Rachel Wegner

Director of Curriculum and Professional Development at

John Muir Charter Schools



I began teaching in 2002 at a new elementary school in Chula Vista, CA under a principal who greatly believed in the power of giving teachers the autonomy to experiment, make mistakes and learn together. I struggled through the challenges and pitfalls of being a new teacher there while teaching 1st and then 4th grade before moving to Colombia to teach at an international school with my husband. After a year of teaching abroad and a hiatus from work to travel through South America, we moved to Long Beach, CA where I found a position midyear teaching 9th grade English at a high poverty, inner city high school. The following months proved to be the most challenging and formative time in my career while I came to understand the power of building trusting relationships with students, increasing engagement and motivation by assigning relevant and meaningful work, and the necessity of clear expectations and systems for creating a safe learning environment. Throughout this time I discovered that working with opportunity youth was my passion and a few years later I took a position with John Muir Charter Schools, a dropout recovery high school that serves 16-25 year olds in partnership with vocational training programs at sites across California. I taught for four years in this setting before moving into the administrative position I currently hold for JMCS. I feel very fortunate to be able to bring a wide range of educational experiences to my role now and aim to constantly raise the bar for our school and our students. The values instilled by my first principal have held fast - experimentation, mistakes and learning drive my work every day.

 

In my non-professional life, I am a mother of three powerful girls who challenge me and my husband to become better and wiser every day. We live in San Diego, CA and spend our time playing at the beach, hiking, camping, playing UNO and reading together. My daughter thinks I should share that I also have green eyes and wear big sunglasses and floppy hats.