Knox Education develops customized teaching tools for dozens of
schools and school districts. For more than 15 years we’ve
published many of these tools in our books and videos. Now
we’ve made it easier to work with us by creating this interactive
website, including access to the entire collection of materials
and updated versions of documents.
Too often professional development programs use the expert
workshop model where passive participation is a norm (Sparks,
1997). A selected expert lectures. Staffs rate the speaker
not the training or the impact on their professional skills.
Changes in practice are rare in passive learning environments.
This is not the Knox training model!
Knox Educational Associates believe change relies on making
connections — building relationships between people, concepts,
and prior knowledge. School change requires a comprehensive
system of professional development, which empowers staff to
emerge, develop, and prosper as partners building a learning
community through engaged interaction and discourse. Knox
staff development supports an increase of knowledge, skills, and
the capacity to perform well. It is an integrated process that
translates immediately into classroom practice.
The Knox menu of services is extensive and responsive to site
requests–we pride ourselves in providing services that are
customized to each school’s particular situation, rather than a
“one size fits all” program. It is possible to have an agent of
the firm come to the school and develop an individualized program
based on site observations in conjunction with council from site
leadership.
Our instructional skill building programs provide a multi-faceted
approach to training that includes:
Presentations: theory, demonstration, and application of
research-based strategies— extensive use of video clips and
photos bring practices to life
Demonstration lessons: use of the strategies with your
students in your classrooms
Grade level or department collaboration: integration of
the strategies with the site’s curriculum and pacing
Coaching: observations and feedback for individual
teachers or teams to support changes in teaching and accelerate
achievement
Development of customized tools: collaboration and data
analysis tools, organization of curriculum pacing documents,
student test chat forms etc.
Recent topics include:
Developing a School-wide writing campaign
Backwards mapping for the CST to align the tested with the
taught curriculum
ELD “all day long” and during the specific instructional
block
Vocabulary Development for ALL
The Thinking Person’s Test Prep
Building grade level teams for data analysis and
instructional planning
