Chris Davis

Teacher, Curriculum Designer & Experiential Learning Coordinator

Manglares Discovery School — Panama

Built the curriculum, scope, and sequence for second grade and for the middle school at a 65-student K–8 school, working onto a partial existing curriculum and adding schoolwide phonics and grammar intervention, translanguaging, and responsive curriculum design — all from open-source materials, with no curriculum budget. Elements were adopted by other grade levels.

• Authored three criteria of the ACS WASC Initial Visit School Report — Equity and Access to Curriculum (B2), Student Engagement in Challenging and Relevant Learning Experiences (C1), and Student-Centered Instruction (C2) — supporting the school's successful advancement to candidacy for accreditation.
• Moved every continuously enrolled middle school student to or above grade level in reading and mathematics, from starting points ranging from half a grade to three grade levels below, with several students finishing well beyond grade level. Students entering mid-year are excluded from this cohort.
• Designed the full curriculum, scope, and sequence for second grade and for the middle school, built entirely from open-source content, and authored the companion textbook and student materials for each.
• Mentor teacher and assessor for a Moreland University teacher-certification candidate across a trimester and a half of clinical practice, January–July 2025 — conducting formal observations across multiple lessons, running feedback sessions, and completing the final evaluation report required for her certification. Supervised a first-grade placement while teaching middle school.
• Designed an AI-supported translanguaging method for a Hebrew-speaking student, enabling him to work with full class texts rather than simplified substitutes. Daily, largely student-run, and multimodal, with scaffolds mapped to all five pillars of literacy. He drafted in Hebrew, transcribed, and interviewed peers and teachers in English, choosing his language over time and eventually moving to English; the method doubled as a running record.
• Selected and hired two paraprofessional support staff — reviewing applications, interviewing, and approving each appointment — then designed and delivered their training for one-to-one and cluster support, and trained additional support teachers assigned to individual students.
• Designed and implemented a multi-leveled reading and writing intervention program spanning K–8 reading levels, with differentiated entry points, progress monitoring, and scaffolded supports.
• Recognised one teacher’s use of Words Their Way phonics, built the progress-documentation around it, and extended it to vertical alignment across all elementary grades — creating consistent progression and shared assessment practice between teachers.
• Initiated and rolled out a schoolwide Zearn Math program, including teacher onboarding and implementation support; established consistent schoolwide i-Ready administration protocols to protect test integrity and produce reliable assessment data.
• Taught second grade for one year alongside curriculum and coordination responsibilities, designing interdisciplinary learning experiences integrating Common Core literacy and mathematics, NGSS science, C3 social studies inquiry, media arts, and environmental research.
• Led structured reading and writing instruction through workshop models, Socratic discussion, nonfiction research, oral presentation, and a scaffolded drafting, revision, editing, and publication process.
• Developed sustained student projects and public exhibitions using design-thinking cycles, including This I Believe essays, films, animation, photography, projection-mapped installations, laser-cut mathematical forms, and multimedia galleries.
• Created place-based environmental investigations focused on mangrove ecosystems, watersheds, biodiversity, and changing landscapes on Panama's Azuero Peninsula.
• Built collaborative, noncompetitive learning spaces using visual thinking, movement, dialogue, hands-on materials, creative expression, restorative practices, and differentiated supports.

Fourth Grade Teacher

International School of Panama — Panama City

• Designed differentiated fourth-grade units using Understanding by Design backward planning and inquiry-based instruction.
• Integrated STEM, design, and embodied mathematics through Sphero robotics geometry labs, Turtle Art block coding, Zearn/Singapore Math, sketchnotes, and participatory theater.
• Facilitated literacy instruction through Socratic circles, collaborative inquiry, and multimodal learning experiences.

Library Media Literacy Teacher

Khartoum International Community School — Sudan

• Held and managed the Early Years and Elementary library budget, directing collection development and acquisitions, and coordinated purchasing with the Middle Years and High School library.
• Managed Primary and Junior Library collections, cataloguing, purchasing, and the integration of Infant and Primary collections.
• Taught Pre-K through Year 6 media literacy, information literacy, digital citizenship, and computational literacy within the PYP framework.
• Designed reprogrammable learning spaces, coordinated Book Week, facilitated professional-development webinars, and supported collaborative student interviews with artists. Reprogrammable Spaces at KICS: video one · video two

Co-Founder, Producer & Learning-Space Researcher

Journeys in Podcasting — Bogotá, Colombia

• Co-founded with two colleagues as practitioner research for the elementary project cycles at Colegio Nueva Granada — a way of sourcing what each project needed, which grew into a standing series.
• Produced 95+ episodes of a research-based series, conducting international interviews with educators, administrators, and researchers in maker spaces, hacker spaces, Reggio Emilia schools, laboratory learning sites, and innovative educational environments.
• Led workshops and consulting related to learning-space design, creative learning, inquiry, and experiential curriculum development.

