Teaching Beyond the Lesson Plan

Instructional design for real classrooms — not compliance checklists.

Why good teaching still feels harder than it should

You've done the professional development. You've learned the frameworks. You've sat through the trainings on student engagement, differentiation, and data-driven instruction. And yet, when you close your classroom door and face your students, something still doesn't quite click.

The gap isn't your effort or your commitment. It's the disconnect between the theory you've been taught and the reality you navigate every day. Between the perfect lesson on paper and the messy, beautiful, unpredictable work of teaching actual human beings.

Most professional learning treats teaching like a checklist to complete — a series of strategies to implement in the right order. But real instructional design is about understanding why certain approaches work, and more importantly, how to adapt them when they don't.

This course is about closing that gap. Not with more acronyms or frameworks, but with a deeper understanding of how instruction actually works — and how to make it work for you and your students.

What You’ll Learn

  • How to design instruction that responds to students in real time — not just follows a script

  • The difference between compliance-driven planning and genuine instructional design

  • Practical approaches for making content accessible without sacrificing rigor

  • How to build lessons that create space for student thinking and discourse

  • Strategies for adapting curriculum materials to meet your students where they are

Who This Is For

This is for you if…

  • You're a classroom teacher who wants to understand the "why" behind instructional decisions

  • You're an instructional coach looking for clearer ways to support teachers

  • You're a campus or district leader who believes PD should be more than compliance

  • You want practical ideas grounded in how instruction actually works

This is not for you if…

  • You're looking for quick fixes or silver-bullet strategies

  • You want pre-made lesson plans you can use without adaptation

  • You prefer frameworks that promise transformation without deep work

  • You're not ready to question some of what you've been taught about teaching

About the Course Creator

Erica Rochelle is a Curriculum & Instruction Specialist who has spent over a decade working alongside teachers in real classrooms — not from a central office, but in the daily work of lesson design, co-teaching, and instructional problem-solving.

Her approach centers on what she calls "instructional design in practice" — the art of building lessons that work not because they follow a template, but because they're grounded in a deep understanding of how students learn and how teachers can respond.

Erica is known for her ability to model instruction, coach in real time, and help teachers develop the kind of professional judgment that transforms good planning into great teaching. She believes that every teacher deserves professional learning that respects their expertise while helping them grow.

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