California
Aspire Public Schools
We three, Dominic, Jenny, and Kelly, represent a triangle, an isosceles triangle if you will. Two of us work in the same school while the third is at a different site, but we are all connected through Aspire Public Schools in Oakland. As our charter transitions from a traditional math track to an integrated model, we’ve adopted a new curriculum that we have all now had one year to experience. We hope that Hollyhock will help us navigate this transition as well as develop lessons that provide a more equitable learning experience for all students.
Communication and Technology School at Diego Rivera Learning Complex
The Communication and Technology School (CATS) is a public, pilot school located in the Florence-Firestone area of South Los Angeles and belongs to the Diego Rivera Learning Complex. The CAT'S school is a designated Title 1 school with 80-90% of students receiving free and reduced lunch and a 65% male to 35% female ratio. 26% of our student population are English Learners (EL’s) with 50% these EL’s being comprised of ELD 1-4 students. Our overarching goals as instructional leaders at our school site include bringing a strong academic culture to our school site, planning rigorous curriculum, and engaging students in a personalized academic experience in our classrooms. Our team brings innovation, altruism, a strong moral compass, and most importantly a relentless and deep seated conviction to providing equitable learning environments for all students irrespective of their background.
Fremont High School
We bring a team of passionate teachers spanning multiple grade level subjects and small learning communities. Based in East Oakland, we work to both support our students academically, and extend trauma-informed practices into our classrooms. Here at Fremont we foster leadership by supporting students to organize their own cultural celebrations and clubs, that help instill pride and appreciate the unique diversity on our campus. We hope to gain strategies that we can successfully implement to encourage sense-making and self-reflection. Together we are fighting threats of school closure and the systematic defunding of public education. Having participated in a strike alongside our students, we demonstrated the power of uniting to fight for what we deserve as a community.
Tennyson High School
"Made in Hayward" is the proud slogan of our stupendously diverse community; "Made in Tennyson" is what we are proud to be. Tennyson High School serves low-income, often high-needs students, more than 30% of whom are English Language Learners. Yet because, not despite, the challenge we - Susana, Evelyn, Ward and Rachel - grow daily as teachers and people. With Hollyhock staff and other teachers, we want to think through how to develop relevant curriculum, which builds students' skills that transfer across disciplines, across barriers. Together we hope to build a pocket within our disciplines - science, social studies, and English - where all learners receive a rigorous education.
Colorado
North High School
We are team Denver North! We teach in a big, urban, traditional high school that has been changing rapidly over the last few years. As a team we have a wide variety of teaching experience, subject expertise, and backgrounds. We hope that this diversity will bring unique perspectives to the program and that each of us as learners and participants will take away fresh ideas to implement to our entire school. As classroom teachers, we hope to bring back new strategies that increase equity and student voice within our classrooms and school as a whole.
Florida
Colonial High School
We are Colonial, where it’s great to be a grenadier! Located in sunny Orlando, Florida, Colonial high school is a Title 1 public school, that educates over 3,500 students across two campuses. Our team consists of two biology teachers, Jessica Hiner and Katie Di Salvo, and a marine science teacher, Desirae Settle. Our goals for the Fellowship are to improve our teaching pedagogy and increase engagement for students from all backgrounds, particularly our lower reading level demographic and English Language Learners. We want to make learning fun and worthwhile for students who maybe have not had that experience before in their educational background. We look forward to improving and acquiring new skills and reflecting on our teaching practices while at the Hollyhock Fellowship. We are also excited about the new knowledge and techniques that we will bring back to our science departments and school.
Cypress Creek High School
The Cypress Creek High School (CCHS) Hollyhock team is comprised of a diverse group of all female educators from the Social Studies, Mathematics and Science departments. Their experience range from teaching two to four years of teaching. Uniquely, our team was also all chosen to serve as facilitators for our District Professional Learning Community (DPLC) initiative in which we help teachers implement close reading, academic conversations, and writing across disciplines to benefit our students. Cypress Creek High School, located in the heart of central Florida, is a one-to-one school and students use their laptops year round. Our entire student population of 3300 is enrolled in the Free and Reduced Lunch program and our minority enrollment is currently 90%. Last year, our teachers' hard work and passion, enabled Cypress Creek to improve their school grade from a "C" to a "B" rating based on several factors compiled by the Florida Department of Education. Our Hollyhock team shares a common goal of better equipping our striving readers and English language learners with the skills to independently navigate complex standards and engage more confidently in academic conversations.
