Hi! We’re the Core Coaches!
We are passionate about designing and implementing engaging lesson plans and sharing useful strategies and materials with our colleagues around the world. Our focus is creating resources that deeply cover the standards, build classroom community, and provide digital access to support today’s blended learning models of instruction.
The Core Coaches came together quite randomly. Emily and Tatum met on a writing team while designing teacher professional development courses for the State of Utah. They soon became friends and began presenting together across the state. Emily and Amy met when they began working together at a new charter school. Emily was her instructional coach and the two of them started working closely together to design curriculum for the school.
All three Core Coaches have Master’s Degrees in Curriculum and Instruction. Amy studied Teacher Leadership. Emily specialized in Reading Coaching, and Tatum focused on the Integration of the Arts. Together, we have over 40 years of experience in the elementary classroom.
Here’s a little more about us:
TATUM
Tatum believes in project-based learning to support the integration of the arts. She enjoys using cooperative groups to facilitate student-centered learning. Tatum stays busy with her husband and four children. She likes to grow a garden and camp in the mountains. When her family gives her a break she usually takes a good long nap! Tatum spent 15 years teaching kindergarten, first, second, and fourth grades. She recently said farewell to her own classroom to become an Instructional Coach for elementary teachers. Tatum has presented best practices to teachers across the state of Utah and at the National SDE Differentiated Instruction Conference.
AMY
Amy loved building a strong classroom community when she was in the classroom. She used cooperative learning and believed students should be leaders of their learning. Amy facilitated a student led classroom. She presented at the National Expeditionary Learning Conference in Boston. She taught primary grades for eight years. Amy is happily married with two teenage girls and a step daughter. She enjoys snowboarding, mountain biking, traveling, and spending time by the pool. She loves binge watching Netflix and drinking coffee. Amy currently works from home as a curriculum writer.
EMILY
Emily is a former curriculum directer, turned stay-at home mom. This year, she is embarking on a homeschooling adventure and is very excited to be able to use her talents to design the best possible education for her own children. When her kids go to bed, she spends all of her time designing lessons, strategies, activities, and digital content to share with teachers around the globe.
Emily is passionate about setting up her home environment to be a place where kids learn through play. She is obsessed with open-ended wooden toys and invitations to create. Instead of coat and linen closets, she has toy and art supply closets.
She recently learned how to quilt and can’t live without her daily dose of cherry diet coke. Emily has been an educator for sixteen years. She was an instructional coach, reading specialist, and classroom teacher in both primary and upper grades.
