Michael Smith

Biography

Michael Smith is a National Board Certified Teacher. In addition
to teaching high school English, he has served in a variety of siteleadership
positions over the last fifteen years in the Santa Clarita
Valley, north of Los Angeles, California – these include Intervention
Coordinator, an accreditation-team chairperson, and the English 10 Lead Teacher. He
has also served as a member on site technology, restructuring, staff-development, and
leadership committees. On the district-level, Michael has been involved in writing district
curriculum guides, evaluating textbook adoptions, and coordinating the development of
district benchmark assessments. Most prominently, he spent ten years as a Professional
Development Trainer, writing curriculum and training hundreds of district teachers on
best practices designed to improve student achievement. More recently, he has served
his school site as a Professional Development Coach, leading both new and veteran
teachers in the creation of site professional learning communities.
Michael is also involved with both local and national associations, such as the California
Association of Teachers of English (CATE) and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development (ASCD), where he has learned directly from leading education
experts, authors, and consultants. Over the last several years, he has utilized his experience
and knowledge in presenting for the California League of High School’s annual
conference and twice at the Staff Development for Educators’ National Conference on
Differentiation.
He is currently in the process of launching Master Teacher Tools, a resource website
dedicated to sharing and promoting research-based best practices.