Date and time: Wednesday, November 10, 2021, 7:00 PM ET

Audience: Middle School Teachers and Administrators

 

Description and goals:

Engaging young adolescents in learning has unique challenges and opportunities. The instructional changes needed for the pandemic response presented additional challenges while also uncovering some opportunities. This webinar will feature an expert panel of three middle school educators who have embraced the Responsive Classroom approach while finding unique ways to engage students with academic, social, and emotional learning.  

 

Participants will:

  • Reflect on how middle school learning has been impacted over the past eighteen months due to COVID requirements
  • Explore how the challenges have created opportunities for reimagining learning for middle school
  • Hear how experienced Responsive Classroom teachers have used various academic, social, and emotional strategies to empower and engage their students

 

Panelists:

 

Christine Diaz

Christine is a reading interventionist in a Title I school in Chandler, Arizona. During her twenty-five-plus years of teaching, she has taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grades while also working with K–6 ELL students in a variety of settings. Christine earned her bachelor of arts with a middle school emphasis from Spring Arbor University. She also earned a master’s degree in bilingual/multicultural education from Northern Arizona University. Christine has been using Responsive Classroom practices and presenting workshops for over a decade and was a review reader for Middle School Motivators.

 

 

Heather Young

Heather started teaching in 2011 and is currently a middle school social studies teacher in the Minneapolis metro area. Previous experience includes serving as a reading interventionist in a multigrade class and teaching sixth grade reading. Heather’s philosophy on teaching the whole child and bringing a sense of belonging, significance, and fun to the work she does with students was echoed in the Responsive Classroom training she received.

 

 

 

Linda Berger

Linda is a consulting teacher for Center for Responsive Schools. During her twenty-five years in education, she primarily taught K/1 and recently landed in fourth grade in Santa Clara, California. Linda discovered Responsive Classroom seventeen years ago, and it expanded the way she taught. A constant learner, Linda is a “big picture” thinker and insatiably curious. A recent fellowship in educational technology has allowed her to explore ways to combine her passion for Responsive Classroom and strategies like Design Thinking to enhance and customize student and adult growth.

 

 

 

Moderator:

 

Margie Dorshorst

Margie is a Curriculum and Instructional Designer and Consulting Teacher for the Center for Responsive Schools, focusing on developing resources and supportive practices for K8 educators and leaders. She has an extensive education career, with thirty-three years serving as an elementary principal, speech-language pathologist, able learner teacher, and staff development facilitator. Through her various roles she has helped to create systems to empower educators and school leaders to design and implement innovative practices.