Collaborate, Communicate, and Differentiate! (ePub)

Wendy W. Murawski, PhD, is the Michael D. Eisner Endowed Chair and Executive Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She is a tenured Full Professor in the Department of Special Education, a past president of the Teacher Education Division (TED) for the Council for Exceptional Children, a former Teacher Educator of the Year for the state of California, and the recent recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award for her university. She has authored 10 books, as well as numerous chapters, articles, and handbooks in the areas of co-teaching, collaboration, inclusion, differentiation, and teaching. Wendy owns her own educational consulting company (2 TEACH LLC), loves to travel and speak nationally and internationally, and is a frequently requested keynote speaker. This year, her 14-year old son Kiernan started high school and, as a former HS teacher, this petrifies her. Wendy and her fiancé, Donald, are trying to ignore the reality of passing time through travel, house projects, outdoor BBQs and movie nights, and even working out. It’s not helping.

Sally Spencer, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at California State University, Northridge, where she teaches courses in assessment, special education teaching methods, reading instruction, and collaborative processes. Prior to that, she was a special education teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she experienced the joys and challenges of collaboration as a teacher of self-contained special education classes, as a resource specialist, and as a co-teacher in a fully-inclusive elementary school. In 2001 she was awarded Outstanding Special Educator of the year by the Southern California branch of the Council for Exceptional Children, and her heart is still in the classroom