Teaching on Purpose

HI! I’m Jess.

I'm a teacher who took backward design and standards-based assessment out of the classroom and into business. A decade in schools from Tanzania to Rome showed me how to design for a room full of people who didn't ask to be there; four years beside founders showed me what it costs a business when learning doesn't drive the outcomes it was built for. Now I work on a sales floor, building the rubrics sellers' work is measured against, so a new hire and a senior leader can read progress the same way.

Every team inside a company runs like a small business: its own number, its own people, and rarely its own learning budget. I understand how those teams work, and I understand how people learn.

Read the longer version, and find out what allora means.

Experience and Expertise

  • 10 Years Teaching Experience

    Curriculum Writer • Content Lead • Mentor Teacher

    • AP

    • IB MYP

    • New Jersey and Tennessee State Standards

    • AERO Standards

    I taught in New Jersey and Metro Nashville Public Schools and international schools in Rome and Sofia. I chose to do my student teaching in Arusha, Tanzania.

  • MAT and MEd

    Master of Arts in Teaching • Master of Education

    • MAT, Secondary Social Studies - The College of New Jersey

    • MEd, International Curriculum and Supervision - Endicott College

    One taught me to design and deliver a lesson. The other taught me to design the system the lessons live within.

  • 5 Years Alongside Founders

    Director of Learning and Development • Chief of Staff • Director of Education

    At two startups, I worked directly beside founders to built investor decks, supported vendor contract negotiations, managed vendor relationships, ran sales discovery, and support the development of strategic roadmap of growth stage startups while making the case for learning and development when every dollar already had thee other jobs.

  • Renzulluli Interest Inventory

    Hosted by UConn’s Renzulli Center

    Adapted Joseph Renzulli’s Secondary Interest Inventory for International Schools (2018) - a tool for finding out who your learners are before you decide what to teach them.