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Dr. Carolyn Quetzal
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Bio
Dr. Carolyn Quetzal has been an adult educator at West Valley Occupational Center (WVOC) main site and several satellite sites for 24 years with the LAUSD Division of Adult and Career Education and has as many years as a CCAE/COABE member since she joined upon beginning her employment. Until becoming an Instructional Technology Teacher Advisor (ITTA) at WVOC in 2017, Carolyn spent her career as a classroom teacher in almost all programs: ESL and CBET (all levels), ASE (II lab), Older Adults, and CTE (medical terminology) where she refined her teaching amidst small, challenging classes of Alzheimer students and huge 65+ student ESL classes. In all cases, she focused on building student agency, question-driven formal and informal learning, and support for student-based learning. Her emphasis in all these endeavors has led to customized learning experiences for students of varying needs seen in several examples. She initiated a Mommy and Me program at Reseda Adult school for her student-parents following best practices that allowed children to see parents as learners while learning English and early literacy skills alongside them. At another site, she requested to access an unused computer lab for her digitally curious students, where they focused on emerging digital literacy skills.
During her career, Carolyn has been a long-time yet light-hearted advocate student agency leading to curiosity-driven learners versus teacher-based followers. Carolyn has taught collaboratively to implement many research-based practices before they were widely known in adult education, such as "centers- (or stations-) based learning, project-based learning, Universal Design for Learning, and mastery learning. These approaches focused on giving students learning choices in what and how they would demonstrate to themselves and others their competency at their rate by completing tasks leading to rubric-based, self-checklist contracts and in-class certificates. She frequently asked (and continues to ask), "How many different ways can we make the class all about the learner?" With her penchant for calm amidst chaos, she has fostered student role-taking and class leadership to promote real-world personal, workforce, and community skills. Outside the classroom, Carolyn has served extraordinarily with her blend of passion, power, and personality emphasizing a playful approach to learning that always includes laughter. This begins with her own fearless and insatiable curiosity, which has led her informal learning via self-taught skills (how to code and problem-solve digital complexities), teaching and troubleshooting with colleagues, and leading individual and large-group training at both school and state levels, such as in OTAN and the DACE ESL COP. These endeavors have made her a highly valued and appreciated asset as a digital guru. From her teacher-friendly, comfortable office to her light-hearted virtual interventions, Carolyn's quest to be available, approachable, and amusing is amazing. And her extraordinary and innovative service has been undeniably demonstrated through her Lunchbox Learning series at WVOC in which teachers get to play as learners while she models excellent teaching. Amidst this and other tasks as an ITTA, she has moved the needle for teachers modeling how to take risks in the new era of technology-based learning. Colleagues and administrators will readily agree that she models how to lower the learning affective filter and "keep the scary away from technology". She has creatively and effectively promoted DACE digital initiatives and learning platforms: DACESIS, Single Sign-on, CASAS, APEX, Remind, Schoology, Google (in which she is a certified trainer), and Burlington English. Her innovative efforts with Burlington in which students shared learning as "newscasters" and "movie trailer developers" led to a video created and disseminated by Burlington among their international users. In and outside her regular work hours, she has developed many Schoology courses, quick guide documents, and support resources. Because of her amazing and proactive efforts before the shut-down due to COVID-19, many of her teachers were ready to teach online early on and prepared with Carolyn's helpful truisms, "Keep it simple" and "It's okay to blunder" when seeking to improve to support students.
Dr. Carolyn Quetzal has been an adult educator at West Valley Occupational Center (WVOC) main site and several satellite sites for 24 years with the LAUSD Division of Adult and Career Education and has as many years as a CCAE/COABE member since she joined upon beginning her employment. Until becoming an Instructional Technology Teacher Advisor (ITTA) at WVOC in 2017, Carolyn spent her career as a classroom teacher in almost all programs: ESL and CBET (all levels), ASE (II lab), Older Adults, and CTE (medical terminology) where she refined her teaching amidst small, challenging classes of Alzheimer students and huge 65+ student ESL classes. In all cases, she focused on building student agency, question-driven formal and informal learning, and support for student-based learning. Her emphasis in all these endeavors has led to customized learning experiences for students of varying needs seen in several examples. She initiated a Mommy and Me program at Reseda Adult school for her student-parents following best practices that allowed children to see parents as learners while learning English and early literacy skills alongside them. At another site, she requested to access an unused computer lab for her digitally curious students, where they focused on emerging digital literacy skills.
During her career, Carolyn has been a long-time yet light-hearted advocate student agency leading to curiosity-driven learners versus teacher-based followers. Carolyn has taught collaboratively to implement many research-based practices before they were widely known in adult education, such as "centers- (or stations-) based learning, project-based learning, Universal Design for Learning, and mastery learning. These approaches focused on giving students learning choices in what and how they would demonstrate to themselves and others their competency at their rate by completing tasks leading to rubric-based, self-checklist contracts and in-class certificates. She frequently asked (and continues to ask), "How many different ways can we make the class all about the learner?" With her penchant for calm amidst chaos, she has fostered student role-taking and class leadership to promote real-world personal, workforce, and community skills. Outside the classroom, Carolyn has served extraordinarily with her blend of passion, power, and personality emphasizing a playful approach to learning that always includes laughter. This begins with her own fearless and insatiable curiosity, which has led her informal learning via self-taught skills (how to code and problem-solve digital complexities), teaching and troubleshooting with colleagues, and leading individual and large-group training at both school and state levels, such as in OTAN and the DACE ESL COP. These endeavors have made her a highly valued and appreciated asset as a digital guru. From her teacher-friendly, comfortable office to her light-hearted virtual interventions, Carolyn's quest to be available, approachable, and amusing is amazing. And her extraordinary and innovative service has been undeniably demonstrated through her Lunchbox Learning series at WVOC in which teachers get to play as learners while she models excellent teaching. Amidst this and other tasks as an ITTA, she has moved the needle for teachers modeling how to take risks in the new era of technology-based learning. Colleagues and administrators will readily agree that she models how to lower the learning affective filter and "keep the scary away from technology". She has creatively and effectively promoted DACE digital initiatives and learning platforms: DACESIS, Single Sign-on, CASAS, APEX, Remind, Schoology, Google (in which she is a certified trainer), and Burlington English. Her innovative efforts with Burlington in which students shared learning as "newscasters" and "movie trailer developers" led to a video created and disseminated by Burlington among their international users. In and outside her regular work hours, she has developed many Schoology courses, quick guide documents, and support resources. Because of her amazing and proactive efforts before the shut-down due to COVID-19, many of her teachers were ready to teach online early on and prepared with Carolyn's helpful truisms, "Keep it simple" and "It's okay to blunder" when seeking to improve to support students.
