Gizmos Institute for Coaches and Specialists

About the Workshop

Districts with Math/Science Coaches or Specialists already have a great resource to support their teachers in exemplary math and science instruction. This workshop is designed to harness the power of those coaches and specialists to build a strong Gizmos implementation. Coaches/Specialists learn to support Gizmos teachers and model effective classroom instruction with Gizmos including pre-lesson collaborative lesson planning and post-lesson group reflection discussion. Coaches/Specialists also build skills with coaching language and probing/guiding questions.

Resources for Teachers

Helpful resources for you to download.

Download All Resources

Agenda Downloads
Share the agenda with the teachers that will be attending the workshop and add the date, time, and location to use as an informational flyer.
Coaching Resources
Best Practices for Teaching with Gizmos: Keep this slide from the workshop to help guide your Gizmos lessons.
Pre-conference briefing email: Share the details and expectations of the Gizmos lesson modeling with your teachers
Samples: Refer to the observation, modeling schedule and reflection samples as you complete ones during your modeling sessions with your teachers.
Using Gizmos Ideas and Benefits Sketch Pad: Use as a note-taking tool.
Lesson Planning Support: Review all of the web pages that were shared during the webinar.
Workshop Resources
Classroom Modeling Teacher Feedback: Provide a way for teachers to give feedback about the whole class Gizmos modeling session that they observed.
Classroom Modeling Observation Tool: Complete as you observe a Gizmos lesson from your teachers.
Gizmos Collaborative Lesson Planning Tool: Fill in each section as you plan a Gizmos lesson with the teacher that you will be observing.
Lesson Teacher Reflection and Action Plan: Allow teachers the opportunity to self-reflect on the Gizmos lesson they taught for observation.
Observation Feedback Sheet: Provide feedback to your teacher on the lesson that was planned as a collaboration with their coach.
Post-Conference Observation Feedback: Use for feedback on the Gizmos lesson observation during the debrief and post-conference meeting.
Teacher Needs Assessment Survey: Administer a needs assessment for teachers before the coaching cycle begins so that you’ll have information about their confidence levels and desires as they relate to their professional growth with Gizmos.

Everybody's Talking About Gizmos

"Using Gizmos has had a positive impact on student learning. Gizmos allows them to dig deeper and manipulate variables to lead them to a higher-level depth of knowledge. There were plenty of students who had a ‘light bulb’ moment using a Gizmo!"

- Teacher, Racine Unified School District, WI

"Textbooks have come and gone in our district at all grade levels, but what our teachers have been able to rely on for years is the quality of the product ExploreLearning is putting out with Gizmos."

- Director of STEM Education, Hillsborough Public Schools, FL

"Teachers deserve a tool like Gizmos to empower students to conduct their own investigations, learn without reading lots of text but by doing lots of reasoning."

- Teacher, Los Angeles Unified School District, CA

"I’m really a strong proponent of Gizmos in science because I have seen firsthand what it does in terms of engaging kids in labs. Gizmos really allow students to go deeper in terms of problem solving and critical thinking."

- Assistant Superintendent, Miami-Dade Public Schools, FL

"I see more student engagement with lesson content when students are using Gizmos. Student grades have shown more understanding of the topics."

- Teacher, Salinas Unified School District, CA