Georgia
KIPP Atlanta Collegiate
This year’s Hollyhock Team from KIPP Atlanta Collegiate (KAC) brings a passion for the humanities as history and literature teachers. Nestled mere miles from the Atlanta University Center, a hub for HBCUs such as Spelman, Morehouse, and Clark Atlanta University, we are constantly considering how the work in our individual classrooms will impact the trajectories of our students upon their graduation. Whether learning about the Haitian Revolution in World History with Mr. Robinson, implementing scholarly practices in AP Research with Dr. Fontnette, or analyzing the larger implications of slavery and and exploring womanism in Toni Morrison’s Beloved with Mrs. Patterson in AP Literature, we push our students to explore the bounds of their intellectual prowess. We know that we teach students, not just content--thus driving our desire for increased student centeredness in our educational practice. Our KAC 2019 Cohort is primed and ready to evolve as educators who, in the words of bell hooks, “will share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students.”
Illinois
George Westinghouse College Prep
We are a humanities team from George Westinghouse College Prep, a high-performing, diverse public school with the highest 5-year graduation rate in Chicago Public Schools. GWCP is uniquely positioned as both a selective enrollment high school and a vocational academy on the city’s West Side. Our school values academic perseverance, proficiency-based learning, and post-secondary success. As a team, we share a desire to implement culturally sustaining instructional practices in the classroom, and the equity committee on which the three of us serve supports our work in that direction. Individually, we are interested in developing our classroom management toolkits, examining the role of the white teacher in a classroom of students of color, and developing additional instructional strategies to effectively serve all students. We look forward to engaging in meaningful conversation and growth with colleagues from across the country!
Johnson College Prep
Our diverse team aims for equitable outcomes for the students of whom we teach in the educational sector so that a greater, sociological impact will take place on a larger scale. Ranging from years of experience to content knowledge expertise, our team hopes to be the catalyst of change for our school, Johnson College Prep, in terms of curriculum alignment, professional development opportunities, and ensuring that quality, robust instruction is occurring within our school. Serving a population of students that receives the least amount of resources but are deserving of the most, we strive to provide students with the quintessential skills needed to have access into college, persistence thereof, thus becoming members of society so that they may create an impact on their communities. Embedding rigorous instruction aligned with metacognitive growth, exemplar instruction from content area experts, and essential social skills that provide students with competitive skills is the goal of the JCP team. While there is great difficulty in changing the culture and climate within a school, this team of teachers is dedicated, passionate, and refuses to fail.
Roberto Clemente Community Academy
We are from Roberto Clemente Community Academy, a public neighborhood high school in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. Our team is comprised of teachers from multiple dpeartments, we are: Gillian (science & special ed), Megan (history & special ed), Mueze (English & history), and Shelby (history). Our school is comprised of many different ethnicities, however, we are about thirty percent African American and about sixty-four percent Hispanic. At Clemente, we are focused on developing great humans and meeting students where they are at in order to motivate them to continuously push forward! We are looking forward to not only improving our own practice but also bringing back the important learning to improve our whole school.
Kansas
Wyandotte High School
We are a strong team from Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas, consisting of one science teacher, one English teacher, and two social studies teachers. We are proud of our Midwestern roots and the unique environment of being an urban school in the fields of Kansas. As teachers, our goals are to increase student success and encourage them to reach their full potential. Our school consists predominantly of students of color from low-income families. These students have the same skills and desire to learn as their more privileged peers, but need extra support. With our enthusiasm to learning new techniques, we hope to gain the knowledge and skill-set to help our students soar.
Maryland
The Academy for College and Career Exploration
ACCE, a turnaround school in Baltimore City, believes in the Five Promises—Commitment to Quality, Honor and Integrity, Perseverance, Gratitude, and Contribution. By teaching, modeling and recognizing these Five Promises we are equipping our students to use their voices to be advocates for themselves and their community. Our school's culture and climate is out top priority. By developing and leading professional learning communities, grounded in research-based instructional strategies, we will do everything in our power to equip our staff with the skills, experiences, and the mindset to help our students make good choices in life. Together, we will stick to our 5 Promises and give 100% because anything is possible.
Minnesota
Hiawatha Collegiate High School
Hiawatha Collegiate High School is a mission-driven public charter serving students in Minneapolis. We are committed to disrupting inequity within the educational landscape of the Twin Cities. Our team, Alicia, Dana, and Kelsey, take pride in leading with optimism in order to develop innovative solutions in our classrooms. We look forward to deepening our craft and collaborating with other educators from across the nation. Go wolves!
Missouri
Scotland County R-1 High School
Scotland County R-1 High School is located in rural northeast Missouri, over three hours from the closest major metropolitan area. We are a married teacher team representing the math and social studies departments at our school. Our school graduates around 35-45 students per year, but we are proud to offer an expansive curriculum that includes eight Advanced Placement courses. As teachers, our primary goal is to meet the needs of all students, regardless of their future career choices, by providing them with the skills necessary to succeed either in higher education or the workforce. Our desire is not only to promote high student achievement in the classroom, but also to help develop and encourage qualities that students will need to accomplish their goals throughout their lives. We are both passionate about rural education and are excited to bring our unique perspectives to the Hollyhock community. We are grateful for this opportunity to develop further as teachers, to network with teachers from across the country, and to share what we learn throughout the Hollyhock Fellowship with our colleagues and students.
