The Wheels Never Stop Turning: Inside the Mind of Lisa Parisi, Teacher Heroine and UDL Pro

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I love Lisa Parisi and just think she is one of the best at what she does. (There are so many great teachers out there — and yes, point to yourself!) I particularly love what she does with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and learned so much from the portion of her session at NECC that I sat in on.

I was checking in on Lisa’s Blog today and I saw a reflection from when she was on vacation in early August. In her post My Vacation? words reminded me of me:

“And now I am settled down for the night. My husband and daughter are watching television. I was watching with them for a while but my mind was churning. You see, as much as I love this vacation, love summer, love hanging out with my family, I can’t seem to stop thinking about school. So here I am editing wikis, planning projects, emailing collaborators. And I am wondering what is wrong with me. Why can’t I just relax and do nothing?”

You know, my dear friend Lisa… it is because you love your students and you love teaching. You embody and represent so many of us that long to get away from the school for the summer, only to spend our whole summer thinking about… yes, you guessed it, school!

This is a calling and a passion and Lisa Parisi is one of those teachers who should be up in front encouraging and sharing with other teachers. She isn’t just good at what she does… she is amazing at what she does and has the test scores to prove it from students with demographics that would have many expecting her not to succeed.

Lisa is a hero of mine… I know I’m embarrassing her, but you know what Lisa.. you deserve it. I hope you had a great vacation and hope you’re getting ready to go. And also, I hope that when the time comes, you’ll help us create an elementary school Flat Classroom project that brings all of these amazing collaboration principles to an elementary level where kids can interact and work together one on one.

This world is full of amazing heroine’s like Lisa and I hope that amidst all of this blogging and tweeting that we do about education that we’ll all take the time to encourage our heroes!

For more information on UDL, see this great slideshow by Lisa Crockett

Getting There Together

View more presentations from Linda Crockett.

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Vicki Davis

Vicki Davis has been an educator and IT director in Georgia since 2002. Today, she also works as an instructional technology coach, staying side-by-side with active teachers and students so her work stays grounded in real classrooms.

She's a mom of three, wife of one, and loves talking about the wise, transformational use of technology for teaching and doing good in the world.

She has blogged at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog since 2005 and hosts the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast and Cool Cat Teacher Talk (radio, public access TV, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms), interviewing remarkable educators around the world. Vicki focuses on what unites us — a quest for truly remarkable, life-changing teaching and learning. The goal of her work is to provide actionable, encouraging, relevant ideas for teachers, grounded in truth and shared with love.

If you talk to Vicki for long, she'll encourage you to "Relate to Educate," to "innovate like a turtle," or to be "a remarkable teacher." She loves homemade sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls and runs half marathons with her sisters. You can usually find her laughing with her students or digging into a book.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and telling your friends about the work we do here! - Vicki

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3 comments

loonyhiker August 30, 2009 - 3:07 pm

I totally agree! Whenever I talk about inclusion, I am constantly bringing Lisa and Christine’s class up in the conversation. I was so thrilled when they were able to skype with my grad class this summer to talk about inclusion and udl. They were awesome!

andi August 30, 2009 - 7:32 pm

I just say: event the best can be improve. thanks for the info

Cosmopoint Kota Kinabalu January 2, 2011 - 3:36 pm

Hi There!
I like the title of your post.
True. It is so true. So many great teacher out there.
I have one great teacher that I respect him since I was 10-yr old
(although now i’m almost 40) ;p

Comments are closed.