About Joellen

Joellen Killion champions educator learning as the primary pathway to student success. She serves school systems, schools, regional, state, and national agencies within the U.S. and abroad as a consultant and learning facilitator. She is senior advisor to Learning Forward and formerly was its deputy executive director. Joellen leads, facilitates, and contributes to a number of initiatives related to examining the link between professional development and student learning. She has over 30 years of experience in planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of professional learning at the school, system, state, and international level.

Joellen is a frequent contributor to education publications. Her books include What Works in the Middle, What Works in the Elementary Grades, and What Works in the High School, Teachers Who Learn Kids Who Achieve: A Look at Model Professional Development; Assessing Impact: Evaluating Staff Development, 2nd edition; Collaborative Professional Learning Teams in School and Beyond: A Tool Kit for New Jersey Educators; Taking the Lead: New Roles for Teacher and School-based Coaches; The Learning Educator: A New Era in Professional Learning; Becoming a Learning School; Coaching Matters: and Learning-Focused Feedback: Transforming Feedback for Professional Learning. She authored and co-authored numerous papers, reports and workbooks such as PDK’s EDge, The Changing Face of Professional Development and resources associated with the TPL initiative. Her particular interests are collaborative learning teams, coaching educator success, evaluation and program audits, standards for professional learning, policy to support professional learning, and comprehensive planning and implementation of high-quality, standards-based, results-focused professional learning.

The creed Joellen lives by is: Excellence can be achieved if you . . . Care more than others think is wise . . . Risk more than others think is safe . . . Dream more than others think is practical . . . Expect more than others think is possible . .

Closing Keynote

Kickin’ Up Our Own Capacity

Now that we have learned how to build others’ capacity, let’s look inward at ourselves. Who we are and what we bring into coaching influences how we coach. So let’s take a beat and reflect on what we have learned, how it fits with our existing mental models about coaching, and how we can step back into our work refreshed, renewed, and with expanded capacity.

Breakout Sessions

Coaching New Teachers

Novice teachers consume a good deal of coaches’ time and effort. Some coaches wonder if they can coach new teachers or if providing mentoring or extended preparation makes more sense. In this session, we’ll explore how to distinguish between coaching and mentoring, identify approaches to knowing what clients need, and gain strategies to support new teachers efficiently and effectively to protect time for coaching experienced teachers.