Renee McShane
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer
Who is Renee?
Renee McShane is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of reimagineED teaching. Her insights into teaching and learning were forged over her twenty years in education where she has flourished as a teacher, coach, and leader. Renee has experience both in math and science education, giving her a unique skillset to understand the complexities of STEM learning.
Renee honed her skillset as a math and science teacher in various schools and districts in New York. In Valley Stream’s School District 13, she taught science and was quickly recognized as a leader and selected as the district’s Math Coordinator. In this role, she spearheaded a district-wide effort to choose a standards-based math curriculum. This experience gave her deep insight into what constitutes effective math curriculum materials and how to provide learning experiences for teachers who are confronted with new, and sometimes challenging ideas and pedagogies. The challenges of district-wide implementation and studying how to support teacher growth and development, gave Renee unique insights into the complexities of the change process and the role of leadership in systemic change.
Renee honed her skillset as a math and science teacher in various schools and districts in New York. In Valley Stream’s School District 13, she taught science and was quickly recognized as a leader and selected as the district’s Math Coordinator. In this role, she spearheaded a district-wide effort to choose a standards-based math curriculum. This experience gave her deep insight into what constitutes effective math curriculum materials and how to provide learning experiences for teachers who are confronted with new, and sometimes challenging ideas and pedagogies. The challenges of district-wide implementation and studying how to support teacher growth and development, gave Renee unique insights into the complexities of the change process and the role of leadership in systemic change.
Renee continued to deepen her teaching, coaching, and leadership skills at The School at Columbia, a well-known independent school affiliated with Columbia University in NYC. In her role as Math Liaison, she collaborated with an interdisciplinary team to design an integrated curriculum. Renee coached teachers across grades K-5 and also provided learning experiences for parents to help them understand the changes in math education that resulted from the implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards.
In 2015, Renee was selected to be a professional staff developer for Metamorphosis (META) Teaching Learning Communities, a renowned coaching organization co-directed by Lucy West and Antonia Cameron. Here, Renee further honed her coaching and leadership abilities and was immediately selected to be Chief Operation Officer of that organization in 2019. In this new and exciting role, Renee became deeply immersed in the design thinking process. She collaborated with her team to analyze and restructure the company’s systems and workflow, which improved that team’s overall efficiency and productivity.
In her capacity as coach at Meta, Renee has become interested in and committed to coaching school leaders. She has been exploring models for creating sustainable change in teacher practice and the role of feedback in this process. Here, she has been coaching small, school-based learning communities in which all players—teachers and leaders—come together to study the art of teaching and to learn how to provide high-leverage feedback to each other. This school-based work was recognized and highlighted by the district’s leadership team; they brought other leaders in to study the work and are now experimenting with ways to implement these kinds of learning cultures district-wide.
Renee is widely sought after as a coach. She has continued to develop her craft by attending and presenting at conferences such as ISTE, NCTM and NCSM.
In 2015, Renee was selected to be a professional staff developer for Metamorphosis (META) Teaching Learning Communities, a renowned coaching organization co-directed by Lucy West and Antonia Cameron. Here, Renee further honed her coaching and leadership abilities and was immediately selected to be Chief Operation Officer of that organization in 2019. In this new and exciting role, Renee became deeply immersed in the design thinking process. She collaborated with her team to analyze and restructure the company’s systems and workflow, which improved that team’s overall efficiency and productivity.
In her capacity as coach at Meta, Renee has become interested in and committed to coaching school leaders. She has been exploring models for creating sustainable change in teacher practice and the role of feedback in this process. Here, she has been coaching small, school-based learning communities in which all players—teachers and leaders—come together to study the art of teaching and to learn how to provide high-leverage feedback to each other. This school-based work was recognized and highlighted by the district’s leadership team; they brought other leaders in to study the work and are now experimenting with ways to implement these kinds of learning cultures district-wide.
Renee is widely sought after as a coach. She has continued to develop her craft by attending and presenting at conferences such as ISTE, NCTM and NCSM.
Podcast featuring Reimagined
SCHOOLUTIONS
Ep 9.: Our Coaching Learning Community (CLC)
Renowned content coach and author, Antonia Cameron, and Renee McShane, share how coaching learning communities (CLCs) nurture reflective, intuitive coaching practices through collaboration and analysis of effective leadership and communication skills.
Toni and Renee speak to the benefits of knowing ourselves and what we value as human beings and educators and how self-knowledge is the foundation of transformational coaching. They also share how being able to identify our own pitfalls as listeners and communicators can significantly improve our coaching practice.
