CURRICULUM DEVELOPERS
Our Curriculum Developers have created fascinating curricula and classroom activities that captivate students while seamlessly incorporating our professional footage into their learning experience. These units meet state and national standards for social science and media classes, and are specific to a wide variety of thematic choices from the footage (Education for Women, Commerce, Displacement, etc.). Units combine sound educational practices with cutting-edge use of a wide variety of technologies, like Google Earth, social networking, and statistical analysis.
Kathy Altaras (BA, MS) is a professional educator, enjoying two separate teaching careers in Texas and California totaling 22 years. Credentialed in English and Spanish, she primarily taught high school English, settling in for the last 10 years with 12th grade students, preparing them for writing at the college and university levels and for passing entrance exams in writing and literature. She "retired" into consulting for hundreds of teachers, curriculum coordinators, and administrators on differentiating the curriculum for students of all ability levels across all content areas and on diverse instructional strategies for all teachers. She has written curriculum since 1987 and has offered seminars at the local, state, and national levels on a variety of education topics. At various times Kathy served as mentor teacher for assessment, character education, and English Language Arts, and she organized, supervised, and evaluated the high school accreditation process via the Western Association of Schools and Colleges for a staff of 175.
AE Stout (RN, BSN, BSE, MEd) has a background in education with both a BSE and MEd in Health Education. She holds a Secondary Texas Teaching Credential in History and Health. Recently, AE earned her BSN in nursing. She currently works as a registered nurse in a Level 1 trauma pediatric emergency room in Dallas, TX. AE has traveled extensively across the globe, and over the past six years has been to Guatemala four times for humanitarian and health care work in remote mountain villages. Learning about and exploring other cultures remains one of her passions. AE lives in Dallas with her 3 children, cat-dog Mojo, and dog-cat Ranger. AE was the principal author of the Sudan Medical Module.
Sharon Peters (BA, MA) is the director of technology at Hebrew Academy. She completed an M.A. in educational technology with a focus of online collaborative learning for high school students and has worked as an independent consultant creating ELA curricula for the online school in Quebec. During the summers of ’08 and ‘09, she led teams who facilitated professional dev. workshops with Education Beyond Borders (formerly Teachers Without Borders Canada) to educators in the townships of South Africa and rural Kenya. Her students have participated in several award-winning international web-based collaborative projects with classes around the world using technology to support the learning goals.