Services

 

Professional Development

Sara facilitates professional development workshops for non-profit and corporate teams as well as literacy professionals and early childhood educators. Sara can customize workshops to fit your organization’s needs. Topics can include team-building & management, literacy, early childhood development, early mathematics, dual language development, and diversity & equity.

Audience

  • School Districts and Preschool Agencies

  • EdTech companies

  • Educational non-profits and organizations

  • Library Systems

Examples of past workshops

  • Decolonizing Your Bookshelf: Critical book selection for the Early Childhood Educator

  • The Building Blocks of Early Childhood Literacy

  • Coaching Your Team: A Strengths-based Method for Giving Critical Feedback

  • The Building Blocks of Early Math for the Early Childhood Educator 

  • Background Knowledge: How to build foundations of knowledge to increase reading comprehension

  • Let’s talk about Brains! What you need to know about early childhood brain development

 

Curriculum Design and Research

Sara views translating complex concepts into an engaging, rigorous curriculum that is accessible for a variety of learners as a form of art.  Sara designs differentiated professional development for new and veteran teachers, workshops for families to help them support their child’s education, or interactive, evidence-based literacy lessons for students.

Sara also works with organizations to provide research, feedback, and recommendations on literacy programs and curriculum. Staying abreast of current literacy research, she is able to provide the professional analysis necessary for organizations to develop programming that is relevant and effective for adults as well as pre-k through 12th grade students.

Audience

  • School Districts and Preschool Agencies

  • EdTech companies

  • Educational non-profits and organizations

  • Library Systems

Examples of past projects

  • Research and Product Development for TeeRead: the smartest AI powered reading coach, including creation of a 250 page curriculum manual to teach structured literacy interventions for struggling students.

  • Literacy and Social Emotional Professional Development Program for summer early childhood educators at San Francisco Unified School District

  • Feedback and research on San Jose Public Library’s (SJPL) Storytime Standards for regional librarians; Development of early learning programming focusing on social-emotional development and diversity for SJPL’s early literacy department.

  • In partnership with researchers from DREME (Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education), developed and implemented “Stories that Count”, a workshop for families to support early math development.

 

Coaching

As a coach, Sara is thorough, organized and caring. Using a variety of research-based coaching methods, Sara spends time understanding the different learning styles of each client and adapts her methods to ensure professional growth. Sara has coached both classroom educators and professionals looking to improve their presentation, facilitation, and public speaking skills.

Audience

  • Educators

  • Managers and Program Supervisors

  • Family Support Professionals

  • Any staff who need support with public speaking, facilitation, and building presentations

Examples of past coaching work

  • Dual Language Literacy Coach for Oakland Unified School District and Head Start preschool and TK teachers

  • Coach for non-profit staff to deliver high quality presentations and trainings

  • Trainer for managers to use coaching methods to provide critical feedback to their reports.