AJ Webster
MakerSpace Innovation Specialist at St. Monica Catholic High School- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Jeremy Yanofsky
I have had the honor and privilege of working closely together with AJ at GameDesk and then later when I became part of the founding faculty of a brand new progressive middle school AJ co-founded called Catalyst: A Learning Hub. Joining the effort to create a brand new school dedicated toward meeting the needs of middle school students in the 21st century demanded ingenuity, perseverance, and versatility, and AJ had all of that in spades. With his diverse depth of experience in the field of education, AJ was -- and still is -- an incredible person to turn to when you are tinkering with developing truly student-driven, inquiry/project/play-based learning curricula and you are striving to figure out what the most impactful and organic ways would be to forge strong connections across multiple different disciplines. AJ is not only a tremendous sounding board for your ideation process no matter what the educational topic might be, to be clear; he will dive into the weeds of whatever topic you are exploring with you and bust out his literal toolkit, laser cutter, and whatever other crafty maker utilities he has available to help you see your efforts through. In my decade plus experience as an educator and non-profit curriculum consultant, that is not at all a quality I have seen to be anywhere remotely as common as it should be in someone in a position of academic leadership. If that was not enough, AJ is also trained in Myers-Briggs personality assessment, and he puts that training to excellent use when conducting professional development in order to help you and your colleagues understand yourselves better in terms of the different shades of gray in how each of you might perceive and approach various challenges in organization, curriculum development, implementation, student assessment, school-home communication strategies, and more. Having that expertise on hand helped significantly as it helped all of us at Catalyst devise strategies for how to leverage each other's strengths and how to support each other in areas in which we sought to improve for ourselves. All in all, if the opportunity arose again in the future to work for and together with AJ to continue pushing the envelope in education, I would be there in a heartbeat.
Daniel Paschal
A phenomenal talent in both teaching and education technology, it was a great pleasure to work with AJ on projects at GameDesk and Playmaker. His introspective nature and ability to look beyond his own existence to get the core reasons that we, as people, learn what we learn is nothing short of life changing. He and his partners helped make Playmaker the game changer that it was. That and he was a pretty snazzy dresser. Made me want to wear vests.
Jeremy Yanofsky
I have had the honor and privilege of working closely together with AJ at GameDesk and then later when I became part of the founding faculty of a brand new progressive middle school AJ co-founded called Catalyst: A Learning Hub. Joining the effort to create a brand new school dedicated toward meeting the needs of middle school students in the 21st century demanded ingenuity, perseverance, and versatility, and AJ had all of that in spades. With his diverse depth of experience in the field of education, AJ was -- and still is -- an incredible person to turn to when you are tinkering with developing truly student-driven, inquiry/project/play-based learning curricula and you are striving to figure out what the most impactful and organic ways would be to forge strong connections across multiple different disciplines. AJ is not only a tremendous sounding board for your ideation process no matter what the educational topic might be, to be clear; he will dive into the weeds of whatever topic you are exploring with you and bust out his literal toolkit, laser cutter, and whatever other crafty maker utilities he has available to help you see your efforts through. In my decade plus experience as an educator and non-profit curriculum consultant, that is not at all a quality I have seen to be anywhere remotely as common as it should be in someone in a position of academic leadership. If that was not enough, AJ is also trained in Myers-Briggs personality assessment, and he puts that training to excellent use when conducting professional development in order to help you and your colleagues understand yourselves better in terms of the different shades of gray in how each of you might perceive and approach various challenges in organization, curriculum development, implementation, student assessment, school-home communication strategies, and more. Having that expertise on hand helped significantly as it helped all of us at Catalyst devise strategies for how to leverage each other's strengths and how to support each other in areas in which we sought to improve for ourselves. All in all, if the opportunity arose again in the future to work for and together with AJ to continue pushing the envelope in education, I would be there in a heartbeat.
Daniel Paschal
A phenomenal talent in both teaching and education technology, it was a great pleasure to work with AJ on projects at GameDesk and Playmaker. His introspective nature and ability to look beyond his own existence to get the core reasons that we, as people, learn what we learn is nothing short of life changing. He and his partners helped make Playmaker the game changer that it was. That and he was a pretty snazzy dresser. Made me want to wear vests.
Jeremy Yanofsky
I have had the honor and privilege of working closely together with AJ at GameDesk and then later when I became part of the founding faculty of a brand new progressive middle school AJ co-founded called Catalyst: A Learning Hub. Joining the effort to create a brand new school dedicated toward meeting the needs of middle school students in the 21st century demanded ingenuity, perseverance, and versatility, and AJ had all of that in spades. With his diverse depth of experience in the field of education, AJ was -- and still is -- an incredible person to turn to when you are tinkering with developing truly student-driven, inquiry/project/play-based learning curricula and you are striving to figure out what the most impactful and organic ways would be to forge strong connections across multiple different disciplines. AJ is not only a tremendous sounding board for your ideation process no matter what the educational topic might be, to be clear; he will dive into the weeds of whatever topic you are exploring with you and bust out his literal toolkit, laser cutter, and whatever other crafty maker utilities he has available to help you see your efforts through. In my decade plus experience as an educator and non-profit curriculum consultant, that is not at all a quality I have seen to be anywhere remotely as common as it should be in someone in a position of academic leadership. If that was not enough, AJ is also trained in Myers-Briggs personality assessment, and he puts that training to excellent use when conducting professional development in order to help you and your colleagues understand yourselves better in terms of the different shades of gray in how each of you might perceive and approach various challenges in organization, curriculum development, implementation, student assessment, school-home communication strategies, and more. Having that expertise on hand helped significantly as it helped all of us at Catalyst devise strategies for how to leverage each other's strengths and how to support each other in areas in which we sought to improve for ourselves. All in all, if the opportunity arose again in the future to work for and together with AJ to continue pushing the envelope in education, I would be there in a heartbeat.
