Delaware Adopts An Innovative New Model For Teacher Professional Development And Announces Members Of The 2014 Delaware Dream Team

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Delaware is once again leading the nation, this time by naming 34 classroom teachers to the inaugural Delaware Dream Team. Together, these teachers will participate in the first wave of an innovative, job-embedded teacher professional development model the Delaware Department of Education sees as a powerful way to support teachers as they transition to the Common Core. The Delaware Department of Education selected LearnZillion, an educational technology start-up that pioneered this model, to support this initiative over several much larger and more traditional players in the education space.

As Secretary of Education Mark Murphy explained: "The 2014 Delaware Dream Team is both an opportunity to recognize some of the state's most accomplished teachers, and a challenge to those individuals to continue to grow, to make collaboration an integral part of their practice, and to create high quality materials that will help teachers and students across our state, and around the country, be successful."

The Delaware Dream Team will come together from January 9-11, 2014 for TeachFest, a unique celebration of great teaching and an intensive, highly structured working session to be led by LearnZillion. Following TeachFest, the Delaware Dream Team will return to their 31 elementary, middle and high schools and use LearnZillion's platform to continue working with peers and content coaches in online professional learning communities (PLCs). During this process, the Dream Team will translate their proven teaching methods and classroom expertise into formative assessment tools and resources for use by teachers in Delaware, and around the country, through LearnZillion.com's free and thriving Common Core resource library.

"We couldn't be more excited about working with Delaware," said LearnZillion CEO, Eric Westendorf. "They really understand that teachers are the most important factor in student learning, and that the traditional model of "sit n' get" professional development doesn't work. They are choosing to do what all the research on talent development recommends – namely, to support professional growth by provide deep practice of do-able, bite sized tasks. We're so energized to help make that happen."

Members of the 2014 Delaware Dream Team were selected through a competitive application process evaluating both their understanding of the Common Core State Standards, and their desire to "scale their impact" beyond the walls of their own classroom. The teachers themselves represent a wide spectrum of grade bands, with 22 from English Language Arts and 12 from Mathematics disciplines.

Members of the 2014 Delaware Dream

More about LearnZillion: https://learnzillion.com/about

CONTACT: Claire Alexander – (415) 496-5316

SOURCE LearnZillion.com