Professional Information
Susan
Clayton
Education Consultant
Sumona Consulting
Education
Education, Honors & Awards
Nova South Eastern University - EdD
Educational Leadership
Curriculum Design
1998
No

Personal Information
Kelowna
Regular attendance at a gym; walking; gardening; traveling; classical music; movies (my time out from real life)
My husband of 45 years and I have 3 grown children.We love to play with our 5 grandchildren. This year we took them to Disneyland - memories galore!During the summer we are on the beaches of Kelowna with the grandchildren to swim and paddle board.
BEd - University of British Columbia - Secondary; Physical Education, HistoryMEd - University of Victoria - School CounselingEdD - Nova South Eastern University - Educational LeadershipTeacher: PE, History, Science, Business Math - 10 yearsElementary School Counselor: focus - child sexual abuse; family life education - 10 yearsPresident of the BC School Counselors' Association - 3 yearsDistrict Staff Development Coordinator and Provider - 10 yearsFaculty Associate: Simon Fraser University: pre-service teacher education - 3 yearsAdjunct Faculty: University of Northern British Columbia - teacher in Education Masters program - 3 yearsCurrently: Private Education Consultant: focus: designing curriculum for learning, assessment and teaching for understandingCoach for Harvard's WIDE on line program "Making Thinking Visible" 
More than 25 years
Organizing Conferences, Workshop Presenter, Volleyball Coach 
I do not remember when I did not want to be a teacher. By the time I was in high school I wanted to 'reform' girls' physical education in high school. From my first year of teaching I made significant changes in my gym/classroom and within my circle of influence helped colleagues to think differently about the purpose of physical education for young women and make some changes in their teaching practices. At age 39 I knew I was not going to be teaching PE for the remainder of my career. I went back to school and received my Master's degree in school counseling while teaching math and PE in a junior high. Just before I graduated I was assigned a position as an elementary school counselor in the district where I lived. The work was challenging and rewarding.As a school counselor a part of my work was providing workshops for teachers on recognizing the signs of child sexual abuse. This 'morphed' into providing workshops in the BC Family Life curriculum and eventually I left counseling and went into full time teacher leadership work. I co-ordinated professional development for the district as well as expanding the workshops I delivered to assessment and eventually curriculum and instructional design. I was introduced to the planning model "Understanding by Design" in 1998 and was struck by its potential to radically change the way education thinks about designing learning, assessment and teaching: from learning for knowing to moving knowing to understanding. I taught the model to my pre-service teachers and their success in their practicums helped to confirm for me the value of this model.  I decided to leave education systems and open up my own consulting work in 2003. I worked for Grant Wiggins, co-author of UbD, for my first 4 years. Since 2007 I have been working on my own, digging deep into the neuroscience that supports learning for understanding. I am a member of Dr. Pat Wolfe's group "The Brainy Bunch" where we get together each year to learn from top neuroscientists and cognitive neuroscientists who bring us up to date on their research on how the brain learns. I read the "Mind, Brain, Education" Journal and my book collection centers on research from a variety of neuroscientists and cognitive neuroscientists. Much of my work since 2007 has been in Singapore. The challenges of taking western education models to an eastern culture have forced me to think and re-think the ideas that underpin designing learning, assessment and teaching for understanding. I have come to believe that the neuroanatomy of how the brain learns is the 'common thread'. I have found starting with this premise is makes the work of understanding and teaching to the uniqueness of each brain more accessible for teachers.
Websites & Social

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