Educator Profile    Educators

Candace C. Smith (CO '93)

Retired

Founding Manager

Candace Smith Etiquette
Centennial High School, Pueblo, CO

At the time of the Award, Candace C. Smith was:

Teacher
Centennial High School
Pueblo, CO

Subject(s) taught: Social Studies

https://www.candacesmithetiquette.com


Biographical Information

Candace Smith was a high school teacher at Centennial High School for most of her twenty-five year career in public education in Pueblo, Colorado. She taught Language Arts, speech and debate, then moved into history and broad area social sciences. After earning a Master's degree in economics education in 1989, she enjoyed teaching economics along with other social studies classes.

Candace is immensely grateful for and feels blessed by the many caring and supportive people she has known throughout her life, including family, friends, students, parents, and fellow educators. She is appreciative of many organizations with which she has been fortunate and proud to have had association, including the Milken Family Foundation.

She enjoyed her association with Quality Education Associates in the early ‘90’s in conducting systems transformation workshops for K-12 educators in Total Quality Learning. “Association with QEA educators was life transforming as my views of the critical relationship between the teacher and the learner deepened. My focus shifted more to the process of learning.” She implemented and adapted total quality continuous improvement processes to the classroom as an overall management system as well a system for students to use to assess and improve their own levels of learning.

The importance of student-shared instruction became pivotal for Candace. "Students who are asked to teach what they are attempting to learn begin to feel empathy for the learner and respect for the teacher. They have an opportunity to look at the essence of what they are trying to teach to discover its importance."

She also employed Socratic Methodology in the classroom. Students actively discovered the power of "the question" and "engaged listening" as they participated as responsible individuals in orderly give-and-take discussion and in individual and class projects that required engagement of a variety of "texts," including the work of other students.

During the last two years with School District 60, she served as the K-12 Special Projects Facilitator with the Educational Alliance of Pueblo until her retirement.

Teaching recognitions included the Colorado Enterprising Teacher of the Year Award, the Colorado Teaching Award, and a Foundation for Teaching Economics National Prize for Excellence in Economics Education.

Today Candace is Founding Manager of Candace Smith Etiquette, an education company offering practical, hands-on trainings in social etiquette skills for high schools, universities, businesses and organizations serving others.

Candace and her husband reside in Orange, CA.


Additional Information

Degrees/Certifications

1973 University of Southern Colorado, B.A., University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, M.A., The American School of Protocol

The Etiquette Blog (Weekly blogs)

"The Etiquette Blog"


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