Meet Kate Riedell of True Learning Educational Services in Boulder County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Riedell.

Before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was fortunate to be raised by two teachers. My mother was the veteran teacher in the family, having taught fourth and fifth grade back in the 1970s. She then returned to teaching after my brother I and were born. My father, however, was a late-comer to the profession. One winter, my father substituted in my mother’s fifth-grade classroom when she had the flu, as he was laid off at the time from his job in finance. My father loved it and signed up to take the teacher’s test shortly thereafter. He then went and did a second master’s in education. My mother and father’s collective commitment to their students and families was clear to me from an early age. To my parents, teaching was more than just a profession, it was a lifestyle. It was what you thought about in a grocery store line as you picked up a few extra boxes of cereal to do a math project or at Home Depot where you would buy extra lumber to make birdhouses that integrated geometric principles. Their positive influence led me to become a teacher.

As an elementary schooler, I volunteered my lunch and recess times within the special education pre-school classrooms in my school. This also profoundly shaped me. I knew that I wanted to figure out a better way to integrate students with special needs into the general education classroom. Thoughtful integration whenever possible and not isolation resonated in my mind, even as a nine and ten year old. Moving to middle school I was fortunate to go to school where my parents taught and thus spent every free moment I had in their 3rd or 5th-grade classrooms observing and helping students in math, writing and reading. As I moved to high school, I became a peer mentor to several students with severe special needs. I learned quickly how to use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices and supported students in general education classrooms. I spent my freshman year at Marist College within their education department at Marist College, but knew it was not a fit.

For me, I needed more of a challenge and a professor at the time saw that. He ironically had just graduated from Boston College and suggested I apply there. I got into Boston College and knew it was where I was meant to be. Their education department was larger and their methods classes, where you learned how to teach each subject, were inherently challenging. I loved how I was pushed to think outside of the box. During my time at Boston College, I was fortunate enough to student teach each semester. Upon leaving Boston College, I placed teaching on hold, to pursue my dream of becoming a professional mountain biker. Unfortunately, that dream came to an end on October 10, 2004. During a downhill mountain bike practice run that day, I shattered my left femur in six places.

That experience profoundly shaped me. No one teaches you how to walk again. You truly need to navigate it for yourself. My journey to walking again and eventually riding my bike and yes, racing again is a story of persistence. Doctors at Rochester Medical Center said I would never truly walk right again, nor race again. It became my personal mission to tell them that they were wrong. Once I had my own classroom I drew on this story to share with my students that yes, life can be really hard, but persistence and drive enable you to get through. After breaking my leg, I lived at home, saved up money (ironically, I was a substitute PE teacher and lacrosse coach that year), and went to graduate school at Boston University the following fall.

At Boston University, I became surrounded by research which at the time was a shift, from the practicality of Boston College, but definitely planted the seeds for a Ph.D. program six years later. I focused on language and literacy with the goal of truly understanding to the best of my ability how to mediate reading and writing difficulties in the classroom. Although I completed this program more than a decade ago, the principles of balanced literacy and a multitude of research-based interventions are still successfully used today. After Boston University, I accepted a fifth-grade teaching position in Westford, MA. I learned a lot in my first year of teaching and had the opportunity to truly formulate a classroom community. Still rehabbing my leg injury, I traveled out to the San Francisco Bay Area throughout the year for rehabilitation. Medical professionals at one clinic in this area were among only a handful of doctors who had seen and successfully treated patients with similar femur breaks. During one of my trips to California, I was fortunate to obtain a fourth-grade position at an elementary school out in the Bay Area and moved there in Summer 2007.

I taught in Orinda, CA for the next five years, and was mentored by Charles Shannon a veteran teacher and principal. I went to trainings at Columbia University in NYC during the summers and became a model classroom for readers and writers workshop. I integrated Orton-Gillingham within my classroom and in conjunction with solely small group teaching, classroom achievement scores rose. However, I knew that a Ph.D. program was on the horizon for me. I was studying a multitude of research-based interventions and wanted to understand them in more depth. I wanted to make an even greater impact if I could, so I left the classroom and enrolled in the Joint Doctoral Program for Special Education at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Los Angeles.

I was extremely fortunate to be mentored by two incredible advisors during the Ph.D. program, Dr. Sharon Ulanoff, a former teacher and leader in literacy and bilingual education, and Dr. Alison Bailey, a leader in language development and bilingualism. My focus during the Ph.D. program was a bit untraditional, as I wanted to study how to meet the needs of all students, including those with autism and learning disabilities in the general education classroom. More specifically, this evolved into deeply understanding differentiation and personalization across subject areas. Thus, I became involved in a variety of different research projects. 

I worked within Dr. Connie Kasari’s lab as an interventionist in classrooms for a study on improving transitions for students with autism and on a project for UCLA’s Center X, that delved into understanding how teachers learned how to teach reading and writing. I also created a writing curriculum for students with autism and successfully tested that within a classroom in a local school district for a project during my PhD. I then had the opportunity to join a fantastic National Science Foundation Project. This study looked at the efficacy of tablet-based portfolios for teachers in 8th-grade science classrooms and was a joint project between Stanford University, the University of Notre Dame, and UCLA. I also was fortunate to do my dissertation as part of the project, studying how three teachers differentiated and/or personalized their science instruction (chemistry and physics) for students with special needs.

