Through our professional development sessions with Makom, staff were able to hone their lesson planning skills, while grounding that growth in a focus on relational culture and well being in their classrooms. We saw the value of this training in our classrooms, where we documented students sharing big ideas from their own lives, often using the text as a vehicle to do so.
As a Director in my second year of managing our program, I found regular coaching sessions with Beverly to be immensely helpful. I found Beverly to be attuned, patient, and creative in our coaching sessions. [They] regularly offered perspectives that I did not hear inside our organization, which were immensely helpful for me in taking a step back and thinking critically about my role as the Director of our after school program. I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn from Beverly Socher-Lerner and Makom this year.