Roxboro Community School’s Academic Coach, Melanie Winstead was recently awarded the ISTE Certification for Educators. This certification recognized Winstead as part of the ISTE Certified Educator Community, a program that is designed to help educators implement technology in learning.
Winstead handles all aspects of professional development for teachers at RCS. There is a wide array of other responsibilities that fall under this umbrella including organizing the beginning teacher program at RCS, organizing the AIG program, and providing resources to teachers that she does as well.
Professional development is something that people in various professions do. As an educator, it is a way to deepen and expand their skills through classes and seminars throughout the year. Winstead is constantly seeking out opportunities and making them available to teachers at RCS. Managing Executive Director, Darkari Bryant said, “Professional development is key because if you’re staying in the same place, you’re falling behind everyone else. In order to grow in any profession or any skill, you have to be a constant learner.”
Winstead is integral for RCS to function. Seeing as it is a small school, some teachers are the only one teaching a specific subject. Teachers in this position don’t have a fellow teacher to discuss lesson plans and course material with, so Winstead steps in to help fill that role. Bryant said, “She’s someone who everyone in the building can go to for that conversation on strengthening their lesson plan.
Winstead shared that supporting teachers is a lot of fun for her. “I love what I do here, I enjoy coming to work every day and I enjoy working with teachers,” Winstead said. “When I see teachers try something new and I see how it works for them, that’s very rewarding for me.”
Winstead applies the same emphasis on learning for the teachers to the students at RCS, too. She recently organized the Spring book fair at RCS, partnering with Quail Ridge Books. She coordinated with them to make sure that this book fair had plenty of books curated to the interests of the student population at RCS. To her, it’s important that students get the opportunity to read books they are actually interested in. Winstead said, “It makes you more empathetic, aware, informed and allows you to understand others better. You will be a better human being, and besides it’s just fun.”