Alli Wachtel Alli Wachtel

100% College Acceptance x2

“You have been accepted…”

Those four life-changing words have been showing up in the inboxes and mailboxes of high school seniors all across the city over the past several weeks. It’s both the payoff of the past four years of hard work in school and the ticket to a bright future.

Read More
Innovation Alli Wachtel Innovation Alli Wachtel

Making Every Moment Count: Sound Bites From a Personalized Classroom

When I first found out about personalized learning, I was intimidated. After all, I’m a teacher, not a techie. Personalized learning relies heavily on technology; students use a Chromebook that is assigned to them for the majority of their coursework. This was not my forte! However, once I saw it in action, I knew this was the type of teacher I wanted to become. 

Read More
High Quality Alli Wachtel High Quality Alli Wachtel

Walking the Walk: Professional Development Personalized

As the leader of various instructional and non-instructional teams for the past eight years, I thought I had things figured out when it came to onboarding PD. People generally had a good time getting to know one another, my PD laid the foundation for healthy, high-functioning teams, and we saw strong results at the end of each year. I was also conscious to ensure that my PD modeled strong instructional practices, doing my best to complete the traditional lesson cycle for each topic and modeling what I expected from teachers.

Read More