Supporting & Encouraging Our Staff Members

posted October 13, 2022

Cardinal Community School District is committed to providing our teachers and staff members with the resources they need to best support our students. Some of our best resources are four of our own staff members who serve as instructional coaches. 

“Instructional coaches provide support and resources to teachers,” Stephanie Ferrell, Cardinal CSD instructional coach, explains. “We can serve as mentors and role models to teachers, as well as help teachers improve their quality of classroom instruction.”

The coaches assist teachers with curriculum, student supports, classroom management, and other needs. In turn, they also bring teacher and student needs to the administration team for addressing.

All four of our instructional coaches focus on a specific area. Mrs. Ferrell supports new teachers, Stefany Snyder provides literacy assistance, Sabrina Morrison supports our special education team, and Jenny Little specializes in technology.

“I love that our instructional coaching team is diversified and allows each of us to show our strengths,” Mrs. Little says. “We meet weekly as a team where we divide and conquer to find solutions for teachers. We have also begun a weekly update to keep classroom, Title, and special education teachers informed and remind everyone that we are always here to help!”

All of our coaches use their roles to help our teachers continue to grow and stay up to date with any state and federal measures that affect our district.

“I think that coaching within a district is important for teacher mental health,” Mrs. Snyder says. “For my specific role, I am able to answer questions, gather resources, model lessons, and look at classroom and/or student data to drive our instruction.”

As Mrs. Snyder points out, a lot of the work our instructional coaches put in revolves around understanding data and using it to improve how we educate our students. 

Mrs. Morrison teaches our special education teachers how they can collect student data to analyze how their methods are working and determine how to best move forward. 

As our instructional technology coach, Mrs. Little’s role focuses on moving our teachers forward with the right technology to improve instruction, rather than distracting from it. 

“In the past year, I have put an emphasis on digital signage in the district, supplying teachers with new computers and interactive touch panels in every classroom, cataloging student Chromebooks, and rolling out mobile device management with our elementary iPads,” Mrs. Little says.

She makes herself available to teachers for troubleshooting and collaborating if any questions or issues with the devices arise. As she says, she is the go-to for all things technology!

We are so thankful to have these four dedicated educators on our staff and for all they do to help support our teachers and administrators — and, ultimately, our students.

Our Instructional Coaches Goals

Stephanie Ferrell, Instructional Coach

"I always want to help facilitate growth in educators. If we can help educators grow professionally, that usually correlates with higher student achievement."

Stefany Snyder, Instructional Literacy Coach

"My goal as an instructional coach is to help our district reach our literacy goals. I want all teachers that I work with to feel supported and to have the things they need to teach literacy well! I want all students to receive great literacy instruction while at Cardinal."

Jenny Little, Instructional Technology Coach

"My goals are to increase time spent planning and integrating technology with teachers in their classrooms and to encourage students to use new forms of technology every day!"

Sabrina Morrison, District Special Education Instructional Coach

"My goal is to build a positive relationship with the teachers and build trust between us. I want to teach teachers how to be reflective in their practice so they can improve their skills to benefit student achievement."