CAT Teacher Nominated for Teach for America Award

We know that we have outstanding, committed teachers working at Envision Schools, so we love hearing that their achievements are being recognized in the community. This spring, Erica Magnusson, from City Arts & Tech, was nominated for the Teach for America – Loyola Marymount University 1st Year Urban Teacher Award.

Erica submitted an essay as part of the process, which describes her journey into teaching. She talked about her college sophomore trip to Africa where she taught an 11-year old orphan how to read. After her trip, she returned to her home state of Florida where she began advocating for Africa-related issues. This eventually led to the passing of a resolution in which St. Petersburg, Florida became the 3rd city in the country to use conflict-mineral free technology.

Now Erica brings this passion to CAT, where she teaches Advanced Biology to high school seniors. Even in her first year of teaching, she brought incredible energy to the classroom, rapping vocabulary words and teaching mitosis through square dancing. Her genuine support of her students is also evident. She notes crying tears of joy 200 times in one month, as she read students’ college acceptance letters, scholarship offers and financial aid awards.

Huge Congratulations to Erica from the entire Envision Family! We are honored to have Erica and teachers like her on our team. As Erica put it best, we “believe that every teacher should be recognized and celebrated.” Thank you to all of our teachers for your incredible work at transforming students’ lives.

Envision Education – A Key Player in the National Deeper Learning Movement

Through our consulting and training division, Envision Learning Partners, we are part of a growing network of over 400 schools that are working together to reform education throughout the country. The focus is on integrating a deeper learning approach and deeper learning outcomes into classrooms.

So, what is deeper learning? You know that students are engaged in deeper learning when they can do more than recite facts, but they can transfer what they have learned to other subjects and other projects. Through deeper learning instruction, we want students to:
· Master core academic content
· Think critically and solve complex problems
· Work collaboratively
· Communicate effectively
· Learn how to learn

We use project based learning in our schools to help students get to these deeper learning outcomes. In our college success defense presentations, in which students have to demonstrate what they know in order to graduate, we can assess whether students are reaching these results. Envision Learning Partners collaborates with schools and districts around the country, through training and consulting, to bring the best practices of deeper learning taught at Envision Schools to administrators, teachers and students nationwide. Since its launch, Envision Learning Partners has reached over 1000 educators, impacting education for 15,000 students!

And we aren’t the only ones involved in this effort to bring more robust education
to schools. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is strongly behind this movement and has brought together like-minded schools and organizations to work toward transforming education. Educators and policy makers around the country are embracing deeper learning models because they know it provides a greater level of understanding to students and better prepares them for college and careers in the 21st century. We know that a deeper learning-based model works for Envision students and we are excited and hopeful about spreading this approach to teachers and students across the country.

Envision Students Honored

City Arts & Tech students, Kyron Covington and Stacy Thomas, received the 2012 Koshland Young Leader Award, at the San Francisco Foundation’s Community Leadership Awards celebration. The award provides two-year $7,000 scholarships to public high school students who are motivated to succeed and show a commitment to strengthening their communities. Ten students from San Francisco were selected and we are so proud that not one, but two, students from CAT were chosen. Kyron and Stacy received the award and were honored in May and again at the Community Leadership Awards celebration on October 2, 2012.

We are also pleased to announce that Impact Academy student Khushboo Khatri was one of 30 students selected nationally to participate as a Youth Leader with the World Savvy organization. She will travel to Bangladesh for a month this winter to study climate change. Congrats!