Professional Development

LearnZillion 'Dream Team' Teachers Create Lessons with Reach

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/27/16

An education technology company that delivers free standards-based instructional lessons and videos to teachers that have been created by other teachers has identified its sixth "dream team." Earlier this year LearnZillion introduced a dream team of facilitators and coaches that go out into schools to deliver blended professional development to educators. However, this latest group of educators is largely focused on producing those online resources, and for a broader group of users than the students in their own classrooms or schools.

Each year the company hosts TeachFest, a two-day workshop that brings its selected teachers, facilitators and coaches together to refine their practices and knowledge about the website's resources.

LearnZillion said it received almost 500 applications from teachers and chose 55, who among them have 820 years of combined classroom experience. Those selected, according to the company, have experience with digital curriculum as well as certain characteristics: "humility, empathy" and the ability "to listen and provide constructive feedback to improve teaching." Some have served in the role for several years.

That's the case with Leah Weimerskirch, who has been a core member of the dream team since 2013. "I had always wanted to be a teacher but found the realities to be much more challenging than I had anticipated," she said in a prepared statement. "In fact, I remained in education after finding a supportive group of educators through LearnZillion with whom I could work and collaborate. Now, I'm excited to be part of a team that will help create that support system for other teachers, to improve the experience for their students."