AERO Summer Institute Faculty and Staff

AERO SUMMER INSTITUTE FACULTY and STAFF

AERO PROJECT DIRECTOR

Naomi Woolsey has worked as a teacher and administrator, both in the United States and abroad. She brings a wealth of experience to this position, having worked at all three levels of schools. She has served as an administrator at the American Community School of Athens, the International School of Bangkok, the International School of Luxembourg and the Washington International School. She earned her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. As AERO Project Director, she assists schools around the world as they work to become standards-based and develop strong academic programs.

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP

Fran Prolman is an internationally recognized consultant specializing in educational leadership, school improvement and instructional strategies as well as communication skills, critical thinking and organizational development. She is known for her depth of knowledge coupled with practical application of content. Fran earned her Doctorate in teacher training and international education from George Washington University and a Master’s degree in educational administration and curriculum and instruction from the University of Pennsylvania.

Gail Seay is currently the Director of Curriculum and Professional Learning at the American School of Doha, Qatar. She has worked for over thirty years in international schools in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as well as the United States and her home country, Australia. Gail has written curriculum on the state and school level and piloted assessments written at the state level. She holds degrees from universities in the United States and Australia. Her teaching experience has included classrooms in elementary grades, special needs, reading and K-12 art. She currently serves as the Chairperson of the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools Professional Development Advisory Committee and assists in conference planning. Gail has worked with the AERO Project since 2004 and has taught courses in English/Language Arts and Curriculum Mapping.

ENGLISH

Cindy Cummings is currently an instructor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Her responsibilities include writing and teaching online graduate level courses. Her career also includes teaching English language arts and reading at the elementary and high school levels. While a high school teacher, she developed an electronic portfolio which enabled students to showcase their writing. She has also served at the district level as a director of curriculum and instruction. She has presented at local, state, national and international conferences. In addition to her expertise in English/Language Arts, she is recognized for providing ways for students to integrate technology into the content areas. During this school year, she has worked to review, revise and expand the AERO English/Language Arts Standards and Benchmarks into the new Framework.

MATHEMATICS

Erma Anderson is a science and mathematics consultant working with several schools and organizations in the United States and abroad. She has served as the National Science Teacher’s Association Director of International Programs. Prior to her work with NSTA, she was an Einstein Fellow in the U.S. Senate and a Senior Program Officer with the National Research Council assisting with the development of the National Science Education Standards. She has been with the AERO Project for several years and led the recent work to develop the Mathematics Framework.

Peter Lee, a Grade 5 teacher at the American International School of Muscat (Oman) will also assist with the instruction and will provide many practical suggestions for implementation of the framework in the classroom.

SCIENCE

Dr. Gerald Wheeler will lead with the instruction. He retired as Executive Director of National Science Teachers Association in 2008. Prior to joining NSTA, Dr. Wheeler was Director of the Science/Math Resource Center and professor of Physics at Montana State University. He has headed numerous science organizations, and taught physics, chemistry and physical science at the high school level. Dr. Wheeler received an undergraduate degree in Science Education form Boston University and a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Chad Johnson, a teacher at the American International School of Muscat (Oman) will assist Gerry and Erma and will provide many practical suggestions for implementation of the framework in the classroom.

Social Studies

Rob Pierce has taught social studies at an American independent school, an international school, and an American public high school. He has also taught modern European history at the university level. He served as Director of Studies at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, and has consulted with several international schools. He earned his Ph.D. in early modern European history from the University of Virginia. Working with the AERO Project since 2001, Rob was a member of the team that developed the original Social Studies standards and benchmarks. This year he has led the process to review, revise and expand those standards and benchmarks.

WORLD LANGUAGES

Christy Brown is the Assistant Superintendent for the Glastonbury (Connecticut) Public Schools. Previously, she worked as the Director of the Glastonbury Language program, one of the nation’s oldest and continuous, serving students in grades through 12. She has served as Chairperson of the K-12 Student Standards Writing Task Force for the National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project and is a past president of ACTFL. She is the author of articles on language teaching and learning and served as a consultant to the AERO standards writing project.

Kathy Morabet began her career as an educator teaching Spanish in California, then English as a Second Language in Moroccan high schools and finally French at the Rabat American School. She has taught all grades from Kindergarten-12, including world language and “core” classroom subjects. She is currently the elementary principal at RAS. She holds a B.A. in Spanish from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.A. in secondary Social Studies from San Jose State College. She participated in the development of the AERO World Language Standards and has been working with her staff to use the standards to improve world language teaching.