Daniel Paschal
A phenomenal talent in both teaching and education technology, it was a great pleasure to work with AJ on projects at GameDesk and Playmaker. His introspective nature and ability to look beyond his own existence to get the core reasons that we, as people, learn what we learn is nothing short of life changing. He and his partners helped make Playmaker the game changer that it was. That and he was a pretty snazzy dresser. Made me want to wear vests.
Jeremy Yanofsky
I have had the honor and privilege of working closely together with AJ at GameDesk and then later when I became part of the founding faculty of a brand new progressive middle school AJ co-founded called Catalyst: A Learning Hub. Joining the effort to create a brand new school dedicated toward meeting the needs of middle school students in the 21st century demanded ingenuity, perseverance, and versatility, and AJ had all of that in spades. With his diverse depth of experience in the field of education, AJ was -- and still is -- an incredible person to turn to when you are tinkering with developing truly student-driven, inquiry/project/play-based learning curricula and you are striving to figure out what the most impactful and organic ways would be to forge strong connections across multiple different disciplines. AJ is not only a tremendous sounding board for your ideation process no matter what the educational topic might be, to be clear; he will dive into the weeds of whatever topic you are exploring with you and bust out his literal toolkit, laser cutter, and whatever other crafty maker utilities he has available to help you see your efforts through. In my decade plus experience as an educator and non-profit curriculum consultant, that is not at all a quality I have seen to be anywhere remotely as common as it should be in someone in a position of academic leadership. If that was not enough, AJ is also trained in Myers-Briggs personality assessment, and he puts that training to excellent use when conducting professional development in order to help you and your colleagues understand yourselves better in terms of the different shades of gray in how each of you might perceive and approach various challenges in organization, curriculum development, implementation, student assessment, school-home communication strategies, and more. Having that expertise on hand helped significantly as it helped all of us at Catalyst devise strategies for how to leverage each other's strengths and how to support each other in areas in which we sought to improve for ourselves. All in all, if the opportunity arose again in the future to work for and together with AJ to continue pushing the envelope in education, I would be there in a heartbeat.
Daniel Paschal
A phenomenal talent in both teaching and education technology, it was a great pleasure to work with AJ on projects at GameDesk and Playmaker. His introspective nature and ability to look beyond his own existence to get the core reasons that we, as people, learn what we learn is nothing short of life changing. He and his partners helped make Playmaker the game changer that it was. That and he was a pretty snazzy dresser. Made me want to wear vests.
Experience
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St. Monica Catholic High School
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United States
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Primary and Secondary Education
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1 - 100 Employee
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MakerSpace Innovation Specialist
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Jul 2022 - Present
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Self Employed
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Real Estate
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1 - 100 Employee
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Educational Conference Presenter
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2012 - Present
OESIS Webinar: Play, Relevance, and the Quest for Engaged Learning 2017 iLead TED talks: Whole Human Education 2017 El Camino HS Professional Development 2017 Archer STEM Conference 2015, 2017 IndieCade 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Games in Education 2015, 2016, 2017 OESIS 2016 Fandango “Big Changes in Education” 2016 Playful Learning Summit – 2014 keynote “Pedagogy of Purposeful Play,” 2016 TicketMaster “Big Changes in Education” 2015 Perkins & Will’s Spark LA panelist (the future of education) 2015 California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) - “Roleplay for Ancient Civ” 2014 InnovatED LA 2014 PLS @ Games, Learning, & Society 10 – “Context over Content” 2014 EdSurge 2013 Institute For the Future Panel 2013 Progressive Educators Network 2012 Center 4 Effective Learning Symposium 2012 Show less
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Self-employed
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Real Estate
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1 - 100 Employee
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Exploring
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Jul 2020 - Jul 2022
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California State University, Northridge
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United States
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Higher Education
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700 & Above Employee
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Instructor
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May 2021 - May 2022
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Sycamore School
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United States
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Primary and Secondary Education
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1 - 100 Employee
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Founder
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Jun 2015 - Jul 2020
The Sycamore School is a new elementary school that launched Fall of 2015 in Malibu, California. Sycamore is founded on the ideas that learning must be engaging, continuous, and future-focused. This means that old habits and pedagogical models must be examined in a new light. Game-based and project-based learning are key features. Co-founding educators Christy Durham, Tedd Wakeman, and AJ Webster are committed to providing their students with an education that is relevant today while preparing them for the uncertainties of the future. Show less
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Educator/Designer
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Jun 2012 - Jun 2014
Developing and implementing a game-based teaching program. Worked in conjunction with GameDesk, #6 Fast Company's innovative education co's. http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2013/industry/education Developing and implementing a game-based teaching program. Worked in conjunction with GameDesk, #6 Fast Company's innovative education co's. http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2013/industry/education
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The Buckley School
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United States
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Primary and Secondary Education
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100 - 200 Employee
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Teacher
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Aug 2001 - Jun 2012
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Game Desk
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United States
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Computer Games
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1 - 100 Employee
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Volunteer
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2011 - 2011
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Owner
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Mar 1998 - Jul 2001
Corporate research services supporting executive recruiting. Corporate research services supporting executive recruiting.
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Education
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2011 - 2013
California State University-Northridge
Master's degree, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies -
1991 - 1995
Rice University
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), History & Asian Studies
Community
