Kami Thordarson is an experienced educator who has held several leadership roles in the Los Altos School District including Principal and Innovative Strategies Coach. She has a Master's degree in Elementary Education and is highly qualified in Language Arts. As an educator, she pioneered the use of blended learning, Khan Academy, and project-based learning. Currently she is a Learning Designer where she helps teachers design innovative learning experiences and integrate technology into their classrooms.
Empowerment Academy is an independent wing of King's College, Kathmandu Nepal. EA's broad mission is to empower educators, students, and professionals through trainings, workshops, and mentorship programs.
We primarily focus on the 4CR Skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and reflection.
Our workshops are inspired by experiential learning philosophy and human centered design process.
Online classrooms can be as dynamic and interactive as face-to-face instruction, and good online teaching and learning do not compromise on delivering effective instruction that aids student learning.
Online instructors must transform themselves into effective online facilitators, who can engage their learners and enhance the eLearning experience, as a whole.
The Elements of Personalization: A Periodic Table of Competency-Based LearningJonathan Mott
The personalization imperative is here. Are you ready? This session will provide a periodic table of the elements (and compounds) necessary to create a scalable, sustainable, and, most importantly, impactful learning experience for students. The model and real-world examples will help you create a personalized learning infrastructure.
Empowerment Academy is an independent wing of King's College, Kathmandu Nepal. EA's broad mission is to empower educators, students, and professionals through trainings, workshops, and mentorship programs.
We primarily focus on the 4CR Skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and reflection.
Our workshops are inspired by experiential learning philosophy and human centered design process.
Online classrooms can be as dynamic and interactive as face-to-face instruction, and good online teaching and learning do not compromise on delivering effective instruction that aids student learning.
Online instructors must transform themselves into effective online facilitators, who can engage their learners and enhance the eLearning experience, as a whole.
The Elements of Personalization: A Periodic Table of Competency-Based LearningJonathan Mott
The personalization imperative is here. Are you ready? This session will provide a periodic table of the elements (and compounds) necessary to create a scalable, sustainable, and, most importantly, impactful learning experience for students. The model and real-world examples will help you create a personalized learning infrastructure.
Exploring Identity, Fostering Agency, Discovering How Students Benefit.pdfBonner Foundation
Join this session to learn and share best practices and emerging models for transformative education involving civic learning and democratic engagement. In a conversational format, presenters will share knowledge and personal experience about the ways in which colleges and universities, as well as faculty and staff, can design the spaces and intentional experiences that support students to develop civic identity. We’ll highlight innovations and point to supporting research and scholarship, while inviting you to do so. Presented by Marina Barnett (Widener University); Samantha Ha DiMuzio (Boston College); Ariane Hoy (Bonner Foundation); and Paul Schadewald (Bringing Theory to Practice) for the Feb 6-7, 2023 CLDE Forum: Bridging the Divides: Including All Students: Diversity, Equity, and High-Impact Civic Learning Pathways
Adobe Digital Literacy Thoughtleaders / Creative CampusCourtney Miller
The 'Adobe Digital Literacy Thoughtleaders' are a group of digital literacy experts who have been driving innovation and strategy around teaching and learning with technology in the 21st Century, and have been recognized for their expertise and leadership within the Creative Campus community.
This is a draft of the presentation that will be given at the HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching forward: the future of the Social Sciences.
For further details of the conference: http://bit.ly/1cRDx0p
Bookings open until 14 May 2014 http://bit.ly/1hzCMLR or external.events@heacademy.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the experience of integrating sustainability and enterprise as apparently conflicting value systems in social sciences as tools to develop individual capacity for future thinking: creating pathways to transformation, tools for individual empowerment. It concludes that whist the domains and languages of articulation differ, the skills and attributes they seek to develop show very similar attributes, and that whilst different discourses will attract students / disciplines to engage with future thinking, the skills being developed and techniques used to explore those skills are show considerable similarities. This provides opportunities for cross fertilisation between these discourses, enabling students to move beyond seeking enterprise and sustainability as conflicting domains, but rather as different ways of articulating future thinking / change. The session will be of interest to those engaged with developing future thinking, and in particular those interested in the discourses of sustainability and enterprise as ways into future thinking.
Exploring Identity, Fostering Agency, Discovering How Students Benefit.pdfBonner Foundation
Join this session to learn and share best practices and emerging models for transformative education involving civic learning and democratic engagement. In a conversational format, presenters will share knowledge and personal experience about the ways in which colleges and universities, as well as faculty and staff, can design the spaces and intentional experiences that support students to develop civic identity. We’ll highlight innovations and point to supporting research and scholarship, while inviting you to do so. Presented by Marina Barnett (Widener University); Samantha Ha DiMuzio (Boston College); Ariane Hoy (Bonner Foundation); and Paul Schadewald (Bringing Theory to Practice) for the Feb 6-7, 2023 CLDE Forum: Bridging the Divides: Including All Students: Diversity, Equity, and High-Impact Civic Learning Pathways
Adobe Digital Literacy Thoughtleaders / Creative CampusCourtney Miller
The 'Adobe Digital Literacy Thoughtleaders' are a group of digital literacy experts who have been driving innovation and strategy around teaching and learning with technology in the 21st Century, and have been recognized for their expertise and leadership within the Creative Campus community.