New Jersey
Elizabeth High School Frank J Cicarell Academy
Elizabeth High School Frank J Cicarell Academy is a comprehensive high school with 17 different AP course offerings available to all students. At our school we inspire every one of our students to think, to learn, to achieve, and to care. We are located in historic downtown Elizabeth, New Jersey minutes away from New York City. Elizabeth’s population is extremely diverse with residents representing more than 50 countries and 37 language groups. Of course being an urban school district Elizabeth faces the challenges common to such school environments. Our team of social studies teachers, Alice Debowski, Scott Donner, and David Trachtman are so honored for the opportunity to be able to collaborate with other teachers. We hope to apply what we learn so we can be of maximum service to our students and the community. We are passionate in our belief that every student deserves an excellent educational experience and are committed to the notion of “every child achieving excellence”. Our team hopes to accomplish this by developing even more equitable access to rigorous curriculum for our students as well as make our classes more culturally relevant for our student population, through the transformative collaborative work at Hollyhock.
New York
Academy for Young Writers
The Academy for Young Writers is a 6-12 school, situated in East New York on the far outskirts of Brooklyn. Not the gentrified, mason jar-obsessed, Park Slope and Mumford and Sons Brooklyn; we are talking about the Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Biggie, and Lil Kim Brooklyn. It was at AFYW, a school which embraces and celebrates the identities of its students and staff, where Sweza, Sean, Jaclyn and Dwaina became friends over their determination to see their students as more than just the challenges they face. It is within this community that they all seek to make their respective classrooms spaces where students are seen, heard, and affirmed.
Frederick Douglass Academy II
Greetings! We are a diverse group of Math teachers whose culture and character reflect the sentiments of New York City and our school. Frederick Douglass Academy II is a comprehensive secondary community school located in the heart of Harlem. At FDA II we work with a diverse group of students largely from low-income neighborhoods while understanding that educating the whole student is paramount. Academic, social, mental, and physical well - being is at the core of our pedagogy. Verithia Hood is a Special Education teacher with a focus on the study of Mathematics. She works diligently to create a learning environment that allows access and grants success for all students. Alexcia Lawson is a General Education Teacher with a focus on Math for grades 7-12. Her goal is to provide low income students with a quality Mathematics education. Guillermo Sanchez teaches Algebra and Geometry, he works to instill confidence in his students to believe that they are capable of more than what they think they are. As a group, we are creative, critical thinkers, and lovers of inquiry. We urge our students to make mistakes - because it is through failure that we gain success. As Hollyhock fellows we bring a culture of improvement, acceptance and the power to seek knowledge.
High School for Environmental Studies
We are Ashley, David and Alex from High School for Environmental Studies in New York. We are located in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen District and a short walk from Columbus Circle. Ashley is from Long Island and is finishing her fourth year in the classroom. Ashley teaches Earth Science and AP Environmental Studies. David is originally from Connecticut and is finishing his second year in the classroom. David teaches Introduction to the Environment and Chemistry. Alex is also originally from Connecticut and finishing his second year in the classroom. Alex teaches Chemistry.
Hudson High School of Learning Technologies
We are educators from New York City representing Hudson High School of Learning Technologies. We hail from diverse backgrounds and concentrations of study but share a passion for accessible and challenging learning experiences for all students. We strive to provide the best education for minority and underserved young adults regardless of background. During our time with the Hollyhock fellowship community we aim to learn and grow from the expertise of others through inquiry and collaborative learning. In addition we look forward to extending our learning by turn-keying best practices to our colleagues in our home schools.
New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science II
We are the second group of educators coming from our school in the South Bronx, an area known throughout New York and the country, as one that is home to inequity. After two years together at our school, were finally at the place where we can start thinking about what comes before academic achievement and for us that is social-emotional learning. Our goal is to further improve our student's understanding of themselves, their community, and our world. We hope to do this by collaborating with like-minded educators to develop strategies that improve our instruction and consequently, the academic and social-emotional wellbeing of our students. In addition to a desire to collaborate, we come with an open mind geared towards equitable practices for all learners, and a dedication to creativity and growth.
Uncommon Leadership Charter School
We are a dedicated team of ELA teachers from Brooklyn, New York. At Hollyhock, we are excited to deepen our knowledge of effective ELA pedagogy in order to improve our practice. In particular, we wish to learn the best methods for developing students' conceptual understanding of the material. Our goal is to not only prepare students for the rigors of college, but also develop a lifelong passion for English language and literature. We are confident that our experience at Hollyhock will allow us to achieve this goal.
