This week, we are Spotlighting Deepa Bharath. This is Deepa's 4th year as Cambridgeport School's Math Coach. Deepa's office is located in room 101A on the 2nd floor. Deepa works closely with our teaching staff to support Math Instruction. The goal is for every teacher to complete at least one coaching cycle with either the Math or Literacy coach yearly. Deepa works with school and district leaders to make sure our teachers have the necessary materials and information needed to enhance Math instruction. She is currently managing our 2nd and 5th grade teachers with the Illustrative Math Curriculum Pilot. Deepa is also supporting our Cambridge Math Circle afterschool program at Cambridgeport for grades 3 to 5. Deepa works with the literacy coach and the school principal to facilitate weekly professional learning community meetings where we use an inquiry framework to support us in engaging in effective ways to examine what our students and staff need regarding math instruction. Deepa is always available to support teachers. She spends time in classrooms observing and giving feedback to teachers and also makes herself available to co-plan units and lessons with teachers. Deepa can be found in after-school meetings with teachers in order to accommodate a wide range of opportunities to share her expertise. She is committed to enhancing math practices that will yield strong outcomes for our students.
"I truly enjoy my job as an instructional coach because I love all things related to math teaching and learning. I partner with teachers to build math communities where all students can explore, take risks, be challenged, and experience feeling joy and success in mathematics. I am responsible for supporting teachers in mathematics and collaborating with them in many ways:
- Plan lessons that are interesting and meaningful to students.
- Identify and strengthen cross-curricular connections (with art, science, reading/writing, or in project-based learning units) and home-school mathematics so students can deepen and apply skills they learn in authentic ways.
- Co-teach or observe and provide feedback on lessons.
- Collect, organize and use data to plan for instruction.
- Facilitate parent workshops/math events, and build community partnerships.
This is my 4th year at C’Port. I grew up in Chennai, India. and have been an educator for about 20 years. I love cooking, traveling, obsessing about strategies in math games/puzzles - and my very chatty, almost 13-year-old son."
Deepa Bharath