New Ideas (Shea Beaudreau)

Shea Beaudreau-You have eased seamlessly into the Chets Creek culture as if you have been here from day one. You are a flawless and articulate teacher and such a pleasant colleague and friend. I know that you have taught just as wonderfully in another very high performing school. What ideas can you share with us that you bring from your past experiences? I am always eager to learn from various perspectives! (Jen Zawis)

Dear Jen,
Thanks for your sweet words. I feel so blessed to be at Chets where I can grow as a professional. Chets is so unique and has so many positive rituals and routines that make it a one-of-a-kind learning community. At my previous school, there are two ideas that were very successful that I’d like to share:

Writing Coach - As a writing teacher at heart, I always helped support my colleagues implement new strategies with their students. Two of the years I taught fourth grade, I served as a writing coach for my team. Part of my day was dedicated to modeling writing lessons in the classrooms and training my colleagues. Especially in fourth grade, writing seems to be an area that some teachers feel they need more training and support to confidently teach their students. On early release Wednesdays, we had a different version of WOW - Writing on Wednesdays- when all of our school learned a new writing strategy.

ELA/Social Studies Integration - In our school, the ELA teacher also taught the social studies curriculum, which allowed the the subjects to be integrated. I know we are always trying to find ways to fit it all in, so I always felt the two subjects areas were a good match for integrating reading and writing standards.

There are other successful ideas that I’d be happy to share, so please just ask!
- Shea