Position: Implementation Specialist, Autism Department, the Office of Student Services
District: Washoe County School District, Reno, NV
Over the past 5 years, Mrs. Brock has used RethinkEd to address the various needs in Washoe County School District. She began using Rethink as a teacher and now utilizes it as a district wide implementation coach. She is also a Rethink Ambassador and trains educators in her district on how to use RethinkEd!
RethinkEd supports Ms. Brock by helping her to:
Collaborate! RethinkEd has given Mrs. Brock a common language, which has encouraged collaboration across the entire school district. For example, Mrs. Brock has two autism programs, with very different teaching and data collection styles. Rethink successfully helped to establish teamwork across multiple classrooms; “using the Rethink lesson plans and systems made it so any adult could work with any student at various locations throughout classroom.” With the help of Rethink’s lesson planning, they are able to ensure consistency in data collection. The detailed, step by step lesson plans easily allowed her to “facilitate lessons guided by paraprofessionals with the confidence that each step was being followed with consistency.” Rethink has helped Mrs. Brock to support the whole school community regardless of what class a student or educator is in.
With RethinkEd, “I am able to guide teachers…and see growth in teacher knowledge and decrease in problem behaviors not only with the target student but with the whole class.”
Train other Educators! As a district wide Rethink Ambassador, Mrs. Brock encourages all of her teachers to utilize the entire Rethink system to best support their students’ needs. She provides ongoing training and support for educators on the various functionalities of the system. Washoe County School District has 63,919 students in 104 schools. The district has 4,705 instructional staff; therefore, Mrs. Brock can’t always support everyone in person. But with the help of Rethink she can “run reports on usage and determine what kind of support is needed for different teachers.” For example, Mrs. Brock used Rethink with “novice teachers to direct them first to the training center and available materials; for most teachers, I guide them through selecting appropriate lesson plans and engaging with the behavior tool and for my veteran teachers, I encourage use of running reports, graphing tools, meaningful usage of the student activity center as well as exploring the various webinars available.” The teachers are benefiting from Rethink webinars and resources regardless of what stage of their teaching career they’re in. Teachers can “solve issues in their classes by using different aspects of the Rethink system.”
Further her Career! As a Rethink Ambassador, Mrs. Brock has experienced personal career growth. Rethink has, “furthered my knowledge about adult learning theory and how to effectively deliver professional development to adults in a way that would be most meaningful for each individual.” Over the last 5 years, Mrs. Brock and Rethink have grown and adopted to meet the changing needs of educators and students. Mrs. Brock is excited to continue to work with Rethink as the program develops more resources and tools to meet the growing needs of our students.
