Thea Durling lives and teaches in North-Central Massachusetts. She has been teaching math (grades 7 and 8) and English as a Second Language for over 17 years in the Commonwealth and abroad. She has an M.Ed. in Multicultural/ESL/Bilingual Education and a second M.Ed. in Math (5-8) and she holds teaching licenses in math (5-8, 8-12), ELL (5-12), and Moderate Disabilities (5-12).
Thea was introduced to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) by her assistant superintendent and UDL consultant, Dr. Katie Novak. Thea took her first course with Dr. Novak in the fall of 2015 and began working as a graduate assistant and instructor for Dr. Novak in August 2016. Since then, Thea has taught the following courses:
- Instructor: UDL Strategies for the Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School (online graduate course); November 2019-March 2020
- Co-teacher (with Danielle Patenaude, UDL coach and Literacy Coach): Universally-Designed Project-Based Learning; summer 2019
- Co-Teacher (with Dr. Novak): UDL Design Lab (online graduate course); 2018-2019
- Instructor (as a private consultant): UDL 101 (online graduate course); summer 2018
- Co-Teacher (with Julie Spang, Instructional Technology Coach): Enhancing your UDL Practice with Technology (hybrid graduate course); summer 2018
- Instructor: UDL in-service (in-district professional development); 2018
- Instructor: UDL 101/UDL 102 (online courses for in-district professional development); 2017
- Graduate Assistant/Coach (with Dr. Novak): Scaling and Optimizing UDL Implementation; 2017
- Facilitator/Coach: UDL Working Group (in-service); 2016-2017 school year
- Graduate Assistant/Coach (with Dr. Novak): Universal Design for Learning (in-district Professional Development); summer 2016
For more information about Thea’s professional work and background, please visit her website: StrengtheningYourProfessionalPractice.com.
Universal Design for Learning 