North Carolina
Henderson Collegiate High School
Henderson Collegiate High School strives to empower all students to become effective and successful members of society by gaining academic skills, social experiences, and a love of learning from our school. As classroom teachers, we want our students to graduate from the college of their choice and become real world problem-solvers. Our team consists of two English teachers and one science teacher---for English, we work towards improving writing skills and reading comprehension; in our science department, we constantly better our curriculum to be as rigorous as possible and prepare students for college-level science courses. We have many unique characteristics to contribute to the Hollyhock Fellowship Program, including methods for aggressively monitoring student achievement, growth mindsets, and a strong willingness to improve our teaching skills. Our team from Henderson Collegiate High School is humble, hungry, and smart: we are hungry to get better, smart with our personal and professional interactions, and humble enough to know there is always room to grow.
South Carolina
South Florence High School
South Florence High School (Florence, South Carolina) represents the only team awarded to represent the state of South Carolina for the prestigious Stanford Hollyhock Fellowship. We are Clare Smith (math), Hope Moyo (science) and Lennette Diggs (English). Excitement is the epitome of what we feel, as we embrace learning and scaffolding for meaningful student centered initiatives. Making a difference is the threshold, which sparks our passion of equity for all students. Sharing practices is the threshold for bringing equity into the 21st century classroom. We believe that teacher collaboration and direction produce learners who are diligent in developing academia and skills necessary for becoming productive students and citizens. It is our realty to fruitfully and vigilantly maintain this mindset for all students.
Texas
Cedars International Next Generation High School
We are very passionate STEM educators from Cedars International Next Generation High School in Austin, Texas. We are a young project-based learning STEM high school that is rapidly expanding. Stuart leverages his passion for the world around him to deliver rigorous science projects that engage his students in authentic inquiry investigations and presentations. Aminadab uses his STEM expertise to integrate science and the Maker movement into his mathematics projects while using inquiry to hook his students into challenging content. Sarah uses PBL to breakdown math anxiety and shows her students that everyone can and should engage in deep mathematics. We are dedicated to bringing rigorous and relevant content to all students, in addition to developing the 21st-century skills they will need for our modern workforce. As a team, we are interested in exploring how our identities affect our students access to learning in our classrooms. We look forward to sharing our context and experiences as 100% PBL educators with the Hollyhock community while learning from the experiences of others.
Washington
Highline High School
We have been working together for the past three years as language arts teachers at Highline High School in Burien, Washington (located about 20 minutes south of Seattle). Our school is richly diverse, and our students are creative, resilient, and passionate about bettering our communities. Our goals include supporting students as they develop their identities as readers and writers and ensuring that all students will leave high school with the literacy skills they need to be engaged citizens. We look forward to sharing and troubleshooting some of the progressive practices we have tried with other members of the Hollyhock cohort.
Wisconsin
Carmen Southeast
From the place that brings you the best cheese, we bring a group of cheesy teachers. We are a diverse set teachers from different backgrounds. Our team has two members who are certified through TFA (Hoehn and Nombre), two of us are not from the USA (Nombre and Bosseau), two of us are 2nd -year teachers (Hoen and Bosseau), but our entire team was driven to work at Carmen Southeast Highschool. Carmen Southeast is a charter school located in the city of Milwaukee, one of the most segregated cities in the United States. We serve primarily Hispanic/Latino students. Our team goal is to make sure that ALL students, regardless of their background, have an opportunity to achieve their goals, become self-directed learners and have meaningful high school experience.
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
Hello from Milwaukee - the land of cheese curds, lake effect snow, and Packers obsessions. We - Allison (English), Erik (History), and Molly (Math) - are the Cristo Rey Jesuit Hollyhock 2.0 cohort. Our school is now in its fourth year, offering college prep academics to students who come from families with limited financial means, and will see the first graduating class in May! As a distinguishing feature of Cristo Rey, we send our students out into the workforce one day per week where they apply their learning in real-world settings, develop professional skills, and build relationships with community members. This, however, limits our instructional time; as a result, we are intentional in our practices, ensuring every moment is productive and worthwhile. As teachers at Cristo Rey Jesuit during its formative years, we have the challenging - yet exciting - task to build effective instruction for future generations of Trailblazers. Through the Hollyhock Fellowship, we hope to gain insight in creating curricula that fulfill educational standards while breaking traditional barriers by including culturally relevant content and challenging conversations. We are a thorough group, committed to developing meaningful relationships with students and colleagues to provide an educational experience that empowers students to close achievement gaps.