During my Ph.D. program, it was critical to me that I still hone my practice, and thus was an educational literacy consultant for Growing Educators. I worked with a multitude of teachers modeling lessons and supporting them as they differentiated their curriculum for students with special needs. I worked with teachers from the elementary through middle school level. I also tutored students from K-12 and applied the best practices that I knew from teaching and research to the work with my students. I also worked at First 5 LA in their research department and after I graduated, worked their full time. I delved into the world of Quality Rating Improvement Systems and Kindergarten Readiness assessments. I was always told that I brought the perspective of ‘teacher’ to this work. Two years ago my husband and I had the opportunity to move to Colorado. I fulfilled my final dream, which was obtaining my principal license through the Ritchie Program at the University of Denver, while working in Denver Public Schools as a teacher. Although, I always knew that I wanted to move into private practice to best support students and families. 

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not always been a smooth road, but I think those are the times when you learn the most. As a teacher, I definitely pushed the boundaries with the instructional methods I used within the classroom. Utilizing formative and summative assessment data to form small groups was relatively new at the time within both districts that I taught at. I was questioned as to ‘why’ I was doing this, because most classrooms were taught solely as large groups. Additionally, drawing on students’ interests and crafting units that embedded grade-level standards was also out of the norm. Although, my students thrived and often came to school sick, because they did not want to miss class that day. While I would send students back home, I knew that I was not only teaching them, but fostering their love of learning. Additionally, I was questioned as to why I would want to go to Orton-Gillingham training and provide a structured phonics program in a fourth-grade classroom. That ‘did not make sense,’ but after my successful implementation, many of my colleagues sought out this training on their own.

The Ph.D. program was definitely a journey. I thought that when I entered the program I would be joined by a multitude of teachers, hoping to change things at an even greater level. Although, there were not many teachers in the Ph.D. program at all. In fact, most of my colleagues had never taught before and that was hard for me at first. Yet, I drew upon their experiences and gained new perspectives. With that said, we need more teachers going to get their Ph.D.s to ensure that there is an even greater application of research to the field.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
“Change is the end result of all true learning.” – Leo Buscaglia. 

The quote above shapes what I do, each and every day. To truly learn something, each child needs to be provided with personalized instruction to meet his/her needs. This means that the instruction must not only address any gaps but also leverage his/her strengths and be motivating. However, the most central piece that has to be in place to ensure that all of this works effectively is a trusting, professional relationship with the child. When a family calls to inquire about services, I let them know that our first step is to meet, in order to begin to build that professional relationship. Moving forward, I meet with each family, including the child, for approximately 90 minutes to two hours for a collaborative conversation about his/her academic history, prior interventions that were put in place and their efficacy, as well as to learn more about their child’s interests. We also draft initial goals at this meeting as a team. If needed, academic screeners are also administered. After this meeting, I combine the interview data from our meeting, with a multitude of other data provided by the family and create a Personalized Education Game Plan with targeted goals and an outline of the instruction that will be used to reach those goals. Suggested classroom accommodations are also included. As well as suggestions for home. Each family then reviews this plan and we make any needed adjustments, prior to beginning sessions.

Based on this plan, I recommend a number of sessions, and as we move forward, I provide weekly progress notes to families and their child’s teacher(s), to track growth. We adjust our goals as needed, and then at the completion of the designated number of sessions, we reassess as a team to determine what new goals need to be put in place to support the child. Close collaboration with the school is paramount to ensuring that the work we do within the intervention is transferring to the classroom. Thus, I place a tremendous amount of effort on application. This is incredibly important to me. A student should not be learning a different phonics rule outside of the classroom and inside the classroom for example. Instruction needs to connect as much as possible and I strive to do that for my students by collaborating with their teachers as closely as possible. Each of my students has a bulb Digital Portfolio and progress notes are provided in this portfolio for confidentiality reasons, along with resources for the school. I also support families in preparation for a potential 504 or IEP, as well as the RTI/MTSS process.

Another core component that is embedded within any package of sessions is support for Executive Functioning. Again, nothing can be done in isolation and the components of Executive Functioning are embedded throughout our work, with slightly different focuses at the elementary, middle and high school levels. I am often asked what organizational system will work best for a child, and the answer is that it completely depends on the child. The most important piece is that the system works long-term for the child, and he/she is implementing it independently. Additionally, I work closely with my families in 5th, 8th and 12th grade to provide appropriate transitional support for their children. Being ready to enter middle school, with the rigors of separate classes to preparing for college can be stressful and I provide the families and students I work with tailored strategies to continue building upon not just their academic skill set, but their confidence.

I specialize in working with students with special needs, including those on the Autism Spectrum, those with learning disabilities (dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyslexia), as well as those with intellectual disabilities and those with ADHD.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
As I move forward, I will continue to study the latest best practices and research-based interventions to best serve the families that I currently work with and those that I will work with in the future. One of the facets I love most about education is that you are always learning. I recently began to offer math and literacy assessments at the request of a few families that I currently work with, and will continue to evolve based on the needs of my students and their families.

Pricing:

• Packages range from $1,900 (20-75 minute sessions) to $3,825 (45-75 minute sessions) to $5,100 (60-75 minute sessions)

Contact Info:

• Address: True Learning Educational Services
  400 E. Simpson Street, Suite G02
  Lafayette, CO 80026
• Website: www.truelearningeducation.com
• Phone: 510-909-9939
• Email: kate@truelearningeducation.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truelearningeducation/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/truelearningeducation/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LearningTrue

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.