Laura Guajardo
BIO
Laura Guajardo is a Coordinator for History-Social Science and Civic Engagement at the Santa Clara County Office of Education and is part of the Multilingual and Humanities Education team. She is also a member of the statewide CLIC (Content, Literacy, Inquiry, and Citizenship) Project. With almost 30 years of experience as an educator, she believes in equitable practices in and out of the classroom, is an expert in Professional Learning Communities (PLC), Response to Intervention (RTI), and Direct Interactive Instruction (DII); furthermore she is Guided Language Acquisition Instruction (GLAD) certified and is currently working tirelessly to promote the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. She has worked in partnership with both Gender Spectrum to ensure gender equity and the Office of Civil Rights to promote Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT), is certified in Restorative Practices, is an advocate for English Learners, and believes all students can and should be treated equitably, see themselves in their history education, and be successful.
Laura's journey in education began in the Fremont Unified School District as a paraprofessional aide with special education students. It progressed to teaching social studies and working as an Activities Director at a high achieving multilingual junior high school in which she was recognized for "going above and beyond the call of duty" multiple times. She saw the need for underperforming students to find success; as a result, she chose to transfer to alternative education where she demanded a high level of rigor from her struggling students which contributed to Robertson Continuation High School being the first of its kind to be recognized as a model Professional Learning Community. Laura has also worked at the district level as an Instructional Coach; wherein, she provided one-on-one support for teachers and administration, created highly-interactive professional development, refined curriculum, and led textbook adoptions to promote learning literacy skills through content.
STATEMENT
As a Region 4 Representative, I will work to build relationships throughout the area to increase California Council for the Social Studies (CCSS) membership, support the planning of CCSS 2021 and provide guidance to educators regarding best practices including, but not limited to, curriculum design, instructional strategies, civics, and other classroom supports. I have many years of experience and CCSS has a history of promoting equity and inclusion in the History-Social Science classroom. As a result, I am here to support both educators and students in achieving this important goal. Please feel free to follow me on Twitter @LauraHistoryOG and ask me any questions. I look forward to serving you!