Kyle Schwartz is a third-grade teacher at Doull Elementary in Denver Public Schools. Her first book: I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids focuses on realities that students face and how educators can respond to their students’ needs. Her second book: I Wish For Change: Unleashing the Power of Kids to Make a Difference speaks about youth empowerment and will be published summer 2019.

In addition to teaching, Kyle is a dedicated advocate for students. She has spoken internationally about supporting all students, differentiating instruction for students learning English, and building strong communities in classrooms.

• Twitter: @kylemschwartz
• Website: http://iwishmyteacherknewbook.com/
• Books authored by Kyle:
  • I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids

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Part 2 of a conversation with Dr. Bob Dillon about learning spaces.

Dr. Robert Dillon is an author, speaker, educator, and a lifelong learner. His twenty plus years in education has seen him serve kids and families as a teacher, principal, technology director, and innovation leader. His primary focus is working to bring synergy to instructional design, technology infusion, and learning space design. He believes that in this synergy is the educational gold that students need to be successful citizens in a modern world. He works through an equity lens and looks to bring excellence to every classroom. For this work, he has been honored by Common Sense Media, The Center for Green Schools, the dSchool at Stanford University, the Buck Institute for Education, and Future Ready Schools. Dr. Dillon has had the opportunity to work with teachers and leaders throughout the country, and he continues to speak at local, regional, and national conferences. Dr. Dillon is the co-founder of ConnectED Learning, a Saint Louis non-profit dedicated to affordable, quality professional learning for teachers. He is the author of four books including his latest, The Space: A Guide for Educators. He is supported in his work by his wife and two amazing daughters.

• Twitter: @drrobertdillon
• Books authored by Bob:
  • The Space: A Guide For Educators
  • Powerful Parent Partnerships: Rethinking Family Engagement for Student Success

- - - - - After you listen please share your thoughts on Twitter with Jennifer and Bob by using #AssistLearning in your tweets.

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Dr. Robert Dillon is an author, speaker, educator, and a lifelong learner. His twenty plus years in education has seen him serve kids and families as a teacher, principal, technology director, and innovation leader. His primary focus is working to bring synergy to instructional design, technology infusion, and learning space design. He believes that in this synergy is the educational gold that students need to be successful citizens in a modern world. He works through an equity lens and looks to bring excellence to every classroom. For this work, he has been honored by Common Sense Media, The Center for Green Schools, the dSchool at Stanford University, the Buck Institute for Education, and Future Ready Schools. Dr. Dillon has had the opportunity to work with teachers and leaders throughout the country, and he continues to speak at local, regional, and national conferences. Dr. Dillon is the co-founder of ConnectED Learning, a Saint Louis non-profit dedicated to affordable, quality professional learning for teachers. He is the author of four books including his latest, The Space: A Guide for Educators. He is supported in his work by his wife and two amazing daughters.

• Twitter: @drrobertdillon
• Books authored by Bob:
  • The Space: A Guide For Educators
  • Powerful Parent Partnerships: Rethinking Family Engagement for Student Success

- - - - - After you listen please share your thoughts on Twitter with Jennifer and Bob by using #AssistLearning in your tweets.

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The focus of this episode is going to be on engaging students through 20-time projects and providing them different avenues to express their learning. Our main focus is how are we going to harness the interest of students who are struggling to overcome learning disabilities and other challenges. Keep this in mind and share any stories that you have with students who might fit that profile.

Kevin Brookhouser, M.Ed. is the author of The 20time Project: How educators can launch Google’s formula for future-ready students. He teaches digital citizenship and computer science at York School in Monterey, California and is a Google Certified Teacher, Google Education Trainer, and National Association of Independent Schools Teacher of the Future. Kevin serves on the board of The International School of Monterey. He is a learning animal.

• Twitter: @brookhouser
• Books authored by Kevin:
  • The 20Time Project: How educators can launch Google's formula for future-ready innovation
  • Code in Every Class

- - - - - After you listen please share your thoughts on Twitter with Jennifer and Kevin by using #AssistLearning in your tweets.

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Heidi Bernasconi shares how she engages all students.

Heidi has been teaching at Clarkstown (NY) High School North since 2004 where she currently teaches Marine Biology, Biology, and Business. She also serves as the high school's technology liaison and also runs the Wellness Committee.

• Twitter: @biobernasconi
• Email: [email protected]

Jennifer and Heidi discuss specific lessons Heidi has taught that promote engagement for all learners.

• Sample of the curriculum alignment exercise
• Sample of 20-Time rubric
• Slides presentation for conferences
• Bingo Cards for Modelling

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Stephen is the author of the novel Black Ice, a coming of age thriller with five-star ratings on Amazon. And the short story collection Intolerance. These books as well as much of his writing and focus on kids in crisis - social (often racial), emotional, physical, drug/alcohol related - and the various ways they deal or don’t deal, with their problems.

