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

Image of Lisa Parisi

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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