Chartwell Teaching Institute

Math trauma can significantly impact a student's ability to engage with mathematics in the classroom. For example, students may struggle to initiate or complete math tasks. To effectively teach math to students who have experienced math trauma or anxiety, it's essential to prioritize strategies that help them overcome these challenges. 

Hannah Shickle believes that “when we teach reading right, we change lives.” Her own experience with dyslexia, ADHD, and scotopic sensitivity syndrome inform her practices in the classroom uniquely. Hannah’s journey to teaching effective literacy instruction began with an internal battle and has resulted in her impacting hundreds of students and their right to read. 

Teacher Crissy Maras explains the dictation portion of her structured literacy lesson with middle school students. The small group is receiving intervention with Wilson Language Training. She empowers her students to take risks and develop a positive mindset.

Chartwell’s director of student high school relations, Ashton Plette shares her strategies that can be implemented both at home and in the classroom to help support anxious high school students. 

A key component of our Structured Literacy Workshop is hands-on experience. Attendees observe Chartwell teachers in action and practice the same literacy drills. This combination of practice and observation provides a strong foundation for successful drill implementation in their own classrooms. 

​​Creating a positive and productive classroom environment requires an approach that prioritizes both structure and connection. By collaborating with students to establish clear expectations, the classroom can be a safe, empowering, and engaging learning environment from the very beginning of the year. 

Jennifer Gygax, Literacy Program Specialist, Special Education, Napa Valley Unified School District, never imagined that her career would be spent teaching secondary students how to read, but when she was called to do so and saw firsthand how many secondary students had been left behind in the world of literacy, she jumped at the opportunity.

The Lead to Literacy grant has sparked a movement across California to transform the way we teach students. Educators from Napa County, Riverside County, and Siskiyou County joined us for the third summer this June at CTI’s Structured Literacy training.

A seemingly simple question - how many steps to tie a shoe - reveals the complexity of the task and the many underlying skills involved. This question helps further our understanding of executive functioning. 

Justifying professional development opportunities can be a prohibiting factor for many educators. Though it may be intimidating, here are our tips for how to justify professional development opportunities.