Let's Team Up!

My passion for education goes far back through the decades. I was the kid who spent my lunch period during my upper elementary years in the kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms reading and writing with students. Education was always about acting upon my genuine curiosity and desire to learn, to share and to grow as learners--together. My best teachers were those who allowed us to collaborate with one another--to ask questions--to co-create solutions--and to leave with more questions than when we first entered the room! In truth, I only had a few of those teachers--but oh! how empowering those experiences were! My intrinsic motivation and spirited commitment to stay true to a deep, challenging, exciting, and ongoing learning process was always strong, and it just keeps getting stronger! 

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During my early years of teaching (over 30 years ago), a colleague said: You just get so excited about everything to do with teaching--but that's just because you're new...wait a few years (she was teaching 4 years), and then talk to me. Oh! if she could see me now!  My energy and passion for the teaching and learning has been an ongoing expansion of genuine curiosity--beyond any boundaries! And I am very grateful for that. I am also humbled by the great many teachers, administrators, students, and families past and present, who have been a part of my exciting learning journey.  So, what's the secret? There is NO secret! It all comes down to living with our core values as our guiding light. Our core values keep us on our focused path no matter what enhancers or distractors come our way. We must always maintain a solution-seeking mindset to stay true to what we firmly believe is right for our students.

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Collaboration is the way to design instruction that values every thinker in the room as a way to maintain and sustain meaningful, equitable learning environments.  My workshops, online courses, professional writing, and ongoing connections embrace a universal design for learning focus as a natural process for paving the way for the critical need for specially designed instruction to be alive and well in every inclusive classroom. In addition, through the focus on structures, strategies, and mindset, I illuminate the flow of what and how to proactively differentiate instruction as teachers co-create rich, safe, and engaging learning environments where every learner is an active participant along the process of self-actualization.

 

Check out my Coaching and Consulting page for some ideas for how we can work together to empower learners in your classrooms!