Helping organizations design professional development and training programs to empower self-development and shared learning. |
Who I Am |
Hi, I’m Matt Strock. I’m a public school teacher, Professional Development Consultant, speaker, writer, instructional coach, maker, MBA Graduate (September 2019), life-long learner, and innovator!
I teach teachers how to teach, trainers how to train, and coaches how to coach through inquiry based experiential learning. My passion is interdisciplinary project-based learning, but I help co-create the best learning environment for your community and school. Respective of your vision, I design and implement training programs that instill a culture of self development and shared learning. I worked for years to create the most effective methods to empower students in impactful research based practices. Ultimately, I found myself to be a motivating influence for instilling cultures of learning among my colleagues and administrations. And now, over many years, I have acted as this catalyst of transformation training thousands of primary, secondary, and tertiary educators, as well as corporate trainers in developing cultures of learning--where collaborative inquiry and reflective practices become embedded within the organization. Through long-term consulting, specialized training, speaking engagements, and workshops I work deliberately to on-board or co-create ideal learning environments within educational institutions and corporate environments. I decided to become a teacher in my adolescence because I wanted to transform teaching to focus on fostering environments of self-learning; I wanted to inspire, to cultivate growth, and to guide—not dictate—others in their own development. I learned to empathize and involve all stakeholders to co-create that environment. My enthusiasm for learning and development has provided many opportunities to work both as an internal (within my own school and district) and external consultant (from small town schools to national conferences and federal government), which have further honed my skills in organizational development, strategic change and implementation, instructional design and pedagogy (especially PBL, STEAM, and Experiential Learning), and instructional coaching. I pursued an MBA to deepen my knowledge and skills and more effectively execute and implement your vision (not just plan it). If you are interested in having me speak or consult, please know that I only take a few consulting opportunities per year (as I work exclusively with the organization throughout the process). Click the button below or email me at mattkstrock@gmail.com to get in touch! |
What I Do |
Keynote SpeakingJust as engagement and empowerment are a driving theme in my classroom, so it is with my keynotes. My keynotes are designed to inspire, but I believe the best speeches have the right amount of humor to keep the audience alive, a fair coloring of examples and anecdotes to make it real, a splash of visuals to keep them watching, a balance of audience participation to keep them thinking, and above all a connection to that audience to further empower real change. I will always leave my audience with something they feel they can take away and apply—for if we're not learning to implement what we learn, then why are we learning it?
WorkshopsMy workshops are about learning by doing, for as the Chinese proverb goes, "Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I understand." I enjoy giving keynote speeches, but I LOVE workshops and consulting. A keynote is great to inspire change (and often the necessary first step), but a workshop is about implementation and training informal and formal leaders, coaches, and trainers in making change from within.
ConsultingConsulting: I've worked in traditional consulting with loads of analysis, identifying problems, and offering recommendations. I hated it. I hated not being able to help further. My students always did well with analyzing and brainstorming but always struggled with implementing their ideas. We have a saying in my classroom: the idea is only 10% the execution in 90%. Analysis, problem identification, recommendations are all useful and are certainly part of what I offer, but my consulting not only provides a mix of workshops, trainings, edcamps, and events but more importantly guidance on and throughout implementation. I train school leaders and management to guide the culture of the school or organization to the desired outcome.
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