Welcome to The Lounge Lizards!
This upcoming year promises to be filled with tons of learning, exciting new academic "investigations," and personal growth and adventure!
Welcome to 6th Grade!
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Greetings and welcome to your 6th grade class. My name is Jamie Lea Abdullah and will I be your sixth grade teacher along with Frankie Allmon. As a returning teacher at Austin Discovery School, I am excited to continue our adventure in learning at a school whose philosophy is closely aligned with my own.
With parents who saw benefit in travel, I attended schools in a handful of cities in the United States, including Austin, California, and Florida. After attending high school in central Florida, I made my way to north Florida in Gainesville where I earned a Bachelor’s in Business and a minor in Agricultural Communications. After my time at the university, I moved to the Caribbean where I worked at a research facility and spent most of my time on the beach and my monohull sloop. It is here where I married and discovered my passion for teaching children while volunteering at the school in town. Realizing that to fully develop my skills as a teacher that I would need additional training and make a move back to the states, I found myself in Austin and enrolled in a year long certification program. Since earning my teacher certification I have taught mostly people with disabilities in a college and elementary setting, but I have recently made the change to general education after having taught fourth grade three years ago at a local charter school. After visiting Austin Discovery School in April of 2009, I was thrilled to finally find a community of independent empathetic thinkers who valued social responsibility, good health, creativity, and life-long learning.
With parents who saw benefit in travel, I attended schools in a handful of cities in the United States, including Austin, California, and Florida. After attending high school in central Florida, I made my way to north Florida in Gainesville where I earned a Bachelor’s in Business and a minor in Agricultural Communications. After my time at the university, I moved to the Caribbean where I worked at a research facility and spent most of my time on the beach and my monohull sloop. It is here where I married and discovered my passion for teaching children while volunteering at the school in town. Realizing that to fully develop my skills as a teacher that I would need additional training and make a move back to the states, I found myself in Austin and enrolled in a year long certification program. Since earning my teacher certification I have taught mostly people with disabilities in a college and elementary setting, but I have recently made the change to general education after having taught fourth grade three years ago at a local charter school. After visiting Austin Discovery School in April of 2009, I was thrilled to finally find a community of independent empathetic thinkers who valued social responsibility, good health, creativity, and life-long learning.
Let the Learning Begin!
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My name is Ms. Frankie Allmon and I would like to personally welcome your child to our 6th grade class. As I enter my fifteenth year of teaching, I am extremely excited to be starting my third year at Austin Discovery School and my first year of teaching 6th grade.
Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, I have been a bit of a sojourner and am now proud to call Texas home. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the ability to travel and live in various parts of the world, including Mexico, Canada, England, and Russia. I earned my Bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Women’s Studies, from New Mexico State University, and my Master’s in English Literature at Indiana University. It was at Indiana University that I discovered my true passion for teaching. I made the decision to join Teach For America, rather than pursue an academic career, because for me working with students was infinitely more rewarding than doing research.
After completing my Teach For America commitment, and staying at my high school in Tolleson, Arizona for an additional year, I joined the Teach First Program in London, and taught English to the English in England (an irony which is not lost on me, in the least! ). While the majority of my teaching experience has been at the secondary and college level, over the past year and a half, I have had the pleasure of substitute teaching both here in Austin and in Phoenix, Arizona, and this has given me the chance to work with a wide range of students, in a variety of grade levels, and a number of different school settings. When presented with the incredible opportunity to work here at Austin Discovery School, I leapt at the offer, because I can think of no better environment which encourages the kind of life long independent learning, exploratory education, and fostering of creative, imaginative thinking that I value so much, personally and professionally.
Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, I have been a bit of a sojourner and am now proud to call Texas home. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the ability to travel and live in various parts of the world, including Mexico, Canada, England, and Russia. I earned my Bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Women’s Studies, from New Mexico State University, and my Master’s in English Literature at Indiana University. It was at Indiana University that I discovered my true passion for teaching. I made the decision to join Teach For America, rather than pursue an academic career, because for me working with students was infinitely more rewarding than doing research.
After completing my Teach For America commitment, and staying at my high school in Tolleson, Arizona for an additional year, I joined the Teach First Program in London, and taught English to the English in England (an irony which is not lost on me, in the least! ). While the majority of my teaching experience has been at the secondary and college level, over the past year and a half, I have had the pleasure of substitute teaching both here in Austin and in Phoenix, Arizona, and this has given me the chance to work with a wide range of students, in a variety of grade levels, and a number of different school settings. When presented with the incredible opportunity to work here at Austin Discovery School, I leapt at the offer, because I can think of no better environment which encourages the kind of life long independent learning, exploratory education, and fostering of creative, imaginative thinking that I value so much, personally and professionally.