CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

Keynotes and Talks

"I was told by too-many-to-count parents and Scholars that you were 'the BEST speaker we ever had."

-Bonnie Raskin, Institute for Educational Advancement, May 2010

"You were wonderful!"

-Norma Sarmiento, Live, Laugh, Learn Foundation, May 2010

"Many thanks for such a thought-provoking talk.  Your passion, dedication and perseverence are palable and infectious!"

-Betsy Nordell, Open Circle, April 2010

"I came away with a much greater sense of self, and also trust to be in a group and find my own voice in a group.  I wish I could wrap upt the experience magically and transplant it to my school!!"

-Courage To Teach seminar participant, February 2010

"This workshop took me back to why I became a teacher and reminded me of the importance of listening to my heart and being honest."

-Courage To Teach seminar participant, February 2010

"Thank you so much for making our first speaker event for Landmark such a wonderful success. Our feedback is you were a huge hit. I was fascinated by the universal themes of wounding by both those who struggled and those who excelled in school...."

-Janet Thibeau, Landmark Academy, November 2009

"Thanks so much for giving us that extraordinary evening. You were brilliant in your presentation, and wonderfully responsive and authentic in handling the conversation. You have a new cadre of raving fans."

-Ronald Gross, University Seminar on Innovation, Columbia University, October 2009

"Thank you for your insightful and provocative presentation at Teachers College. Your honest and straightforward articulation not only of the state of education for public school students, but also of all learners, is heartening! Again thank you!"

-Jeffrey Johnson, Teachers College, Columbia University, May 2009

"Thank you for your visit and presentation. The topic is so very timely and so willingly swept under the rug, as educators strive to convince themselves that we are doing all that we can. We're not, and your courage in pointing that out is invaluable and necessary!"

-Bill Lundgren, National Academy for Excellent Teaching, May 2009

"You inspired us! The feedback on the evaluations is extremely positive!"

-Stella Moon, Conference Coordinator and Director of the Adolescent Health Initiative, "Educate To Graduate" Summit, Pressley Ridge, West Virginia, April 2009

On Site Professional Development

"That was incredibly valuable for my staff."

-Harun Celik, Hampdon Charter School of Science, January 2010

"I've been to a lot of professional development days. This was the best one I've ever attended."

-Teacher, Crotona Academy High School, Bronx, New York, November 2009

"Thanks for the great workshop! The reviews are terrific! Your thought provoking approach was the right way to go."

-Sandy Lowe, Director, Educational Information and Resource Center, New Jersey, October 2009

"Dr. Olson's work with us was 21st Century! In tune with the many faces of today's public schools, our teachers, and our students. Kirsten addressed our need to change without talking down to us. She is ever aware of her audience. She tailored her services our needs as we perceived them and continued to adjust her presentations in tune with her own understandings of our needs. Dr. Olson's work with our site-based professional development facilitators and with middle and high school teams was exemplary."

-Dr. Frieda Owen, Wood County Schools, Parkersburg, WV, 2008

Leadership Coaching

"Kirsten and I work with school leaders, board members, administrators, and teachers who are struggling to achieve. In order to be effective in our work, we need them to share with us both the positive and negative aspects of their schools, and we need them to do so quickly. Naturally, this requires that we develop a high level of trust with the entire school community. Kirsten is simply phenomenal in this work. I have been amazed at how quickly she develops rapport and mutual trust with everyone in a school, including the students. Kirsten gets people to open up to her and to share their successes and challenges. This greatly informs our work, and it also creates a supportive environment so that the school community can hear our recommendations, which often can be difficult to digest.

Recently our team worked with a school that identified its problem as behavior issues associated with a large and unruly special education population. After several days at the school and as a result of countless interviews, we determined that most, if not all, behavior issues were the result of students who were not challenged academically and were being taught by unqualified, untrained, and unsupervised teachers. Also, a culture of blame the students permeated the school. When we presented our findings to the school's leadership and board, Kirsten delivered, without blame or judgment, a very difficult message at odds with their perceptions. Because she developed such a strong rapport with everyone at the school and since it is so apparent that she believes that insight can move you forward, regardless of its initial positive or negative energy, people trust her and hear what she has to say.

Kirsten is intently interested in each individual that makes up a school. As a result of her empathy, insight, and thoughtfulness she can re-energize school leadership. Kirsten is simply a great coach!"

-John Tarvin, Executive Director, Massachusetts Center for Charter Public School Excellence (Fall 2008)

Instructional Improvement Projects

"We drew up an RFP for an instructional coach who would have the expertise and skill necessary to re-create the achievement turn-arounds at other urban schools. We hired Kirsten Olson, who had for years studied Anthony Alvarado's and Elaine Fink's instructional improvement project at District Two in New York [previously]. Dr. Olson was prepared to research our school, understand our particular context, and proceed rapidly. She began work in November. The results have been profound:
• We have met with every teacher and created aggressive, measurable, achievable goals for each one;
• We have, using research, defined what constitutes powerful teaching and use this definition as a rubric for all classroom visits;
• We have visited classrooms at a minimum of two hours each day;
• We meet with every teacher weekly to discuss our observations and his or her progress toward goals;
• We have discerned a particular school-wide pattern in instruction and have outlined expectations for urgent remediation;
• Our new math coach, who has taught math for 25 years, leads us in professional development around student cognition, particularly when it comes to math;
• We have sent teachers to other schools to observe their counterparts doing practices we believe are successful.
Classroom observations are showing change already-work is marching toward the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy, students are much more engaged around the much more meaningful work."

-Mike Mayo, Executive Director, Uphams Corner Charter School (December 2008)

"The nature of Kirsten Olson's work was to model what improved instruction looks like to the administrative team, along with the teachers, by providing workshops and visiting classes on a frequent basis. She would meet with teachers individually to get their perspectives on their classroom instruction style, and would also give feedback on the teacher's lesson plans and revisit the class and see if improvements had been made. Kirsten kept a continued line of communication open. and asked additional questions that dramatically raised our level of thinking."

-Francois Fils-Amie, director of METCO, Marblehead Public Schools, Marblehead, Massachusetts (June 2009)

 

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