ARiel Dlugasch
Ariel Consulting, LLC
Who is Ariel?
Ariel Dlugasch is an educator who believes in the power of coaching to transform teaching and learning. This belief was generated during her experiences as a young teacher in NYC’s public schools where she had the good fortune to be coached by several leaders in the field of mathematics education. This transformative coaching experience not only helped Ariel fall in love with the teaching and learning of mathematics but also inspired her to want to become a math coach.
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One of the highlights of Ariel’s early PD experience were the many opportunities to participate in teaching learning communities. Here, she witnessed first-hand the power of coaching in transforming teacher practice; she saw teachers publicly coached in the planning, co-teaching, and debriefing of their lessons. It was through her Teaching-Learning Communities (TLC) experiences that Ariel also developed a deep understanding of how to coach and the tools that were critical to effective coaching: skilled communication; building trust through challenging conversations and on-going support; focusing on the instructional core, etc. When Ariel was chosen to host TLCs, she came to realize that effective coaching is rooted in supporting and challenging teachers to name and understand their choices and to connect their choices to underlying beliefs– often unrecognized and unspoken.
To continue to expand her knowledge of coaching Ariel decided to pursue her second master’s degree in Math Leadership at the Bank Street School of Education. This program’s unique focus on coaching, mathematics content, and the development of leadership skills positioned Ariel to become a content coach for Metamorphosis Teaching Learning Communities, a nationally renowned coaching organization based in NYC.
As an educator, Ariel has worked as a K-4 classroom teacher and as a master coach in a variety of schools, both public, private, and charter. In her work as a math content coach, Ariel has helped K-5 teachers develop mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge using a three-part format (plan, co-teach and debrief) in both one-on-one and small-group coaching sessions. A skilled workshop facilitator, Ariel has facilitated many interactive parent workshops that have focused on a variety of topics—how children learn mathematics; the role of inquiry and rich tasks in learning; and the power of struggle and mistakes in developing critical learning habits of mind.
Ariel believes that everyone can learn and uses her coaching as a tool to inspire other educators to expand their horizons. She knows that learning is a lifelong endeavor and firmly believes that the curiosity and joy we model as educators is the best way to fire the imaginations of the children we teach.
