2018 Culturally Responsive Teaching Certification Honorees
Ben AllenAssistant Principal, Cale Elementary
Ben Allen has worked as a history and AVID teacher in Washington DC and at Albemarle High School. He is a graduate of Monticello High School and currently serves the incredible community of Cale Elementary, home of the Colts, as an Assistant Principal. Specifically, within this role he has had the opportunity to create equitable opportunities for every student to achieve excellence. His passion and hope is to build a collective capacity for educators and families to meet the diverse needs of children. He is an officer in the Army National Guard and enjoys being a UVA sports fan with his amazing wife Amanda and their dog, Rugby.
Ashby JohnsonAssistant Principal, Monticello High School
Ashby Johnson is a Charlottesville native and Albemarle County Public School graduate. Over the past 17 years she has worked in all three feeder patterns and in a wide variety of K-12 teaching and leadership roles. Currently, she is finishing up her third year at Monticello High School as an Assistant Principal. At Monticello High School she has spearheaded the Freshman Team program, is an active member of the equity team and serves as the AVID administrator.
Katy SchutzKindergarten Spanish Immersion Teacher, Cale Elementary
Katy Schutz attended Albemarle County Public Schools from Kindergarten through graduation from AHS, and has been teaching at Cale Elementary School for 7 years. As a Kindergarten Spanish Teacher since the inception of Cale's , Dual Immersion Program, she strives to use students' cultural frameworks to scaffold the learning process for her diverse classes. She is a strong proponent of working toward equity in education, celebrates bilingualism, family involvement and the importance of recognizing systems of power and privilege in the schools to support all students and families. She thrives in the outdoors and lives on a farm near Stony Point surrounded by people she loves, including her 5 year old son, Darius.
Kimberly Wilson
5th Grade Spanish Immersion Teacher, Cale Elementary
Kimberly Wilson is a local educator for Albemarle County Schools who grew up in the small town of Tullahoma, Tennessee. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Masters in Education from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Ms. Wilson pursued a job in inner city Nashville. Since then, she has been fortunate to teach in Fairfax and Charlottesville, VA. Her experiences in diverse schools have lead her to pursue the latest educational research and knowledge to best serve her students. Now in her fifteenth year, Ms. Wilson has combined her training in Responsive Classroom, Expeditionary Learning, ExC-ELL, and Dual Language with her studies of Culturally Responsive Teaching to impact student achievement. As an educator, she strives to provide instructional and cultural inclusion to grow independent learners and build learning partnerships with students and families.
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Brad Handrich5th Grade Spanish Immersion Teacher, Cale Elementary
Brad Handrich is currently the 5th grade Spanish immersion teacher at Cale Elementary School. He studied bilingual and bicultural elementary education at the University of Northern Colorado, and he has experience working in international schools in Mexico and Venezuela. During his presentation, he will discuss the significance of creating a class culture of interdependence: a culture of autonomous learners working together to achieve ambitious goals to the mutual benefit of the school community.
Lisa D. JonesPrincipal, Cale Elementary
Lisa Jones is completing her twenty second year as a principal, and is currently principal of Albemarle County’s Cale Elementary School. The school is among the largest and most diverse schools in the division. Nearly one-third of the student body enters the school with limited English proficiency and almost half qualify for the federal government’s free and reduced lunch program. Under Jones’ leadership, the school has developed school programs that have become models of excellence in the region. In 2016 Jones received the Virginia ASCD Impact Award for her leadership in designing and implementing a dual language program. Consistent with Jones’ emphasis to increase student engagement, as sense of community among Cale students and staff to promote a healthy school climate and instruction by teachers, she instituted the principles of CRT and Responsive Classroom school -wide. Jones recently earned her certification recognizing her efforts to be a Culturally Responsive Leader.
Destinie Thomas
3rd Grade Teacher, Meriwether Lewis Elementary School
Destinie Thomas is a third year, 3rd grade teacher at Meriwether Lewis Elementary in Albemarle County, VA. As an educator, she believes that fostering strong, intentional learning partnerships with students and families is the first step in transitioning dependent learners into independent learners. Her reflections around,” the learning pit” has helped her develop partnerships with students and families to establish and maintain these crucial alliances.She currently serves as the Diversity Resource Teacher and Responsive Classroom co-chair at Meriwether Lewis. She is also a member of the ACPS/DRT Planning Team.
Latishia WilsonAssistant Principal, Greer Elementary
LaTishia Wilson is currently the Assistant Principal at Greer Elementary School. She has been active with the Diversity Resource Leadership Team for 6 years. She has endeavored to expand her work as a culturally responsive educator to include becoming a culturally responsive leader. This year she had an opportunity to create a model that allowed her to be more intentional in her practice. During this process, she has helped to form equity teams and deepen their understanding of culturally responsive teaching.
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C'Ta Delaurier
Instructional Coach; Cale ES, Red Hill ES, Walton MS