Jessica Sawko Teacher Leadership Award: Autumn Bridges

Meet Autumn Bridges

This award is significant because my job is hard to explain to other people even other teachers and the award reinforces that whatever it is that I do, it’s beneficial to other teachers in our district.

What motivated you to pursue a career in science education?
I was ready to move away from the jobs I’d had to pursue a career. A friend of mine was taking classes through a satellite campus of Univ. of LaVerne when I realized I could take classes that fit in my work schedule. Teachers were in demand, and I’d always loved Science. When I was young, I wanted to be a teacher until someone pointed out I’d be talking to an audience all day which scared me to death (public speaking). Once I was comfortable in front of a crowd, teaching was an option again. I knew I couldn’t sit at a desk all day so teaching met that need as well.

You facilitate various professional development opportunities, including literacy in the science classroom and effective use of labs. What are some key strategies you use to ensure these sessions are engaging and beneficial for teachers?
I make sure the PD I provide is relevant to the teachers it is designed for. One of the best sources of that information for me is feedback from previous PDs. At the end of my PDs I ask what attendees ‘got’ from the day and what they ‘need’. Another thing I find helpful is to give teachers a chance to work through activities as students before presenting the strategy from a teacher perspective. This allows teachers a chance to identify where directions/questions/prompts need clarification, how much time to plan for their students, what to keep/add/delete and a myriad of other variables.

As part of the KHSD Instructional Coaching team, you are known for offering unique solutions to problems. Can you provide an example of a challenging issue you faced and the innovative solution you implemented?
We started our Instructional Coaching journey with a one-on-one coaching model. Recently, a few of our TOSAs attended a workshop that highlighted the benefits of integrating coaching with PLCs. Balancing these approaches and maintaining clarity about when one method might be more effective than the other has proven to be a challenge. We’re still early enough in the process that we've been able to use other coaches' experience to find solutions to problems we’ve faced so far.

What do you believe is the greatest accomplishment of your career so far?
The accomplishment I am proudest of so far is bringing back Physics Olympics to our District. This is a day of activities for Physics students to compete in competitions that include building and testing things like toothpick spanners and paper airplanes, doing calculation competition activities or pre-construction events like protection for an egg drop or a coffee can racer. Physics Olympics began over 30 years ago in our district and had been on a 5 year break due to various reasons.