Stephen entered the field of education through the New York Teaching Fellows Program. He taught special education in Washington Heights Schools. There, he coached Dominican, Latino and African American students in an underserved school district, to write plays about their lives. The plays were submitted to a New York City Wide contest. 6 students won awards which they received on a stage in form of a Manhattan-wide audience.

Since then, Stephen has taught English to grades 7 through 12 in the Nyack School District, in Rockland County, New York. He has worked with all kinds of learners, including special education and English as a new language (ENL) students.

In Nyack, Stephen has served as a lead teacher, a teacher leader in the IDE.corp LATI Classroom model, which has been widely incorporated into the yack School District. He has run Professional Development, served as a team leader, a soccer and basketball coach, and represented the Nyack School District at Ed21Leader Conferences in Boston and Denver.

His plays have been produced Off-Broadway and in Seattle, New York, and Toronto. His screenplay Freedom Mile has been optioned for production. He offers extensive writing and editing services through Fiverr.com where he has helped many developing writers achieve their goals.

• Twitter: @stesher
• Website: http://www.teshtalk.com

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Rachael Sessler Trinkowsky works with a variety of assistive technology including screen readers and screen magnification software.

Dr. Sessler Trinkowsky's credentials include a B.A. in Special Education and a Master of Health Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Florida. She also earned an Educational Specialist and a Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University’s College of Engineering and Computing. Her dissertation topic focused on accessibility awareness and practices in online learning environments.

She is a very proud recipient of the Florida Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (Florida FAER) award for Outstanding Rehabilitation Professional for the Blind Award (2017). Rachael is on the Board of Directors for Florida FAER for 2018 as a member-at-large. She has been a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) since 1999 and was honored to be a member of the Subject Matter Expert (SME) Committee for the development of the new amuch-neededded specialization, called Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist for People with Visual Impairments (CATIS) through the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation & Education Professionals (ACVREP).

Working in this field since 1999 she has previously worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor with the Division of Blind Services and as an assistive technology sales and training representative for Florida Reading and Vision Technology, now Florida Vision Technology.

Currently, Dr. Sessler Trinkowsky works for the Lighthouse for the Blind of the Palm Beaches as the Technology Training and Vocational Coordinator, where she oversees services for a 5-county territory and has more than 12 years of experience working with the Lighthouse.

Lighthouse teaches a variety of assistive technology including screen readers, screen magnification software, low vision devices, braille technology, smartphone and tablet accessibility, optical character recognition (OCR) options, and many different types of specialized devices.

She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass) where she teaches a course in the Assistive Technology Certificate Program at UIC and is developing a Graduate Certificate program through UMass to prepare professionals for the new CATIS credential through ACVREP.

• Twitter: @trinkows
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: rachael.trinkowsky

- - - - - After you listen please share your thoughts on Twitter with Jennifer and Rachael by using #AssistLearning in your tweets.

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Katie Novak, Ed.D. is an internationally renowned education consultant as well as a practicing leader in education as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools at the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District in Massachusetts.

With 15 years of experience in teaching and administration, an earned doctorate in curriculum and teaching, and 4 books published by CAST Professional Publications, Katie designs and presents workshops both nationally and internationally focusing on implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and universally designed leadership.

Dr. Novak is the author of the best-selling book, Revised and Expanded Edition: UDL Now! A Teacher’s Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today’s Classrooms.

• Twitter: @katienovakudl
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: katienovakudl.com

Purchase Dr. Novaks books

- - - - - After you listen please share your thoughts on Twitter with Jennifer and Katie by using #AssistLearning in your tweets.

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Mike Marotta continues the conversation and shares great AT recommendations!

Mike Marotta is a RESNA Certified AT Professional with over 28 yrs experience.

He runs his own technology consulting firm, Inclusive Technology Solutions, LLC. As an evaluator, Mike works collaboratively with teams in all environments (school, workplace, and community) to effectively match the individual’s needs to technology supports.

Twitter: @mmatp Email: [email protected]

In this episode (part 1 of 2) Mike and Jennifer discuss his favorite parts of his work in assistive technology as well as the aspects of this field that he finds most challenging.

- - - - - After you listen please share your thoughts on Twitter with Jennifer and Mike by using #AssistLearning in your tweets.

- - - - - Connect with Jennifer Cronk on Twitter.

Mike Marotta is a RESNA Certified AT Professional with over 28 yrs experience.

He runs his own technology consulting firm, Inclusive Technology Solutions, LLC. As an evaluator, Mike works collaboratively with teams in all environments (school, workplace, and community) to effectively match the individual’s needs to technology supports.

Twitter: @mmatp Email: [email protected]

In this episode (part 1 of 2) Mike and Jennifer discuss his favorite parts of his work in assistive technology as well as the aspects of this field that he finds most challenging.

- - - - - After you listen please share your thoughts on Twitter with Jennifer and Amber by using #AssistLearning in your tweets.

- - - - - Connect with Jennifer Cronk on Twitter.