About Open Classroom
About K-5
Coming soon!
Julie Crawford
Julie Crawford grew up near vast orchards in the San Fernando Valley where she developed a deep appreciation of the outdoors and an interest in all species of living things with the exception of a few Arachnids. She relocated to Agoura Hills during high school and was a graduate of the first "School Within a School" Open Classroom program implemented at Agoura High School where she flourished as a student and developed a strong interest in biology and oceanography. Although she initially majored in biology at UCLA, she earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and enjoyed college jobs/internships working as an electroencephalogram technician, a youth crisis counselor, and a hospice volunteer. Her interest in medical-legal issues grew and led her to the Paralegal Studies program at UCLA Extension where she obtained a paralegal certificate. For ten years she worked as a litigation paralegal at firms that handled many high profile cases, and she enjoyed the challenges of complex litigation and assisting with civil jury trials.
After starting a family, Julie enjoyed spending many hours working with children as a classroom volunteer, a Sunday School teacher, a little league parent, and a girl scout leader. She decided to change her career path in 1998 and started her education studies at CSUN. She completed her student teaching at Portola Elementary in 2000 and has worked for Ventura Unified School District since that time teaching kindergarten, 3rd, and 5th grades. In 2008 she earned her master's degree in educational administration and enjoyed learning more about the theory, practice, and administration of public education.
As a result of working with her own children and her classroom students, Julie truly appreciates that each child has unique learning modalities and that many students benefit tremendously from non-standard approaches to curriculum. Two of her four children have been more successful outside of the traditional educational "box", and Julie has guided them through a variety of alternative educational settings including private school, home-schooling, and independent study. Her son Ryan will be starting an Open Classroom type program at his public high school this year, and Julie is optimistic that he will thrive emotionally and educationally in a smaller student-centered program.
In her spare time Julie enjoys cultivating her garden and has planted sixteen new trees this year which she waters and admires daily. She enjoys playing with her Labbe dogs, Tigger and Tinkerbelly, who keep her busy finding new ways to keep them from excessively barking, digging, and scaling fences. Her favorite hobby is spending time with her husband and four children doing activities that they all enjoy including traveling, playing, and exploring in a variety of locations. Julie always loves reading, relaxing at the beach, and going to the movies. She can be found far too often at Starbucks! This summer Julie is very excited to be starting in Open Classroom, and she is looking forward to moving up to the middle school grade levels.
For more information:
Contact the Open Classroom Admissions Officer at:
805-289-1817 ex 2220 or admissions@theopenclassroom.org