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Instructional coach and Gifted Coordinator Jessica Zimmerman helps teachers at Phoenix’s Valley View Leadership Academy increase student engagement, incorporate technology into their classrooms, and think outside the box to support their students. Roosevelt School District partners with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET), leveraging the role of instructional coaches to strengthen educator effectiveness and improve student achievement. Zimmerman seeks out district resources, pursues a variety of avenues to enhance her own practice, then shares instructional strategies and professional learning opportunities to her colleagues. She differentiates her coaching to accommodate teachers wherever they are in her career, from beginning to veteran. Zimmerman demonstrates lessons, provides guidance and helps teachers plan lessons. During the pandemic, she met with teachers online to help them with effective strategies for remote instruction. Zimmerman leads professional learning communities for Valley View teachers and the district’s instructional coaches, focusing on curriculum implementation and coaching cycles. One of her key goals: create opportunities for her colleagues to become teacher leaders.

Before stepping into her current coaching and coordinating roles, Zimmerman taught kindergarten, second and third grades, as well as transitioning into a resource gifted teacher role in Roosevelt School District’s gifted program, teaching 150 students weekly, grades K-8. She focuses on gifted students and is committed to providing access and equity to ensure that they receive a high-quality education and are supported holistically, as they deserve.

Concerned about maintaining gifted students’ access to appropriate instruction during school building closures, Zimmerman quickly developed Zoom lessons and materials for online instruction, then met online with gifted students in large groups, small groups and one-to-one. Zimmerman has created and facilitated online gifted teacher training modules that were approved by the district board and positions Roosevelt’s teachers to earn endorsement and certification requirements for teaching gifted students. She acts as the districts gifted coordinator, meets with the 18 district site coordinators, and supports cluster grouping, self-contained, and resource gifted programming structures across the district, along with supporting ways to find equitable identification practices of gifted students in Roosevelt.

She earned a bachelor’s in communications in 2010 and a master’s in elementary education and teaching in 2013. In 2021, Jessica was recognized as the first ever, Milken Educator Award winner in her district, and was awarded $25,000 dollars, along with recognition and excellence in her impact on students through her leadership. In Phoenix Magazine, she was named one of the “Great 48 in 2022”.

Jessica Zimmerman is a mother to her 3-year-old son Oliver. Oliver is an avid “reader” and book collector. Among his 500 books his favorite authors at the moment are Todd Parr, Eric Carle, Mercer Mayer, James Dean, and Dr. Seuss.

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