The mission of Cognitive CoachingSM is to produce self-directed persons with the cognitive capacity for excellence both independently and as members of a community. Research indicates that teaching is a complex intellectual activity and that teachers who think at higher levels produce students who are higher achieving, more cooperative, and better problem solvers. It is the invisible skills of teaching, the thinking processes that underlie instructional decisions, which produce superior instruction. Cognitive CoachingSM is a research-based model that capitalizes upon and enhances teachers’ cognitive processes.
Outcomes: In the eight-day Seminars, participants learn how to:
- Develop trust and rapport.
- Develop an identity as a mediator of thinking.
- Utilize conversation structures for planning, reflecting and problem resolving.
- Develop teachers' autonomy and sense of community.
- Develop higher levels of efficacy, consciousness, craftsmanship, flexibility and interdependence.
- Apply four support functions: coaching, evaluating, consulting, collaborating.
- Utilize the coaching tools of pausing, paraphrasing, and posing questions.
- Distinguish among the five forms of feedback.
- Use data to mediate thinking.
Who Should Attend: All are welcome to attend. Those in supervisor or coaching roles will find the content immediately applicable.
Satisfactory completion requirements:
- Attendance is based on your signature in and out of the session. Failure to provide a signature in and out will result in no credit. Virtual attendance is taken via the Zoom Chat.
- Participants are expected to attend all four days of the seminar, there is a prerequisite to attend Day 1 of the seminar.
- Participants must complete an electronic course evaluation within two weeks of the session date to be sent a certificate.
- Accommodations, questions and complaints can be directed to: professionallearning@truenorth804.org
Cost Information: Participation fees are waived for TrueNorth employees and TrueNorth member district employees. For individual participants who do not meet the above criteria, this course participation fee is $TBD per session plus a one time purchase of $40 for the resource book (Total of $TBD for days 1-4). Participation or material fees will be billed directly to the school district that employs the participant after the session is complete or the first session in a series is complete. Individuals are asked to not bring payment to the session.
Cancellation and Refund Information: There is no cancellation fee, though we ask for advance notice to open the spot for another person. TrueNorth reserves the right to cancel any session due to low enrollment. TrueNorth does not charge prior to the start of the offered session. If an individual attends the first day of a learning series but is unable to attend the remaining sessions, the school district that employs the participant is able to designate an alternate person. It is up to the individual no longer attending the program to give their replacement the information learned in the first session.
About the Presenter: Michael Dolcemascolo is the former Executive Co-Director of Thinking Collaborative, the home of the Adaptive Schools Seminars and the Cognitive Coaching SeminarsSM. An independent consultant, Michael regularly presents workshops to educators on Cognitive CoachingSM, Adaptive Schools, as well as presentation and facilitation skills to national and international audiences.
Michael delightfully spends much of his energy mentoring coaches and facilitators who wish to become agency trainers for their systems, and also regularly facilitates groups that are planning, problem-resolving, and engaging in change.
Michael is co-author with Robert Garmston of the Storytelling Study Companion (Corwin, 2019), the Study Group Facilitation Guide for The Presenter's Fieldbook (Rowman Littlefield, 2018), The Focusing Four: A Consensus Seeking Activity DVD Viewers Guide and Dialogue DVD Viewers Guide (Center for Adaptive Schools, 2009). With Carolyn McKanders, Michael has co-authored the Developing Collaborative Groups Study Guide, and co-edited the Adaptive Schools Foundation Workshop Learning Guide (Thinking Collaborative, 2017).
A former English teacher, Michael taught at all levels from Kindergarten through grade 12, and became a professional development specialist for 20 years. He served as Assistant Director of Staff Development at the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services, providing professional training to the 23 school districts surrounding the city of Syracuse in Central New York.
Michael holds BA degrees in Religious Studies and in English from Montclair State University, an MA in Cultural Symbol Systems from Syracuse University's Department of Religion and a CAS in Educational Administration from the State University of New York, Cortland.
Financial Disclosure:Michael Dolcemascolo receives a presenters fee for this training. Michael has co-authored the Developing Collaborative Groups Study Guide, and co-edited the Adaptive Schools Foundation Workshop Learning Guide (Thinking Collaborative, 2017).
Non-Financial Disclosure: Michael is co-author with Robert Garmston of the Storytelling Study Companion (Corwin, 2019), the Study Group Facilitation Guide for The Presenter's Fieldbook (Rowman Littlefield, 2018), The Focusing Four: A Consensus Seeking Activity DVD Viewers Guide and Dialogue DVD Viewers Guide (Center for Adaptive Schools, 2009). With Carolyn McKanders, Michael has co-authored the Developing Collaborative Groups Study Guide, and co-edited the Adaptive Schools Foundation Workshop Learning Guide (Thinking Collaborative, 2017).
*Member Districts include:
Northbrook 27, Northbrook 28, Sunset Ridge 29, Glenview/Northbrook 30, West Northfield 31, Glenview 34, Glencoe 35, Winnetka 36, Kenilworth 38, Lake Bluff 65, Lake Forest 67, Bannockburn 106, Deerfield 109, North Shore 112, Township HS 113, Lake Forest 115, New Trier 203, Glenbrook 225.
Have a question? Check out the Professional Learning FAQs or contact professionallearning@truenorth804.org.