Lauren Davenport

Educator//Teacher Mentor// Educational Director//Curriculum Creator//

Brooklyn, NY 11201

laurenesme@gmail.com▪ 
“This teacher pushes me to be my best,” Stephanie Cruz.

 

Classroom and Consulting Experience:

 

Acting Director of Education (Educational Consultant)

The Livnot Project

May 2012 – December 2012 (Seattle, WA).

Hired as an Educational Consultant to help launch a new organization, this fast-paced not-for-profit needed to find partnerships with existing organizations to help place students in service-based volunteering roles.
Key Accomplishments:
By contacting over seventy-five organizations, researching each stakeholder’s mission, and suggesting projects which would serve all parties, seemingly incongruous groups were able to form partnerships.

Logged a database of all communication to maintain rapport and established relationships with other organizations. The result? An award-winning organization just recognized as one of Seattle’s ten best up-and-coming not-for-profits!

 

Teacher Mentor and AP English Teacher

NYC Department of Education

September 2004 – January 2010 (Brooklyn, NY).

Hired into a rapidly growing and evolving new high school to devise thematic curriculum and teach NYC standard-based reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
Key Accomplishments:
Produced significant gains in student achievement, resulting in a 225% increase in the community’s graduation rate over the school’s first four years.

Increased the number of adults in the classroom by creating a mentoring program for new teachers (and student teachers). Mentored one new teacher each semester in conjunction with Brooklyn College and the New York City Teaching Fellows program.

Co-authored and co-taught advisory program for four years. Advisory program was created to help at-risk teenagers deal with social issues and stressors, care for their bodies and their health, as well as to promote college learning objectives and skill sets. Our program ensured that students maintained the same advisor for four years.

Played key role in aligning the curriculum and standards for grades 9-12. The newly aligned curriculum helped to facilitate interdisciplinary projects as well as ensure that school, state, and Common Core standards were included.
Changed approach to traditional English classes by implementing instructional technologies in the classroom—this included hardware, software and online applications.

Led small group and whole staff professional development on literacy, curriculum planning, and the incorporation of the arts in all subject areas.

Wrote, delivered and revised highly engaging literacy curriculum that met with state standards for economically disadvantaged children grades 9-12.

Served as Department Chair (2005) and Cabinet Board Member with responsibilities that included devising data-driven strategies to individualize student learning.

 

Middle School Social Studies and Literature Teacher

Abraham Lincoln Middle School

September 2002 – August 2004  (Brooklyn, New York).

Hired to teach 6-8th grade while finishing Master’s at Brooklyn College as a New York City Teaching Fellow.

Key Accomplishments:

Created a Humanities course to replace separate English and Social studies. The ninety minute popular course was implemented the following year by both the English and Social Studies departments, the year after that it was recommended to be used by the entire district.

Fueled by a desire to find something for bored teenagers to do outside of school, the IS 171 Debate Team was created. Debate team members’ pass rate improved significantly.

Established and maintained a partnership with the New York City Urban Debate League.

 

Boricua College,

Summer 2002 – August 2004  (Brooklyn, New York).

Hired to teach Intro to English to a diverse group of students.

Key Accomplishments:

Increased retention rate of freshman by 24% by offering team tutoring sessions and increased office hours.

Established  poetry night and open-mic events for the students and their families.

Received glowing evaluations in which 98% of the students said they felt “inspired and better about reading, writing, listening, and speaking.”

 

 

 

Corporate Experience:

Writer/Producer and Online Pioneer

Nickelodeon

May 1992 – October 1993 (NY, NY).

Hired to write and produce content for the Nickjr.com web site as well as test and publish existing content.

Key Accomplishments: Improved branding and messaging while devising core knowledge for freelance employees. Developed rapport and relationships with all areas of the brand in order to advocate for consistent content online and on-air.

Collaborated to launch new redesign of existing web site to address concerns that the voice of the web site wasn’t clearly aimed at kids. Played a key role in the redesign which launched in just under six months.

Co-authored editorial guidelines to help establish consistent voice on both the parent and kid sections of the Nickjr.com web site.

Drove 15 fold increase in unique visitors by spearheading an online community forum to solicit feedback about the online content for both kids and parents.

 

Project Manager,Writer/Producer, and Internet Pioneer

iVillage

September 1991 – April 1992 (NY, NY).

Hired to write, edit and manage online schedules for ParentSoup, an online content channel offering parent advice in a fast-paced, rapidly growing company.
Key Accomplishments:
Established virtual community forum to solicit feedback about content from parents and users. Resulted in the creation of guidelines for hired freelance writers and a traffic increase of 57% in just six months after launch.

Pioneered partnerships between developers, QA, and editorial to streamline production. Resulted in shorter schedules for launching new content.

Trained new employees faster by writing channel guidelines and establishing legacy documentation.

Educational Background:

 

Kenyon College

Bachelor’s degree, Foreign Languages and Literatures, General

Awarded 1994

Department Honors Award in French Language 1994,Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude,

 

Brooklyn College

M.A. Teaching of English

Awarded 2002

 

Emerson College

M.A. Mass Communication

Awarded 1998