Shelly Todd

Instructional coach for Olathe Schools, mama to 3 strong young women, wife of Mr. Todd.

[Iowa Reading Research Center @IAReading]

Handwriting skills serve as the foundation of broader writing skill development. Only once students learn to transcribe letters are they able to develop more complex writing skills. Learn more about handwriting instruction through our Literacy LIFTER eLearning module: https://t.co/kv9LX8LyOt

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

It’s a “Find Mrs. Rice Scavenger Hunt” @MT_Timberwolves We sure are going to miss her! @hdrice

[Mrs. Komp @MrsKomp]

63 morphemes learned this year = HUNDREDS of new word associations.

As a grade level, we dropped our at-risk students by 4% and increased our high performing students by a woppping 8% 🎉

41% of 6th graders in our building are ending the year as high performing readers 🥹

[CommunityforCoaches @CFC_KC]

Thank you and congratulations to all the coaches recognized at last night’s Sharon Thompson KC Coach of the Year celebration

Christyn Haberly
Kayla Hamner
Kelsey Hasselbring
Margo Todd
Jeff Diskin
Todd Lewis
Jeff Sopha

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

@karenvaites With the strong push for HQIM in districts, whole novel reading is going wayside.

[Doug Lemov @Doug_Lemov]

Retrieval practice is so important in helping learners retain knowledge. Love to see more and more of it.

One of the most common opportunities to improve though is in avoiding very general questions. Eg “What’s one thing you remember from yesterday’s lesson?”

This Q will likely result in learners recalling the easiest thing, the most familiar… Ie “low hanging fruit.” Much better to say: “Yesterday we talked about four key principles of x. What were they (or even: how many can you recall?) and which one did we discuss as being the most important?” Now learners are prompted to recall full schema and to recall things that don’t come easily.

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

When Munson can’t figure out why his backpack is so heavy… it’s been a busy week for @SummitTrailAP

[Karen Vaites @karenvaites]

"Taken together, these findings suggest digital testing follows a threshold model.

Students need enough familiarity with the tool to avoid interference. But beyond that point, additional exposure provides no benefit – and may even be harmful."

Jared Cooney Horvath debunks the myth that kids need to do lots of digital testing to succeed on state assessments:

[Pam Kastner @liv2learn]

We often hear about the “Mississippi Miracle” in reading, but Dr. @kymyona_burk reminds us it’s not a miracle at all.

Mississippi’s gains didn’t happen overnight, and they didn’t come from a single program or policy. They are the result of years of intentional, aligned work and years of strong As Dr. Burk puts it, this wasn’t a miracle, it was and is a marathon.

And perhaps most importantly, the work isn’t finished. Real literacy improvement is never a one-time success, it’s sustained, disciplined effort over time.

There’s no shortcut. But there is a roadmap. Pennsylvania let’s learn and ACT upon the model Mississippi offers us and other states like Louisiana have done to advance literacy for all!
https://t.co/1aSiCgarPB

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

She shared in the podcast about the coaches she’s had who have poured into her and impacted her. And that’s what it’s all about! @SHHSGBB @SpringHillLive @SHHSTracknField

[CommunityforCoaches @CFC_KC]

Every year as part of the Metro KC Coach of the Year program, CFC recognizes a "Rising Star" in the coaching world -- a young coach who is doing great things in our city. This year we recognize Margo Todd of Ignite Sports Performance.

Keep up the fantastic work, Margo!

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

I learn so much from being in teachers’ classrooms… engagement through analysis in math @MT_Timberwolves in Mrs. Whorley’s class is always a treat!

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

It’s Tuesday night and we are still going strong: #LETRS training for over 40 teachers and school psychologists across @olatheschools district! So much powerful learning and growing in #SOR knowledge!

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

A thought-provoking read as we continue to hear about HQIM

[Robert Pondiscio @rpondiscio]

We talk about curriculum as if it’s the student experience. It’s not. My latest Substack.

https://t.co/CDXYnc4GfF

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

I support secondary buildings and spent my morning in data chats about students in intervention. Multiple teachers referred to their LETRS training and knowledge as we problem solved. ❤️ Knowledge is power! @olatheschools

[Doug Lemov @Doug_Lemov]

Here's a study on exactly that point:

The proportion of academic words used by teachers during the school day is a significant predictor of student vocabulary growth and reading achievement. Research indicates that higher teacher usage of sophisticated, academic language directly correlates to higher student vocabulary scores at the end of the year, particularly for language-minority students.

https://t.co/OlpnYdvNjI

[Rod @rodjnaquin]

I'm inspired by teacher Faith Howard who transformed fluency drills into meaningful learning. Instead of generic practice passages, she uses interesting articles connected to class novels. Students read the same article all week with different daily activities: tackling big words, exploring word meanings, writing sentences, discussing ideas, and practicing spelling. Her struggling high school readers now build knowledge and skills—not just reading speed. https://t.co/yaQ908cItG

[Shelly Todd @alidatodd]

Fifty-three more amazing teachers trained on explicit teaching with science of reading @olatheschools

[Mrs. Komp @MrsKomp]

I'm done!! 🎉 Two years of investing in the science of reading, and it was worth all the hard work

[Sarah Oberle, Ed.D. @S_Oberle]

…because you can’t teach executive functions, but you can be aware of their development and structure the learning experience in their favor.

[Iowa Reading Research Center @IAReading]

Reading and writing are often understood as related skills, but what is the relationship between reading and writing automaticity? Tortorelli and Truckenmiller investigate this in a recent research article, which we break down in our latest blog post: https://t.co/SrIckIjBN6

[Daniel Willingham @DTWillingham]

Still hear this justification re: AI in classrooms: “It’s out there & we can't be left behind.”
Friendly challenge: which happens more often?
1. Schools regretted waiting too long to adopt a technology.
2. Schools regretted adopting a technology before they knew how to use it.