Rhonda Zajac

Director of English Language Arts
Syracuse City School District, NY

Rhonda has spent the bulk of her 26 year career in the Syracuse City School District. She taught for several years, starting in preschool and then, for most of her teaching years, in middle school.

As Rhonda engaged in professional development from the teacher view, she found herself pursuing opportunities to engage in more extensive professional learning and to share her own classroom practices with other teachers. This eventually led to becoming an instructional coach in a variety of capacities and contexts. She continued in that type of work, growing her knowledge base, learning from colleagues and mentors, and facilitating professional learning for others until she completed her CAS and pursued administration.

A large scale curriculum writing initiative opened the door to lead groups of teachers at the district level and eventually to a promotion to Supervisor (and later Director) of English Language Arts for grades K-12.