Teachers are tasked with perhaps one of the toughest jobs around, educating today’s youth amid so many other distractions students face.

Consider this assignment: instruct a roomful of seventh-grade students in the ways of descriptive writing.

Does that sound challenging?

Teacher Aaron Allen of Shaw Middle School in the Spokane School District met the challenge.

He engaged his students by introducing Oreo cookies to the class and asking students to explain how they taste to someone who’s never had an Oreo cookie.

In this clever exercise caught on video he explains how he gets students to elaborate better, showing instead of telling what they experience.

This is one of the many taped examples of effective instruction modeled in a professional development toolkit for leadership teams and teachers called Success at the Core.

The toolkit, a website, is the product of a collaboration between Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and the Educational Development Center of Massachusetts.

“The goal of the program is to transform teacher’s instruction so that student performance is better,” said Corrie Freiwaldt.

She is a Success at the Core Fellow and instructional facilitator for the Renton School District.

Freiwaldt is one of 10 fellows selected from around the state to spread the word about the program’s benefits.

She has used the toolkit in her position at Tiffany Park Elementary School to facilitate trainings for teachers.

The online toolkit contains instruction ideas for teacher and leadership development.

There are embedded videos of teachers in action, their tasks, student work from the lessons, instructional plans and teacher commentary as well as links to other resources.

It is marketed as a best practices instruction guide.

“There’s so many ways to use this program that as a coach, I use it to help my teachers see examples,” Freiwaldt said. “Then we relate it to their classrooms.”

She is most excited about the resource because it is free to all users, unlike a lot of professional development tools available to educators.

“It’s teachers’ strategies on how to keep students engaged and motivated,” Freiwaldt said. “And how to check that they’re understanding what you’re teaching.”

As a Success at the Core Fellow, Freiwaldt will continue to educate other teachers and staff in the district about the resource and she hopes to venture out to neighboring districts too.

She and the other fellows will lay out a work plan on June 26.

They also plan to maintain a blog on how the fellows each use the toolkit in their districts.

Freiwaldt also plans to present at different district, state and national conferences on behalf of Success at the Core.

Anyone can register for access to the Success at the Core toolkit.

For more information visit www.successatthecore.com.