Charlotte Ackerman
Sunrise Drive Elementary School
Profile Coming Soon
Melissa Hall
Esperero Canyon Middle School
I began my teaching career in 1995 as a student teacher at Esperero Canyon Middle School. Although I have spent many years since then teaching middle school mathematics, I have also worked as a math coach in TUSD and an educational technology trainer for a private company. In my current position as a Curriculum Technology Integrator, I love to see the excitement from both teachers and students when they learn something new or a new way of incorporating technology. In the same sense, I find it very rewarding to be able to go into other teachers’ classroom and learn from them through the examples of outstanding teaching practices I am able to see every day.
Noah Mickey-Colman
Ventana Vista Elementary School
My parents always told me that I’ve been an educator as soon as I was old enough to “educate” so becoming a teacher was a natural progression for me. After getting my Master’s in Education I taught middle school ELA, Math, and Science and embraced innovative and creative ways of teaching that included project-based learning and engaging students in educational technology. Students were always invested, engaged, curious, and empowered when using these types of approaches to their own learning. It was exciting and rewarding to be a part of that. I wanted to share this approach to education with other teachers and began to work as a technology coach to collaborate with other teachers so they could begin to use similar approaches and tools in their classrooms. I love working with colleagues and then seeing a room full of kids deeply engaged in the content and inspired by new ideas their teacher has shared with them. Most recently I've embraced a STEM integration role focused on teaching STEM mostly through robotics and computer programming across our District. I also coach First Lego League teams to provide extra opportunities for innovative engineering and research challenges to our District's students. My colleagues and the students we serve continue to amaze me with their excitement for learning and engaging with ideas in new and interesting ways.
Amy Charles
Catalina Foothills High School
I spent my first few years in education as a biology and chemistry teacher for Chicago Public Schools. I have always been eager to try new teaching methods and learn from my colleagues to improve my practice. Because of that collaborative nature, I found myself developing a new pathway at my previous district rooted in design and technology with a group of incredible teachers and community members. The program included instructional units using raspberry pis, Scratch, 3D printing, and extended reality. The technology driven and project based nature of the design program sparked my passion for using technology in the classroom to make high quality STEM education more accessible for all students. I moved to Tucson in 2018 and started teaching biology and chemistry at Catalina Foothills High School. In my current role I am excited to be back in the technology world where I can both support and learn from our wonderful students and teachers.
Melinda Skinner
Orange Grove Middle School
My teaching career has lead me through four states, six districts, and eight schools over the past 27 years. I’ve taught almost every grade Pre-K through 8th in a desire to learn more and be the best teacher I can be. As the years went by, I found inquiry based STEM lessons helped my students become the best they could be, so I perfected the craft by getting a Masters in Inquiry Based Natural Sciences and collaborated with the Air Force Academy and NASA. I am excited to continue integrating science, technology, engineering, and math into classrooms while increasing student choice on ways to connect with the ever changing world.
Kelly Taylor
Manzanita Elementary
Profile Coming Soon
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