Case Study | Heidi Schaefer | Teacher | LAUSD

A note from Renee

From the moment I met Heidi, I knew we would be thinking partners for a long time! It was during a summer institute, I looked up from my notes as I prepared to introduce myself and begin the session. I noticed her sitting in the front row with a pencil case and a smile. Perhaps it was the stack of vibrant colored sticky notes organized meticulously in a row, a myriad of colored pens and markers neatly aligned, a brand new notebook opened to a blank page…or maybe the thought-provoking questions, the contributions, and the feedback. Whether it’s our shared appreciation of office supplies, curriculum, or discussion…Heidi reminds me of the importance of having colleagues we can lean on to create, collaborate, and celebrate with! Heidi has served me as a thinking partner for the last decade, and I look forward to the next 10 years!

Testimonial

“I love working with Renee. She makes me want to be a better teacher! When I attend study sessions and workshops with her she makes me think and wonder about my teaching practices simply by asking me… “Tell me more” and “What is the purpose?” Her positive energy makes me feel like I can walk into my classroom and be the best. Because I am always striving to implement the best teaching practices, I know that studying with Renee is a lifetime partnership!”

The Story

Heidi is a third-grade teacher in Los Angeles Unified. After teaching third grade for 5 years, she moved to second grade, and after three years in second, she looped with her current third graders.

Heidi has known Renee for what feels like forever. She met and studied with her through Growing Educators (Renee was the co-founder), and she consistently attended their summer institutes and several other sessions throughout the year.

Heidi is always the first to enroll in summer institutes - so much so that one summer, she was thanked for her loyalty, and honored with gifts! Through many conversations and hours of collaboration, Heidi and Renee recently realized that they may have crossed paths about 20 years ago at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project when Renee was a staff developer there, and Heidi was attending! Now, 20 years (or so) later, living on the same coast, they’re able to create, and collaborate more frequently!

The Challenge

Heidi has committed to keeping her teaching grounded in the most current research, while tethered to her core beliefs. With this mindset, she looks at her practice in ways that foster a healthy, vibrant professional learning life. In the midst of remote teaching, Heidi, along with the entire globe of educators - were building teaching practices from scratch! She and Renee checked in frequently and discussed a myriad of ideas to try. One discussion focused her study on shared reading through the content areas. Heidi was remote-teaching second grade and wanted to know how to get more bang for the buck…phonics, grammar, AND content area. There were discussions on how this could work and what it would look like.

Another check in centered on the challenges of teaching writing on a remote platform! Like many teachers, Heidi teaches writing in ways that lean on modeling writing through first-hand experiences, opening her writing notebook, and sharing her writing - how does that convert to a screen? What about sitting next to a writer and supporting them side by side? Remote teaching brought an entire arena of questions and challenges that required an endless pivot in day-to-day teaching. It was a challenging (and tearful) moment for her. She contacted Renee because she knew, like so many times in the past, through conversations and brainstorms - the result would be action items that could be implemented the next day! They bounced around ideas. It put her mind at ease and she felt confident and ready to take on the challenge.

In the summer of 2021, Renee hosted a summer session on “Clearing the Clutter from our Curriculum”. As a ‘veteran’ teacher, Heidi felt she had a lot of clutter in her head, compounded by outside “noise” as a result of teaching in a large district. Being a self-proclaimed organizational freak, she thought, “This is perfect for me!” She spent two days with Renee and a colleague clearing that clutter. One of the things that really stood out to her was how much she was putting emphasis on the little things when really she needed to focus on the big picture. It was an AHA moment - the ones we live for as educators.

The Change

Heidi continues to live as a model lead learner for colleagues and students. She’s decluttered her curriculum and centers her teaching on the big picture items. She’s prioritized a myriad of teaching techniques in her daily schedule such as Shared Reading. She’s designing curriculum in a multitude of genre studies - including poetry! She models a toolkit of skills and strategies that are balanced and include grammar, spelling, phonics, and comprehension. Students in Heidi’s class have followed her lead, and have grown to enjoy writing - they look forward to it every day!

As a teacher, the biggest change for Heidi has been in her curriculum mapping. Clearing the clutter made it easier for her to sit down with her stickies and plan a unit of study that not only meets the needs of her students but brings joy to Heidi in her teaching.

Need a thinking partner?

If you want to see results like Heidi’s, Renee is here to help you read, write, and think your way through with free training exercises and articles to level up your teaching game. Get in touch!