This at G-R we hired a new curriculum advisor. Matt Switzer grew up in Springfield, Oregon. He graduated with an elementary education degree at Northwest Christian University in 1998. He later graduated from the University of Oregon, with a degree in philosophy. In 2001, Matt then moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa, because he was getting married to an Iowan girl. He began teaching at Carver Academy, Waterloo, then taught at Dunkerton High School, Union Middle School (Dysart/ La Porte City). After six years at Union, he took a job in 2011 teaching sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary School in Cedar Falls. In 2009, Matt graduated from UNI with a master’s degree in school administration. This summer, he was hired by a four district consortium (Gladbrook- Reinbeck, Green Mountain-Garwin, North Tama, and BCLUW) to lead as Director of Curriculum and Innovation. His first impression of G-R is the same as it was before coming here. He has a number of people that he knew have been involved in one way or another with Gladbrook-Reinbeck Schools, and they always had “positive things to say about the schools and the students.” He was very excited to come and work in the district and “loves meeting students, teachers, and administrators who share the same passion for excellence” that I do. Sometimes I will be in Reinbeck and other times I will be in Gladbrook. My role in the district is to “provide support and guidance for administrators and teachers when it comes to curriculum (what to teach), instruction (how to teach it), and assessment (how to know if the students understood it).” I also provide “support for teaching with technology in classrooms.” Practically, what that looks like is this:” I will sit with teacher groups, or individual teachers, and help them plan lessons that align with the Iowa Common Core or use technology in different ways. This means I get to see LOTS of great teachers doing what they do best- providing incredible learning opportunities for all of our students!” One interesting thing about Matt is that he is a Google-Certified Teacher.