Events

Actionable Innovations is a professional learning community in which participants explore innovation in education. Every Friday we meet to discuss trends in education and invite inspiring guests to join us and share their work. Parents, educators, students, and other folks interested in improving teaching and learning are always welcome.

On Friday, April 29, 2022, Nicole Tucker-Smith will join us to share her work and thoughts on why the debate over school curriculum matters to everyone. Says Tucker-Smith, "Education is facing a crossroads. One path lures us towards wielding the classroom as a weapon for political warfare. The other calls us to hold the classroom as a lever for raising understanding and building bridges across differences.

Truth, dignity, and perspective-taking are not only essential ingredients for learning, without them our students will be starved of the skills they need to step forward in a globalized multicultural economy. When we lack the capacity to view the world through another’s eyes, we cause harm - even with good intentions. I’ve learned this as a teacher and also as a cancer patient."

Please join us for this important discussion!

Nicole Tucker-Smith (Nicole@Lessoncast.com, @MsTuckerSmith), founder and CEO of Lessoncast, helps schools implement professional learning initiatives focused on inclusive teaching and equity best practices. Nicole co-authored Supercharge Your Professional Learning: 40 Concrete Strategies to Improve Adult Learning (CAST Publishing, February 2020) and leads the Supercharge Your Professional Learning Course Community, which provides practical how-to information for applying the UDL Guidelines to professional learning experiences. In addition, she wrote Remote PD Zen, available on Amazon, Apple Books, and Google Play. She also leads the Jumpstart PD Network, a free community of educators to share ideas, spread resources, post tips, and dialogue on key areas of interest related to designing and delivering effective PD focused on inclusion and equity. Nicole’s latest article, “The Illusion of Equity PD,” is featured in the March 2021 issue of Educational Leadership.

She has served as a teacher, supervisor of parent support services, assistant principal, and systemwide coordinator of professional development and training for Baltimore County Public Schools. Nicole was also a program coordinator for Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education and teaches as a faculty member for the JHU School of Education. Nicole is an international presenter on Universal Design for Learning, a member of the CAST National Faculty, co-chair of the UDL Rising to Equity initiative, and she provides her professional development expertise to support the implementation of UDL in P12 and higher education learning environments.