The hope for this course is that it feels different - more reflective, empowering, and simple. A time to breathe, reflect, and cast vision for your professional hopes for the next season of instruction (and on). A time to tap into your professional identity as an expert learner.
This course came to life in the Summer of 2021, when education was neck deep in one of the most disruptive periods of our modern human history. A time when educators were being forced to change their practices in the most drastic ways. Gone were the days where we could reuse the teaching materials from last year, gone were the days where we could ignore educational technology and gone were the times where we could remain fixed in inflexible teaching and learning. In the midst of all this change, we were left with two questions,
1) How are we going to give ourselves space for a collective breath and learning after this time of extreme turbulence and adaptive thinking? and
2) Why isn’t collective reflection built into our everyday seasons of teaching and learning?
This course is meant to address these two questions. The hope is that educators across the globe take time to stop, breathe, reflect, and cast a vision for the future of their teaching and learning practices. With the myriad of challenges education currently faces, this degree of expert learning will be required to meet these challenges as we create sustainable ways to recharge, reflect, and set collective vision for a more inclusive and equitable future.
Topics covered include:
Zach Smith was born and raised in Fresno, California. Growing up with siblings with disabilities and siblings from Ethiopia, Zach saw first hand the impact of exclusionary and non-culturally responsive instructional practices. After graduating from Fresno State, he began his career as a special education teacher. He worked for eleven years in a small rural district named Sanger Unified. In his last three years with Sanger, he moved outside the classroom to co-lead the implementation of UDL for all teachers in the district. In the fall of 2019, Zach started a new chapter in his professional journey as a student in Harvard’s Doctorate of Education Leadership program.
Zach has extensive knowledge in UDL; presenting, coaching, planning, and building organizational capacity around this initiative. Zach is a passionate advocate for the power of inclusion to revolutionize the way teachers teach and as paramount for closing opportunity gaps and creating classrooms inclusive of students farthest away from justice.
Zach lives with his wife and best friend Dorothy, as well as their four daughters, Grace (10), Amy (8), Isabella (6), and Sydney(3).
There are no prerequisites or required texts for this course. All materials are linked freely within the modules.
Our standard and group pricing covers your course registration with Novak Educational Consulting, Inc. only. You may also choose to purchase graduate credits (for professional learning) and/or clock hours (for Washington State teachers) at the time of registration. For questions regarding pricing or to request a purchase order, contact us.
You will receive a completion certificate from Novak Education at the conclusion of the course. Some states require additional proof of completion such as clock hours, contact hours, or credits. Continuing education graduate credits (3) may be obtained through our accredited university partners. Learn more about our graduate partners: University of Massachusetts Global and Teachers College of San Joaquin. Please check in with your school or district prior to purchase to determine if this alone will be sufficient for salary points or advancement.
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