The Fun of Big Learning

May 2026

Tim Kokotovich is an instructional coach with a rich background in math education. He is excited about working with colleagues to refine the teaching craft. Here he shares how KIS values professional development.  

---

Teachers learn. School starts with that. The KIS teaching and learning team supports teacher growth because we believe that teacher quality drives student and school success. So this school year we focused on teacher engagement and collaboration. 

Thinking is what we do when we don’t know what to do.
– Peter Liljedahl 

Thinking is hard work. Inviting students to think is a big part of teaching. We welcomed Peter Liljedahl back to KIS to work with teachers from each division and explore ways our classrooms can be thinking classrooms. Teachers participated in learning labs with time to plan a lesson, teach, and debrief – a practical and reflective experience that gave teachers clear strategies that encourage thinking like random grouping and vertical learning. Which is just working with different people, respecting ideas, and showing work on a shared board. 

Our teachers think a lot about how to engage students from the start of a lesson. This year teaching teams experimented with ways to introduce a concept or problem using a task or prompt. We call these provocations. Here’s an example: a middle school science lesson about hurricanes could open with a silent video of a storm system to prompt ideas about how hurricanes form. Provocations are easy ways to experience risk and failure as valuable parts of learning. 

But the big idea is to spark curiosity. Engagement leads to more engagement. When you are solving or creating, you are thinking and that thinking becomes what you learn. We encouraged teachers to reimagine what learning can feel like for students. 

Along the way we also reimagined what learning can look like for teachers. We learn from each other. This year teachers collaborated across grade levels and subject areas to enrich student learning and their own professional experience. Teachers invite peer observations. KIS instructional coaches provide tailored training and feedback to refine teaching craft. The teaching and learning team makes professional development accessible and applicable.

We started this school year with workshops led by Lynn Sawyer. The focus was team collaboration and decision making. We recognize that any great innovation we bring to the classroom starts with productive leadership and teacher conversations. 

Now at the end of this school year we are again talking in groups about what we learned. We’re excited for the new school year. We are excited for what we will learn while we are away too. When teachers are excited to be in the classroom, when we are really interested in what we’re teaching, our students get that energy too and we all keep learning.