Christina
Educational Consultant
Christina Roman has had the opportunity to serve in various teaching and educational leadership roles in her 10-year tenure as an educator. She completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in English and Education at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. After starting her career in the charter school sector, she continued her education to earn her principal’s certificate through New Jersey’s NJEXCEL program.
The pedagogy of early childhood education as well as literacy education spanning K-12 has been a passion of Christina ‘s since high school when she began working with preschool students. Christina always thought she would teach in the K-3 setting but found herself in 5th and 6th grade ELA her first two years of teaching. In year two of looping with her students, 96% of her 6th grade students were proficient or advanced proficient on the NJASK. This led to her first leadership position as a Curriculum Supervisor in a brand-new K-5 charter school. During her tenure with the charter organization, Christina was on the building-based administrative team, as a principal, which opened 3 brand new schools from the ground up in urban cities across Passaic County.
As principal, Christina introduced Max Scholar to her Kindergarten students and teachers. This digital, Orton-Gillingham based phonics program was the first in the district to be implemented as a part of the district’s balanced literacy curriculum. Through collaboration with the Kindergarten team, consistent review of its implementation, and strategic analysis of data, Kindergarten fluency scores improved in Christina ‘s school by 110% in its first year of implementation.
Christina believes in the power of teachers continuing to add “tools to their toolkit” as they continue on their educational journey, remembering that a teacher’s most valuable resource are the other teachers right beside them.
Christina's Workshops
Literacy
Making Learning Visual Anytime, Anywhere
Educators are responsible for empowering students to be autonomous. Students gain confidence in taking risks when they visibly see their own learning and are provided authentic feedback in real time. While educators are challenged to find ways to now make learning visible at anytime and from any location, it is difficult to find a balance between how to hold students accountable in a digital arena, that can often feel isolating, with ensuring students are prepared with the ability to succeed in a social and collaborative 21st century. Educators will explore the connection between formative assessments and strong learning targets, in addition to participating in example assessments that can be used to make learning visible anytime, anywhere. Furthermore, participants will leave with a skeleton for effective feedback that can be transferred and used by students to benefit their peers.
GRADES:
4-8
Literacy
Text Evidence: The Root of Effective Writing
Reluctant middle school writers have been trending for decades. Many adolescents today enter middle school lacking the confidence of how to construct a strong paragraph, let alone a five-paragraph essay. In this workshop, educators will explore anchor lessons needed for your students to understand the purpose of their writing and develop their individual craft. Educators will take away best practices for how to encourage writing risks, increase writing stamina, and ensure student written responses are rooted in textual evidence.
GRADES:
6-8
Literacy
Strengthening Student Relationships through Literacy Data Collection
Students thrive on consistency and predictability. They step outside of their comfort zones when they feel supported by their educators. Research shows that learning cannot take place without positive student relationships. In a world where we often feel the burden of overassessing, have we ever considered the power in collecting literacy data and its direct effects on teacher-student relationships? Participants will explore the connection between reading and writing data and its ability to strengthen human connections. Educators will take a look at literacy sample data and discover ways to empower students to take risks and gain self-confidence
GRADES:
K-8
Literacy
Strengthening Student Relationships through Literacy Data Collection
Participants will explore the connection between reading and writing data and its ability to strengthen human connections. Educators will take a look at literacy sample data and discover ways to empower students to take risks and gain self-confidence
GRADES:
K-8
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
You’re Hired! Now, what?
You sit down to write your first lesson plan as an educator and you don’t know where to begin. Do I start with the ELA standards? The curriculum? Does this objective even align with the standard? In this workshop, novice teachers will unpack the ELA standards for their grade level. They will walk away with understanding the concepts and skills embedded in each standard. Educators will practice strategies for unpacking any standard as well as creating learning targets aligned to the standards. ELA teachers will walk away confident in knowing exactly what to teach and lesson plan ideas for meeting these standards in a digital space.
GRADES:
K-8