K-12 Tuition Free Public School
Team FOURtitude
Malaka Donovan, Team Phoenix, 9th and 10th Grade English Facilitator
Malaka has had the opportunity to work with SCVi students first as a substitute teacher and then as a 3rd grade facilitator. For 2011-2012, she has returned as a full-time member of the SCVi team to teach 9th and 10th grade English. She’s excited about teaching high school and hopes to inspire, be creative, and explore the world though literature and writing.
Malaka graduated from Cal Lutheran University and is currently finishing her master's degree. She previously taught grades 3rd through 8th in a pioneering, project-based learning charter school in Arizona. During her five years there, she was thrilled to be able to practice project-based learning and become a master teacher. One of the school’s greatest accomplishments was receiving a grant to build two sustainable greenhouses.
Malaka later took a seven-year hiatus from her teaching career to finger paint, swing, and immerse herself in the world of her three beautiful children. Today, she fills her free time outside of teaching with triathlons, crazy outdoor adventures with her husband, gardening, photography, and anything with her family. She can be reached at malaka.donovan@scvcharterschool.org.
Christy Zimmerman, 9th and 10th Grade Biology Facilitator
Christy earned her BS in Biology from Cal Poly Pomona in 2002 and has spent the last nine years as a stay-at-home mom. Her kids are now in 3rd and 6th grade, and this will be their first year at SCVi, too! They are all so excited to be a part of the SCVi family and look forward to the project-based-learning format they felt was missing in traditional schools.
Her passions outside of teaching are knitting, hiking and camping with family, as well as the fields of anatomy and physiology.
She’s also proud to be "the weird neighbor" who has been known to facilitate impromptu ‘autopsies’ of roadkill snakes with a group of neighborhood children participating. She says "Life gives us so many opportunities to learn!". She can be reached at christy.zimmerman@scvcharterschool.org.