Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

Throughout my career in education, curriculum, instruction, and assessment in the area of SEL skills has been an area of significant need. Subsequently, the implementation of SEL state standards are a high priority of mine as an educational leader.  Research and implementation of curriculum and instruction during the 2025-2026 school year identified a continued need in the area of assessment.  As a result, I developed SEL standards based assessment forms to collect and analyze present levels and monitor skill progression throughout instruction.  As the Success programs pilot these assessment tools during the second semester of the 2025-2026 school year, my hope is that they prove useful to accurately identify skill deficits, as well as inform the effectiveness of instruction strategies.

When I was teaching, I noticed an alarming trend with regard to the students that were being referred from member districts for level III behavior programming; the majority were referred AFTER "burning bridges" with administration, staff, and peers collectively at their resident school.  In small school districts, staff are known to be tapped to wear many hats, therefore, in my role as behavior program lead, staff were often pointed in my direction with behavior questions.  I identified a need to be proactive and collaborative in supporting staff and proposed biweekly "Behavior Brainstorms" collaborations.  Staff of member districts could complete a Google form and receive follow-up support from one of SMEC's many behavior experts.  It is only through collaboration that we feel the validation to continue to learn. 

I began my teaching career, in the middle of completing my coursework for licensure, in a level III emotional/ behavioral disorders classroom.  Whether by fate, luck, or an underdog-complex, I have not strayed from this original student demographic.  Through the years, I have managed to collect a wealth of resources in all areas of social emotional education.  The SEL standards provided a framework for organization and these resources, majority of which are developed by educators more experienced than me, are available to SMEC consortium staff.  My hope is that SEL skills will soon be viewed, assessed, and valued similarly to academic skills in our education systems.