This is a draft of the presentation that will be given at the HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching forward: the future of the Social Sciences.
For further details of the conference: http://bit.ly/1cRDx0p
Bookings open until 14 May 2014 http://bit.ly/1hzCMLR or external.events@heacademy.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the experience of integrating sustainability and enterprise as apparently conflicting value systems in social sciences as tools to develop individual capacity for future thinking: creating pathways to transformation, tools for individual empowerment. It concludes that whist the domains and languages of articulation differ, the skills and attributes they seek to develop show very similar attributes, and that whilst different discourses will attract students / disciplines to engage with future thinking, the skills being developed and techniques used to explore those skills are show considerable similarities. This provides opportunities for cross fertilisation between these discourses, enabling students to move beyond seeking enterprise and sustainability as conflicting domains, but rather as different ways of articulating future thinking / change. The session will be of interest to those engaged with developing future thinking, and in particular those interested in the discourses of sustainability and enterprise as ways into future thinking.
1. Kami Thordarson
@kamithor
kami.thor@gmail.com
970.481.5468
www.kamithordarson.com
Principal
Los Altos School District, Los Altos, CA
Covington Elementary, July, 2015 – present
Innovative Strategies Coach
Los Altos School District, Los Altos, CA
August 2012- March, 2015
Teacher
Los Altos School District, Los Altos, CA,
2008-2012
Poudre School District, Fort Collins, CO
1999 - 2008
Preliminary Administrative Credential, 2014
California Cleared Credential with CLAD endorsement, 2009
NCLB Highly Qualified Designation in the area of Language Arts, 2008
Master of Arts, Elementary Education
University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado
Licensure: June, 1999, K-6
Bachelor of Arts, Communication
Washington State University, Pullman,Washington
Experience
iLearn
Summer Academy
Designer and
Facilitator
Blended Learning
Explorer with
Khan Academy
Project Based
Learning Pioneer
Student EdCon
Creator
As the lead designer of our iLearn Summer Academy in
LASD, I designed and implemented a week long training
workshop that changed mindsets and helped teachers
become designers of learning experiences,and better
integrate technology into their classrooms.
While teaching, I worked to design a blended learning
model using Khan Academy. Students and I worked closely
with Khan Academy developers, offering feedback and
suggesting iterations to improve classroom performance.
LASD is now using a blended model in math classrooms.
In Poudre School District in Fort Collins, Colorado,
I discovered Project Based Learning. After modeling, I helped
scale PBL throughout all grade levels. Olander is celebrating
nine years of Project Based Learning.
I developed a student conference experience that allowed
students to work through the design thinking process and
create innovative solutions to needs that they saw on their
campuses and in their classrooms.
www.linkedin.com/pub/
kami-thordarson/33/726/ba3
References Available Upon Request
I am a highly qualified educational leader working to help teachers
feel like designers of learning experiences. I value student voice and
appreciate that with a great endeavor, there is often fear and failure,
but the wisdom gained and exhilaration when successful are well
worth the risk.
Learning Designer
inProgress Consulting
October 2014 - present
Credentials
As Seen On...
Overheard
Learning Designer
Presented at:
ASCD Presenter 2014, 2016
FUSE Facilitator 2014
SXSWEdu Presenter 2013
ACSA Presenter 2013, 2014
ISTE Presenter, 2012, 2013, 2014
CUE Presenter, 2012, 2013, 2014
Speaker at CONTEC 2013, Frankfurt, Germany
Speaker at Scandinavian Executive
Publishing Summit, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012
Articles: ASCD Education Update; Road Tested
“Engaging Students Through Story Thinking, ”
October, 2014, Volume 56, Number 10
Featured in:
“School Sleuth: The Case of the Wired
Classroom,”Learning Matters, 2015
Khan Academy on John Stossel Documentary, 2011
“How Khan Academy is Changing the Rules of
Education,” Wired Magazine, July, 2011
“One of the things I admire about Kami is her vision and creativity;
the way she sees the big picture and incorporates that in doing what
is right for students.” -Karen Wilson, STEM Coach, LASD
“Kami is a consummate professional, a natural leader, a passionate
and knowledgeable educator, and a collaborative person.”
-Alyssa Gallagher, Director of Strategic Initiatives, LASD
Highlights