Alexia Urizar
Outdoor Classroom Teacher
Alexia Urizar is an outdoor classroom teacher, a role that combines her two passions for learning and nature.
She began working at Rising Star in 2005 at the High Street Campus as an assistant teacher.
In the summer of 2006 she moved to the Cottage Campus where she took on the role of extended care supervisor before returning to High Street in 2012.
Her Montessori training has included classes at the Montessori Teacher Education Center as well as courses in early childhood development (ECE units) at Merritt College.
Alexia established a new eco-friendly program at the school and is now our composting and recycling coordinator, a position funded as a result of a grant she pursued for Rising Star from the Altamont Settlement Agreement in Livermore.
Alexia loves being a steward of green consciousness and helping children understand the importance of conservation.
Her son, Zeriya, is in the Pre-K program at the Cottage.
Annie Goodsill
For the past eight years, Annie has been involved in teaching art at a wide swath of schools throughout the East Bay.
Her classes have been taught at Canyon Trail Art Center, Madera Elementary, Harding Elementary, Studio One Art Center, Prospect Sierra School, Crestmont, and Emerson Elementary School in Oakland.
Whenever possible, Annie uses recycled materials with her students as well as in her own art practice.
She is currently the visual art teacher and part-time 5th grade teacher at Madera Elementary School in El Cerrito.
Her hobbies include watercolor, sewing, dancing, and surfing.
Check out www.AnnieArtist.com for more details.
Lighthouse Community
Charter School Creativity Lab
The Lighthouse Community Charter School Creativity Lab’s vision is to give people from all walks of life the opportunity to participate in designing and making.
We are building a K-12 program on site both to serve our own students, but also to help others see how design-make can be integrated into an entire school program.
We believe that all students are designers and makers and we want to give our students the choice to pursue their own passion by providing them with the opportunity to make at all ages.
Our team makes an effort to seek out and provide students K-12 with access to used, scrap, and recycled materials and tools in our making spaces.
This past year, students have assembled mutant toys from the parts of used toys, prototyped 3D designs using scrap cardboard, and created scribbling machines using recycled food containers.
To learn more about our program, please visit our website at www.lighthousecreativitylab.org.
Lighthouse Community Charter School is a K-12 free public school in Oakland, CA serving mostly low-income youth.
The mission of Lighthouse is to prepare a diverse, K-12th grade student population for college and the career of their choice by equipping each child and youth with the skills, knowledge, and tools to become a self-motivated, competent, lifelong learner.