The Core Coaches

We are a 1st grade teacher, Instructional Coach, and Curriculum Director turned full-time curriculum designers with The Core Coaches. Together we have three Master's Degrees and 40 years of experience in the classroom! After 14 years in the elementary classroom, Tatum is now working as an instructional coach where she is able to support the teachers in her buildings. She has presented to educators across the state of Utah and nationally at the SDE Differentiated Instruction Conference. Amy taught in the primary grades for ten years. She has also presented at the National Expeditionary Learning Conference in Boston. Emily has been an educator for 14 years. She has been a classroom teacher in both primary and upper grades and a reading specialist. She has also presented to teachers across her state. Her most recent titles of curriculum director and instructional coach have given way to a more demanding role as a mother of three. The Core Coaches came together quite randomly, but we're glad we found each other! Emily and Tatum met on a writing team while designing teacher professional development courses for the State Board of Education in Utah and began presenting together across the state. Emily and Amy met when they began working closely together to design curriculum for a new charter school. Soon enough, the ideas started flowing and The Core Coaches team was born.

Tatum believes in project-based learning to support the integration of the arts. She enjoys using cooperative groups to facilitate student-centered learning. Amy loves building a strong classroom community. She also uses cooperative learning and heavily integrates language arts with social studies and science. Emily has a passion for coaching and teacher development. She thrives on using data to drive instruction and to increase student achievement. The Core Coaches are passionate about designing and implementing engaging lesson plans. We want to share our useful strategies and materials with other teachers. Our focus is literacy, and integrating reading and writing strategies into social studies and science. The materials in our store have been used in our own classrooms, then revised and perfected for our customers.

It's an honor being a teacher.

All three Core Coaches have Master's Degrees in Curriculum and Instruction. Amy studied Teacher Leadership, Emily specialized in Reading Coaching, and Tatum focused on the Integration of the Arts.

Tatum stays busy with her husband and four children. She likes to grow fruits and vegetables and loves hiking and camping in the mountains. When her family gives her a break she usually takes a good long nap! Amy has two young girls. She enjoys watching her girls compete in dances, mountain biking, and being outdoors. She love binge watching Netflix and drinking coffee. Emily is married and has two little girls and a boy. All three have become the center of her Universe. She recently learned how to quilt and can’t live without her daily dose of cherry diet coke.