Michelle Collay is a School Coach for the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES) in Oakland California a private non-profit organization supporting urban small school initiatives. She supports school leader development and coordinates classroom-based teacher inquiry for the purposes of improving student achievement. Previously she worked as a faculty member and administrator in teacher preparation and graduate teacher education in public and private universities. Collay conducts seminars and workshops about professional learning communities constructivist learning design and portfolio development. Before completing doctoral studies in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Oregon she taught music and mathematics in elementary and junior high school and continues to play the bassoon in local ensembles. She and her husband George Gagnon write tGeorge W. Gagnon Jr. is the Director of K-12 Partnerships in the College of Engineering at the University of California Berkeley. He works with teacher and parent partners to support students who would be the first generation in their family to be engineers or scientists. George uses Math Models he has designed to support students in developing a conceptual understanding of mathematics. George has studied learning for thirty years as a teacher principal and teacher educator. Now he applies his research on constructivist learning design appropriate assessment and learning communities to encourage educational equity in urban public schools. George and Michelle live in Oakland California and are actively involved with the neighborhood public schools their children attend.each and parent together and are parent leaders in their children’s neighborhood school in Oakland.
A fine blend of analysis and highly practical advice. Useful for anyone interested in the professional development of teachers as a collaborative learning process' - Stephen Brookfield, Professor University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota This book is a description of the conditions necessary for doing' reflective practice. The authors give clear lines for starting - whether in a schoolwide effort, or in a single department or year.
