Course for K-12 educators to focus on equitable learning opportunities for all students
Posted: February 26, 2021
In an effort to help K-12 educators improve instructional practice and student engagement inequities that have been revealed during the pandemic, Lakeland Community College is sponsoring a new course, “Human Centered Design for Equitable Change,” in partnership with the Lake Erie College (LEC) Center for Professional Development.
The COVID-19 crisis has challenged teachers to reinvent how they build community, deliver content, engage students and families, and create more personalized learning experiences for their students.
This course, offered through Lakeland’s Teachers Guild x School Retool program, will guide area educators to actively learn and practice a design journey that surfaces solutions for students furthest from opportunity in their school communities. Through a combination of synchronous learning experiences and asynchronous digital activities, educators will learn to set and pursue equity aspirations, hack towards solutions and evaluate their impact so that more students are future-ready, no matter who they are, where they live or how they learn.
“The pandemic has given us an opportunity for school redesign. We’ve heard from many educators that the one-size-fits-all model of teaching— and learning—no longer applies,” said Rachel Siegel, instructor for Lakeland’s Teacher’s Guild. “We want to equip passionate educators with a framework to address this and create more equitable classrooms and schools during this critical moment in our education system.”
The $140 course fee covers six virtual sessions and asynchronous activities to develop a digital design portfolio final project. The program will run Mondays, March 8 through April 19, from 4-5:30 p.m. (no class April 5) via the Zoom platform. The course will be led by Rachel Siegel, M.S. Ed., Lakeland Community College, and supported by Dr. Beth Walsh-Moorman, Lake Erie College. LEC will award one credit for the course which will be graded pass/fail.
Online registration is available at https://leo.lec.edu/ICS/Professional_Development.
For more information, contact Lisa Strausbaugh, Lake Erie College Center for Professional Development, 440.375.7379 or lstrausbaugh@lec.edu.
About the Teacher’s Guild at Lakeland
Lakeland became the first community college in the nation to establish a chapter of the Teacher’s Guild in 2018. The guild is a nonprofit initiative of Plussed at Riverdale Country School in New York City and IDEO’s Design for Learning Studio. Riverdale and IDEO’s “Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit” is used by educators around the world.