This course is a blended-model professional learning opportunity designed to inspire and support educators in becoming reflective practitioners while meeting the highest expectations of the profession. This newly revised course re-envisions the learning environment as a place where teacher and student identities are celebrated and affirmed; social emotional learning is intentionally planned for; and student agency is supported through equitable, responsive structures to help all students thrive. Participants will explore foundational research through the lens of student-centered engagement and instruction as well as investigate practices that support autonomy and choice, activate critical thinking and deeper learning, along with ways to maximize learning time inside and outside the classroom. Articulate your cultural identity and its impacts to the learning environment, identify and employ characteristics of an efficacious teacher, identify the role of teacher agency and explain how professional agency connects to AFT work, recognize the necessity of a self-care plan and begin to develop your own, and apply new knowledge through self-reflection, goal-setting, and action planning. YOU MUST ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS on FEBRUARY 11 & 18, 2023, TO RECEIVE CEUs.