Grade 3 Teacher

Colegio Nueva Granada — Bogotá, Colombia

• Produced the largest MAP growth in the elementary division three years running at a 1,700-student K–12 school, with no other class close.
• Certified as a Restorative Practices trainer by the International Institute for Restorative Practices (Training of Trainers, 2009), then led workshops for teachers and parents across the school community.

Tech Innovation Project Coordinator

Colegio Nueva Granada — Bogotá, Colombia

• Wrote the position description for the role the school created to extend those classroom results across the division, then revised it annually with leadership so the role stayed aligned to the three school initiatives running that year.
• Ran a four-to-six-week co-creation cycle with pairs of teachers across upper elementary — designing interdisciplinary projects that culminated in Spotlight presentations to students, staff, and parents — working through all 18 homeroom teachers and, as projects required, an elementary staff of around 70, drawing in art, music, library, and specialists from beyond the school.
• Documented every cycle as a video documentary displayed continuously on two large screens in the elementary hallway until the next cycle replaced it, creating a standing public record of student learning grounded in Project Zero's Making Learning Visible.
• Ran regular lunchtime podcast sessions with two colleagues — researching ahead of interviews and recording with principals, coaches, teachers and specialists from elementary, middle and high school, so expertise anywhere on campus could reach the classroom that needed it. Administrators began attending; co-presented the work with the elementary principal at a conference.
• Consulted with middle and high school on the use of the Global Learning Studio, through standing committee work and open cross-divisional communication.
• Designed the evidence and media template system for the school's SACS accreditation report at a 1,700-student K–12 institution, mapping standards to supporting artifacts and validating evidence submitted by every self-study committee.
• Managed technology purchasing for upper elementary.

Global Learning Studio — research, proposal, and partnership

• Initiated the project and led the research — a study visit to the Hunt Library at NC State and other active-learning spaces, Steelcase research literature, and interviews with learning-space designers conducted for the podcast.
• Presented findings to the school Director, formed and led a cross-departmental committee, and secured approval and funding for the project.
• Contributed the initial design concept — a cube with ceiling projection — which Sonic Design developed into the installed form, a curved single-wall screen with blended laser projection.
• Partnered with Sonic Design on projection and video systems integration. Piloted a flexible-seating prototype that drew Steelcase's interest, then built the case and shaped the content of the funding pitch the school's development officer took to Panasonic, Steelcase and Samsung; the project drew parent-group funding and over $100,000 USD in donated technology and furnishings from Panasonic, Steelcase and Samsung. Project profile — Sonic Design
• Designed the learning formats the room was built to host — whole-class projection interfaces for participatory theatre, interactive writers workshop, sketchnoting during live interviews, and inner/outer circle Socratic seminar — developed from models piloted in ordinary classrooms with one or two projectors and during a six-week Steelcase pilot. Managed recurring project cycles, critical events, and public demonstrations of student learning within the space.
• The studio remains in daily use and continues to serve as the school's flagship learning space nearly a decade later.

Elementary Classroom Teacher

Colegio Karl C. Parrish — Barranquilla, Colombia

• Taught Grade 3 using Project Zero's Spectrum approach to project-based learning, developing interdisciplinary projects built around students' varied entry points and strengths.
• Launched a student-and-teacher podcast broadcasting to parents and the wider Barranquilla community — student-produced audio for an authentic external audience, predating classroom podcasting as common practice.
• Directed large-scale stage productions centered on literacy development, using rap, song, and performance as vehicles for oral language, fluency, and text comprehension.
• Founded and led a student folkloric drumming ensemble that performed at every recess, building a daily music practice into the life of the school.
• Implemented Junior Great Books reading projects culminating in student symposia and Socratic discussion; sessions were filmed, transcribed, and published for parents and the community.
• Partnered with the Art teacher to create a student gallery, interviewing each student about their portfolio and printing the transcribed reflections alongside their artwork.

Sabbatical — Documentary Motorcycle Expedition

South America

• Rode South America by motorcycle with a fellow international educator, prioritizing unpaved routes and rural crossings over highways.
• Photo-documented the journey and produced a live travel website publishing dispatches from the road.
• Organized "A Day at Work" experiences with local hosts in communities along the route, working alongside people in their trades and documenting the exchange.

Elementary Classroom Teacher

Colegio Karl C. Parrish — Barranquilla, Colombia

• Modelled a balanced literacy approach with a strong phonics foundation in the classroom, drawing on Patricia Cunningham's resources, in a school then running a traditional basal-reader and daily-drill program. The principal observed the model closely over an extended period and carried it into schoolwide adoption.
• Ran the Oregon Math Center approach in the classroom alongside a colleague already using the same materials; the model spread to adoption across the elementary years.
• Developed Project Zero–based interdisciplinary projects in close collaboration with the school's Reggio Emilia atelier.
• Created a bookmaking project documenting student writing alongside transcriptions of videotaped Socratic discussions; the finished books were catalogued in the school library and available for all students to check out.
• Innovated music and literacy routines using call-and-response rap and song to build fluency, phrasing, and oral language.
• Taught Grade 2, with arts integration and student-voice documentation embedded throughout.