jessica likes the memoir genre.

Handwritten notes or emails to a close friend?

  1. Learning about your background

Who or what influenced you to become a teacher? Jessica’s grandmother was a great influence on her becoming a teacher. She was a reading teacher and then a vice principal.

What experiences have you had as a teacher including districts, schools, grade levels? Jessica has taught for 10 years. This is her sixth year of teaching 2nd grade in Olathe. She has also taught K and 1st grade. She received her undergraduate degree from University of St. Marys.

  1. Examining your professional beliefs

What is something you strongly believe in when it comes to educating children? Jessica believes that teachers must meet each child’s needs in their own time and that is difficult with the pressure that teachers experience from the district level.

What do you consider to be the single most important literacy strategy you use in your classroom? Jessica believes 95% is beneficial for most students. But, when it is not working, she wants to examine what else can be done.

What do you want to gain from coaching related to literacy practices? Jessica wants to become a more reflective practitioner and learn new strategies for work with her students.

How are the district’s curriculum materials helping or challenging for your students?

What are you leaning toward as far as an academic goal for your students during the coaching process? Jessica is thinking about a specific small group of students who happen to include two sets of twins (four students total). They need further phonics instruction; she mentioned CVC words, specifically. Her focus will likely be phonics interventions for students who are not responding to the current curriculum.

  1. 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.