K-12 curriculum & Tech Integration specialists

My journey into the field of education began in a small corner of Arizona, with a humble beginning as a substitute teacher for Bullhead City School District. Over the next decade, an evolution encompassing classroom, district, alternative education, and extracurricular coaching allowed me to work with some fantastic educators, support staff, and administrators. Obtaining a passion for facilitating professional learning.

In two years spent in the tri-state area, I worked with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Colorado River as Director of Operations under two phenomenal mentors. Their leadership fostered an appreciation and understanding of community involvement in improving opportunities for young people outside of public education. I served as Vice-Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission and BGCCR auxiliary board and was part of the Kiwanis organization to assist community youth.

Upon graduating from Northern Arizona University, I returned to my purpose of public education. My wife Haley and I decided to move south towards the East Valley to raise our four children. This decision helped reinforce my desire to promote innovative teaching methods and create engaging curriculum materials. My experience as a mathematics teacher has allowed me to develop a deep understanding of the intersection between curriculum and technology, enabling me to effectively support teachers in my new role with the Florence Unified School District.

Michelle Bladt has been a part of the Arizona education community for the past 15 years. She joined Florence Unified School District in 2022 as a Secondary Curriculum and Technology Specialist in the areas of English Language Arts and Science. She also serves as the District AVID Coordinator for FUSD, working with all grade levels K-12.

Michelle received her B.S. from The University of Arizona in Agricultural Sciences with a teaching emphasis in 2007 and received her M.A. in 2019 from Northern Arizona University in Educational Leadership, obtaining her Principal Certification through ADE. Michelle has a passion for the classroom and making sure every student has an opportunity to learn. This led to her desire to mentor, coach and support teachers in the best instructional practices, curriculum, and assessment district wide.

Before this role, Michelle taught various Sciences in grades 7 through 12 for thirteen years. As a classroom teacher, she emphasized the skills of reading and writing through specific content areas as she has been an AVID trained teacher since 2016. Michelle has led multiple departments, including; Science, Language Arts and Social Studies. In this role, she helped her teams develop curriculum that aligned with district, state and national standards while including high impact strategies that continued to yield growth in all areas. Michelle’s leadership roles outside of the classroom have included; Site Interventionist, Title-One Coordinator, Professional Development Instructor, Instructional Coach, District Summer JH Principal and Assessment Coordinator.

Michelle’s goal is to be able to support all FUSD site leadership and teachers ignite their passion for education and teaching while making sure students across our district obtain a high quality and impactful education! She believes that if all classrooms include rigorous curriculum led by teachers who have built a community of trust and strong teacher/student relationships, this will lead to highly effective classrooms and achievement by all students.