Leslie Lloyd said she applied to be a member of LearnZillion’s Dream Team because she wanted the chance to have an impact on students on a national scale. She also wanted to learn from nationally recognized master teachers.

“I am always about reflection and learning new things, and I really think that this opportunity will help me become a better teacher,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd teaches English II and Honors English III at North Bullitt High School (Bullitt County). She, along with Betsy Lane High School (Floyd County) mathematics teacher Kelly Boles make up two of 200 teachers across the county chosen for the Dream Team. More than 3,000 teachers applied for this opportunity.

LearnZillion is a national community of teachers dedicated to high quality instruction of the Common Core State Standards. Dream Team teachers will attend TeachFest, an intensive professional development conference in San Francisco in May.

Teachers will spend three days at TeachFest working with Common Core experts, content specialists and other Dream Team teachers to better understand the new standards and the best ways to teach them. LearnZillion provides teachers with the technology and support they need to translate their classroom expertise into screencasts for teaching.

Lloyd said teachers will be making video lessons, expert commentary and resources for high schools to use throughout the country. This will impact the accessibility of instruction for students, she said.

“Parents can, with LearnZillion’s resources, help their child at home as well,” Lloyd said. “I am so excited to be a part of this new and innovative team of teachers.”

Through LearnZillion’s website, teachers and parents can access the lessons and resources for free. Districts can partner with LearnZillion to provide data-driven professional development that drives students’ learning the Common Core State Standards. LearnZillion may be linked to directly from the Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System (CIITS). Its logo is under Related Resources at the bottom of the CIITS home page.

“Teaching really doesn’t start with the lessons,” Lloyd said. “Together as a department, we have identified both the CCSS and the Quality Core standards that we want students to master for each semester. This way, we as teachers can formulate a plan for students to master those standards and what steps we must take when students fall short of mastery. All of our lessons are created with this process in mind.

“I believe in the standards, and I believe that they are a wonderful framework for student learning,” Lloyd added.