Badged Facilitators contracted to support the second badging pathway for Rethink Ed

The Rethink Education Family is SO excited about the upcoming inaugural Blended Instructor Pathway cohort. Badged Facilitators all across the state will train others in their schools and districts to become true blended learning experts. To help facilitate this next movement for Rethink Education, we have hired 9 awesome Badged Facilitators to act as Regional Blended Instructor Pathway Managers and Statewide NCEES Course Managers.

Highlighting one these Rock Star Educators, Sara Bandurraga will be serving as the Sandhills Regional Blended Instructor Pathway Manager. Sara is the Special Populations Coordinator for the Career and Technical Education Division of Cumberland County Schools. In addition to her pathway manager duties and responsibilities, she will also be training others in her district during this inaugural cohort.  Sara is very passionate about helping in the process to move education forward through blended instruction.

To learn more about all the Rethink Education Movements, please follow us on all your favorite social media platforms @NCRethinkEd.

If you are a cohort 1 badged facilitator who plans to send educators in your district or charter through the Blended Instructor Badging Pathway, please share this registration form with the interested educators in your PSU. Registration is open now.

This 30-hour course will be housed in NCEES. As a badged facilitator, you will be added to the course as a TA so that you can monitor the progress of those individuals in your district or charter who are completing the course. The course will open on July 1 and will remain open until January 31st, 2023. If you have specific questions about this pathway or about your role as a facilitator, please refer to this FAQ. 

Individuals from your PSU who complete the requirements of this course will receive CEUs and a Blended Instructor Badge. If you have questions, please reach out to Project Manager, Rachel Wright Junio at rachel.wrightjunio@dpi.nc.gov. 

4th Grade ELA Writing Team 

In this week’s news we would like to highlight the Rethink Outliners and Writers for our 4th Grade ELA course.  We are excited to work on these elementary courses. Get to know this team of content creators!

LaTavia Thomas served as our course Outliner. LaTavia is currently a 5th grade ELA teacher at D.F. Walker Elementary School in Edenton and was previously a self-contained 1st grade teacher. She is a level 1 Google Certified Educator as well as a trained SEL facilitator through Emory University. She received her Instructional Design certificate through the International Society in Educational Technology. She is also currently enrolled in a Master’s degree program and plans to pursue her Doctorate degree within the next 5 years. LaTavia Is passionate about teaching ELA and loves seeing her students grow and connect with texts that they would not otherwise read.

Our first writer in this course is Serita Braswell. Serita holds a Master’s degree in Elementary Education.  She has 22 years experience in Elementary Education and Exceptional Children Education. She earned Teacher of the Year Honors in 2018.

The second writer in this course is Bria Wright. Bria Holds a B.S. in Elementary Education and a Masters of Education in New Literacies and Global Learning, K-12 Reading from NC State. She has taught Kindergarten, 2nd grade, 5th grade, AIG and reading intervention.  Bria was also a Top 10 Finalist for Wake County Public School System's Teacher of the Year 2021-2022.

We appreciate their hard work in helping to create our 3rd grade ELA course and look forward to seeing this fully created course on Canvas Commons and GoOpenNC in early 2023!

Save the Date: Summer Networking Sessions! 

Networking Session for K-5 Teachers on June 21

In partnership with RTI International, DPI will host a series of virtual networking events for educators across the state to discuss common problems of practice around blended learning. The first event will be June 21, 2022 from 10:00-12:00 p.m. for K-5 teachers.  A registration link will be shared in next week’s newsletter; contact fnash@rti.org with questions.