The idea for LearnZillion began at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. where co-founder Eric Westendorf, was principal. After watching 6th grade teacher Andrea Smith teach her students what it meant to divide by fractions, Eric wondered, Could powerful learning experiences be captured so that teachers didn’t have to re-invent the wheel every time they taught a standard? He decided to find out. Working with Andrea and a few other E.L. Haynes teachers, he created a homemade website that featured screencasts of high quality, Common Core lessons. The website worked. Not only could teachers find examples of high quality lessons, but parents and students also benefited from the explanations.
Thanks to a Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant, Eric was able to grow the idea. He teamed up with former classmate and teacher , Alix Guerrier, and together they recruited an initial corps of 20 Dream Team teachers from across the country. The Dream Team grew to 123 the following year. To date, over 500 educators have been a part of the Dream Team.
The result is the world’s first curriculum-as-a-service offering, combining digital curricular materials, an enterprise platform, and professional services to empower districts and states to take ownership of their curricula and provide their teachers with the best tools to make engaged learning possible.
