Learning Forward
Equity and excellence in teaching and learning.
FOCUS
Learning together when you're apart
By Jody Guarino, Rossella Santagata, Jiwon Lee, Duane Cox and John Drake
Categories: Change management, Collaboration, College- and career-ready standards, Learning communities, Learning systems/planning, Online learningJune 2020
Vol. 41, No. 3
Like many others around the world, we have moved our busy lives and our research-practice partnership to the planet of distal learning and remote working. While the news about the spreading of the pandemic and the dire economic consequences entered our homes, we did not want to lose what had brought us together in partnership this year: a focus on collaborative and responsive teaching and learning. In August 2019, our group of researchers and local school district educators joined a collaboration between the University of California, Irvine and the Orange County Education Advancement Initiative. Our problem of practice was how to create a vision for student-centered instruction. Working primarily at Rea Elementary School in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, we centered our partnership on schoolwide
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Jody Guarino is Manager of the Teaching, Learning, and Instructional Leadership Collaborative at the Orange County Department of Education. She supports instructional coherence and continuous learning for educators at every level, from the classroom to the cabinet.
John is currently the Endowed Director of the Teaching and Instructional Leadership Learning Collaborative at the Orange County Department of Education. Previously, John was the Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Orange County, California. He has been in public education as a teacher or administrator for 29 years. Through his 29 years in education, he has served in California and Georgia, and his service includes being a middle school language arts teacher, middle and elementary school principal, director of human resources and director of curriculum and instruction. John holds a bachelor’s degree in English from California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo, and a Master’s degree in Education Administration and Supervision from State University of West Georgia.
Categories: Change management, Collaboration, College- and career-ready standards, Learning communities, Learning systems/planning, Online learning
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