The Portfolio Connection

Susan Belgrad is currently a professor of education with California State University, Northridge. She has taught at the elementary level and in early childhood special education, and has enjoyed a long career in higher education working with teachers from pre-kindergarten through high school. For the past 20 years, Belgrad has led state and national efforts that support teachers' professional education and public awareness of teacher excellence. Kay Burke has served as an award-winning classroom teacher and a school administrator, university instructor, and international professional developer. She works with Kay Burke & Associates, LLC, to provide workshops for teachers and administrators in standards-based learning, performance assessment, classroom management, mentoring, and portfolio development. For the past 18 years, Burke has presented at state and national conferences such as ASCD, NSDC, NAESP, NASSP, NMSA, and IRA as well as international conferences in Canada and Australia. She is the author of 10 professional development books and coauthor of a college textbook on assessment. Corwin Press published Burke's best-selling From Standards to Rubrics in Six Steps: Tools for Assessing Student Learning, K-8 (2006), a 2007 finalist for the Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing presented by the Association of Educational Publishers. Other books published by Corwin Press include How to Assess Authentic Learning, Fourth Edition (2005) and What to Do With the Kid Who: Developing Cooperation, Self-Discipline and Responsibility in the Classroom (Third Edition). Robin Fogarty is President of RFA: A Robin Fogarty Company, a Chicago-based, minority-owned, educational publishing/consulting company. Robin received her doctorate in curriculum and human resource development from Loyola University of Chicago. A leading proponent of the thoughtful classroom, Robin has trained educators throughout the world in curriculum, instruction and assessment strategies.

She has taught at all levels, from kindergarten to college, served as an administrator, and consulted with state departments and ministries of education in the United States, Puerto Rico, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Great Britain, Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Robin has published articles in Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, The Journal of Staff Development and The Middle School Lournal. She is the author of numerous publications, including Brain-Compatible Classrooms, Literacy Matters, Ten Things New Teachers Need, How to Integrate the Curricula, The Adult Learner, A Look at Transfer, Close the Achievement Gap, Twelve Brain Principles, Nine Best Practices, and From Staff Room to Classroom: Planning and Coaching Professional Learning, How to Teach Thinking Skills Within the Common Core: 7 Key Student Proficiencies of the New National Standards, Invite! Excite! Ignite! 13 Principles for Teaching, Learning and Leading K-12 classrooms

Robin received her Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education at SUNY, Potsdam, NY, and her Masters in Instructional Strategies from National Louis University in Evanston, IL. She is known as the teachers' teacher and has mentored numerous colleagues in the art and science of working with the adult learner. She brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to all endeavors, has a wealth of knowledge in the field and conducts highly interactive PD sessions.