ORGANIZATION	University of Colorado Colorado Springs
PROFESSION	Senior Instructor
COUNTRY	United States
WEBSITE	http://University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Josie Smith has worked in education for almost 16 years. She started off as an elementary school para in a special needs classroom. Once she got her BA in Elementary Education with endorsements in K-8 general education and K-12 special education she move to teaching middle school math. Josie taught middle school general education and special education math for almost 10 years. Those years were mostly spent in inner city, high poverty schools in Seattle before moving to Colorado Springs to teach Technology at Jenkins Middle School. Josie has developed school based technology curriculum and served on many school leadership teams including Building Leadership, Capturing Kids’ Hearts Team, Intervention Teams, etc.

In addition to teaching at the middle school level, she also has been a Master Teacher for Project Lead The Way (PLTW), teaching their computer sciences app development course to teachers who want to implement the course in their classroom. She has taught PLTW teachers both online and in the classroom. She also has taught for PLTW’s Verizon Innovative Learning Labs that provides STEM sessions for students ages 8-12 and took place in a local Verizon store.

Now Josie works at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs as a senior instructor in the UCCSTeach program that works directly with pre-service teachers who will be secondary math, science, or engineering teachers. Courses she teaches span from the introduction to teaching course all the way through student teaching. In addition to teaching in person, she has a passion for teaching in online environments and focuses on building relationships within all types of classes. Josie holds two Master’s degrees, one in Educational Technology and the other in Educational Leadership. She is currently pursuing her doctorate and is focusing her study around building community in online spaces.

building community in online spaces, coi, synchron-ish learning, agile learning communities