Title: Literacy Coach
Location: Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland; Office of Curriculum and Instruction
School/s Currently Serving: Oxon Hill High School and Frederick Douglass High School
Email: rashida.betts@pgcps.org
I have over 30 years of teaching experience. I received my B.A. in Education from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and my Master's Degree as a Reading Specialist from Bowie State University in Maryland. I'm certified to teach all grade levels. I received National Board Certification as an Early Adolescence Generalist in 2004. In 2016, I received my Administrative 1 certification.
I belong to the following professional organizations: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), International Literacy Association (ILA), National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NCTE), and the National Council of English Teachers (NCTE).
Nichols Negroponte, Co-Founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Library said:
"The world's best teachers are not repositories of knowledge, but skilled navigators who lead young minds to discovery and understanding."
My mission is to help teachers an students develop a "love affair" for teaching and learning so they may embrace knowledge and delight in its benefits.
This includes modeling of skills and strategies for teachers so they may understand and deliver instructional "best practices" to all students.
For example, conducting hands-on professional development for teachers on the gradual-release of responsibility model, understanding the
Common Core Standards, implementing authentic literacy strategies, reciprocal teaching, differentiated instruction, cooperative discipline, discussion and
collaborative conversation protocols, and technology integration to help them learn how to scaffold, direct, and enhance their lesson planning and
instructional delivery. Data analysis training helps teachers see the fruits of their labor and determine next steps and areas needing instructional adjustment.
These "discovery" opportunities help teachers experience the WOW factor, they feel more confident; their students are more motivated to
actively participate, apply strategies learned in all of their classes, and feel more confident during assessments. They become life-long learners
with the critical skills necessary for success academically and in the real world.
I believe that as teachers and students probe, research, process, investigate, collaborate and understand the application of skills as learners, each experience
will be an affair to remember; consequently, they will become better thinkers and problem-solvers - and love doing it!
They become life-long learners with the critical skills necessary for success academically and in the real world.