Interview With Leonor Rebosura

Leonor Rebosura

Retired teacher, administrator, and leader from Newark Unified School District

Q: Could you share your name, pronouns, and how you engage with science and learning?

A: My name is Leonor Rebosura, she/her. I actually just retired in June.

I was a classroom teacher for many years. I used The Lawrence’s Full Option Science System (FOSS) curriculum in my classroom in San Francisco Unified. I was there for eight years, then moved to Newark and continued using FOSS, because that was the program Newark was using. I ended my career as an administrator, but one of the things that got me involved with The Lawrence was back in 2009. There was a grant for the Bay Area Science Project (BaySci) to work with our elementary teachers to strengthen the FOSS program. I was the coordinator, so it was half-time working with The Lawrence, half-time in my classroom.

My work with The Lawrence continued on, especially when I became an administrator, because then I had the task of overseeing science. There was really no one at the central office looking over science. With my strong relationship with BaySci, I asked the science coordinator for the grant, and I built a relationship with them.

I continued working with our science resource teachers. They helped me build our science curriculum, making sure it was relevant and that the initiatives of the district were reflected in the science program. They helped us transition to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

At some point, we extended the district science leadership team to include K–12. So my team was now working with middle school very closely, because I led them through their own evaluation and pilot. We did that for two years. Then for high school, it was in and out, depending on the principal or assistant principal. But throughout, I was always involved K–12.

The science leadership team got even stronger during COVID, because our superintendent decided he wanted new K–12 initiatives. He wanted a focus on environmental literacy; he wanted every grade level to be going outdoors, maybe even an overnight trip somewhere. And mind you, this was 2020 — he also wanted a STEM and STEAM program, K–12, with computer science integrated throughout. He tasked me to organize the whole thing, to come up with a framework. So I worked with The Lawrence, and I also attended courses on computer science for education through Berkeley.

So our focus became K–12. We established an environmental literacy initiative that our superintendent called NUGO — Newark Unified Gets Outdoors. It had four sections: Classroom, Outdoors, Community Partnership, and Content. And then for the technology and computer science side, we started STAR — Science, Technology, Aerospace, and Robotics — beginning at the high school and eventually trickling down to kindergarten.

Q: Tell us more about your connection to The Lawrence

A: We met at least once a month to check in. We had goals set at the beginning of the year by everyone on the science leadership team, and they met with leadership — the superintendent and/or assistant superintendent, myself, and the curriculum director.

The Lawrence helped us run the science leadership team, which was attended by the assistant superintendent and sometimes the superintendent. We had board members come in. We made presentations to the board — what is NUGO? What is the environmental literacy plan? What are the four parts of it?

But beyond the formal meetings, it was constant communication: emails, phone calls. If there were bigger projects, we met more often. They came out, met with our teachers, did workshops. They helped make sure the plan for the curriculum was comprehensive — a whole-day thing where the FOSS team would make sure they touched everything: FOSS Outdoors, social-emotional learning, kit orientation, the online resources. And each grade level had its own team to work with.

Working with The Lawrence was… I don’t know if “collaboration” is enough of a word to really describe the relationship.

Q: What other partnerships and community connections made your work possible?

A: We had family science nights, and eventually those evolved into something bigger. One school, Lincoln Elementary, decided they wanted to focus on environmental literacy and really use FOSS and FOSS Outdoors. Deanna and Sarah worked with me to develop a series of workshops. What was really fun about working with them is that we’d sit down and talk — they’re the FOSS experts, and I have the classroom experience, having taught elementary — so it was a really nice exchange of ideas and expertise.

Part of our plan was community and family engagement. But we still couldn’t bring parents into the schools because of COVID. So we decided to do a family science day at a park next to the school. The science resource teacher prepared some of the usual family science night activities, but we also reached out to other organizations: Alameda County Water, the Humane Society, GEMS, Castro Valley, the Mosquito Abatement District, Coyote Hills, Ardenwood, the police department. We invited them all to come. I coordinated the logistics. And a lot of them were really excited — they set up, did their thing, and then were out by 4. The following year, the parents wanted to keep doing it. Parents brought tables, and organizations came back

We were also able to connect with someone who works with NASA. She extended the experience into the classroom, working with the second grade teachers once we could bring people back on campus.

For the field trip piece: I reached out to East Bay Regional Parks and shared our plan with them. They were able to come up with field trip programs for every grade level, K–5. Kindergarteners went to the Redwoods. Second graders went to Ardenwood; third graders to Coyote Hills, because they already had a program for third graders that aligned really well with FOSS, with third-grade social studies, and with our NUGO program. Eventually we added sixth grade. For seventh and eighth, it was trickier. The principals weren’t sure how to manage the schedule for field trips at the middle school level. But we figured it out.

I couldn’t have done any of this by myself. There was so much energy, it was really just a matter of tapping the right people. Honoring them. Making sure they knew their work was valued. And oh my god, what we were able to accomplish because of that, because they felt really a part of all of this.

It was really fun just being part of all of that and seeing their excitement.

Q: Who are your science heroes?

A: It’s hard to pick just one. It’s all my teachers.

Carol Rose was an elementary teacher who moved up to sixth grade at the middle school when the school transitioned from a K–5. She goes, “I don’t want my sixth graders to miss out on these field trips.” So she reached out to Monterey Bay Aquarium on her own, and she and I figured out a way to get all of the sixth graders out there, several days a year. When one teacher said they didn’t want to go, the assistant principal said, “I’ll take your class.” Everyone went.

Jacob Goldsman not only started computer science at Newark Memorial High School, but he worked with us to grow it into a much bigger program. He’s the one who introduced simple coding into the math classes, so that every ninth grader — whatever their background, whatever language they speak — could get a sense of what computer science feels like. And we saw a lot of students shift their electives to CS after that.

Renee Angelo, a second grade teacher, looked at a plot of land outside her classroom, started planting, took her kids out, and now they have a garden.

And Pauline — our part-time STEM teacher on special assignment — she and I attended the CS courses at Berkeley together and developed the whole program. She had the interest, the talent, and the knowledge of computer science for different grade levels. She was seeing about 450 kids a month. We started with 24 classes; by the time we were done, it was more like 75.

So I’m surrounded by science heroes!

What’s your favorite thing about science?

A: The ambiguity of it. But at the same time, there’s certainty.