Meet Our USATestprep Brand Ambassadors - Part III

USATestprep Brand Ambassadors are classroom ninjas--using the power of the USATestprep platform to excite their students about learning and prepare them for the future. From assessments to homework, bell ringers to remediation, these power users know what it means to take teaching to the next level! You've already met some of our brand ambassadors in Part I and Part II. Let's meet some new ambassadors below.

Join us! If you're interested in being a Brand Ambassador with us, visit our Brand Ambassador page and fill out an application.

Ambassador Andrew Hoskins

I am a 10-year educator who teaches in rural southwest Missouri, (Cassville). I grew up in Ozark, Missouri which is in the Springfield Missouri area. I am a civil war buff, who loves to fish, hunt and enjoy the outdoors. Some of my favorite classroom experiences have involved field trips to our local civil war battlefields with one of my classes.

USATestprep has allowed me to make data-driven decisions to improve instruction and assessments in the classroom. This service has allowed my students to feel comfortable in a testing environment that is becoming more difficult from year to year. I love the various activities, games, and especially the performance event handouts which have allowed my students the ability to prepare a rigorous assessment.

Ambassador Travis Etheridge

I am a 4th-grade teacher going into my eighth year of being an educator. I went to Florida A&M University and attained my bachelors degree in elementary education and the University of West Georgia for my Masters degree in Instructional Technology. I teach math and science and have a goal to become an academic coach.

I use USATestprep as a guide to my instruction. The tutorial videos are used in small group sessions with my students. I also assign homework, classwork, and tests with the platform. Our 4th-grade students scored the seventh highest in the county due to hard work, diligence, and prepping with USATestprep mock standardized tests.

Ambassador Shonta Butts

I have been teaching for 15 years. My husband and I have been married for 19 years and we have three beautiful daughters. My husband and I are both educators with the Glynn County School System. I am originally from Arkansas but I moved to Georgia to attend college at Fort Valley State University. I took the non-traditional track to become a teacher because I have always loved helping students see the beauty in mathematics. I started as a long-term substitute teacher in 2004 and later became a teacher. I am now the Math Department Chair and current Teacher of the Year at Brunswick High School. Some of my hobbies include cooking, reading, traveling, and spending time with my family and friends.

I have been a fan of USAtestprep for about 10 years now! I absolutely love how the material is aligned to the state standards. I use this platform to access student knowledge and remediate in the necessary areas. Students are able to see their progress and know what they need to work on for improvement. By using USATestprep along with my curriculum resources, my students have shown tremendous growth.

Ambassador Shamika White

Long ago I realized that teaching is one of life’s greatest gifts. I seize every school year as a new opportunity to uplift children, to build relationships with each and every one of them, to challenge them, to inspire them, and more importantly to involve them in the teaching and learning process. Accomplishing this mission requires investing students and parents. As an alumnus of Clark Atlanta University and member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. “Culture for Service” is the embodiment of who I am.

Using USATestprep in my classroom has been the cornerstone of data-driven instruction. It helps tremendously with standards mastery, targeted remediation, individual weakness, and progress monitoring. It also helps provide rigor and relevance for short cycle assessments. It is a gem for extension learning beyond the classroom. This past school year my scholars were over 50 percent proficient and above as a result of instruction combined with USATestprep.”

Ambassador Shari Bellizzi-Davis

I am a classroom veteran of 30 years. I retired from teaching three times but am back for a fourth! I grew up all over the United States as a child of the military. I have taught theatre and music on all levels for many years. After retiring, I was asked back as a bolster for history scores. I use innovative ways of teaching Texas and American History to middle school students...they are my favorite age!I am a UIL One Act Play judge and raise registered Angus cattle. I'm a Texas Tech Tech Red Raider and a true lover of all things that educate, enrich, and exhort students to do well. My UIL Social Studies teams are always winners, and I love sharing and collaborating with other educators to find new ways to make history a thrill!

USATP has been a game-changer for my students. It gives them super information and has many ways to present material. I cannot do without it!

Ambassador Crystal Whitaker

I'm entering my ninth year of teaching high school social studies. In my free time, I like to read books and travel. Every summer I try to take a trip to a new place to share what I learned with my students. One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou: "The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

I began using USATP about five years ago and I have watched my End of Course exam scores increase by double digits. My students enjoy completing the games during class and for extra practice. I create folders for each standard that include performance tasks and it supplements my lessons very well by allowing my students the opportunity to do independent practices. The website is very user-friendly and it always provides constant formative feedback so I can modify my lessons and adjust as needed.

Ambassador Amy Tait

I have taught for over 23 years in both Florida and Georgia, public and private school, grades 5-12, and all subjects but science -- mostly English. There is very little in education that I have not done: yearbook sponsor, coach, department chair, testing coordinator, and numerous committees. I have spent the past few years working on ways to blend my curriculum and skills my students need with test preparation.

USATP has given me an amazing tool to evaluate and then differentiate for each individual student in my room in a variety of ways. I can also compare my students' achievements with those in other classes to help facilitate discussions with other teachers. This has become a tool I cannot live without!

Ambassador Jessica Price

I grew up and currently live in a small town in West Tennessee. I have been married for almost eight years and have a daughter that will turn two in August. Agriculture plays a major role in our lives and we are a very active family! My family farms, has cows, loves to ride horses, go to the lake, and watch Tennessee football!

I teach high school biology and absolutely love my job! I have used USATestPrep in my classroom since my first year of teaching. I love how it allows students to pace their learning!

Ambassador Nic Hann

I grew up in the small town of Cordova, Alabama. I moved to Georgia to attend Shorter University in Rome, where I graduated in May 2011. I started teaching and coaching at Coosa High that year, and I am beginning my ninth year teaching ELA.I am married to my wife, Marissa, and we actually met teaching together our first year at Coosa. She moved to a different school for a few years, and now she back at Coosa, and we both teach in the same department. We have one child, Eli, and we wouldn't know what to do without him. Our family loves the National Park system, so you can usually find us visiting an NPS site when we are not in school or I am coaching volleyball.

I use USATestprep in a variety of ways in my classroom. I love the differentiation tool that is available where I can provide my students with remedial assignments based on standards that they are struggling to master. My students like the Green Dot challenge that I use in my class. My students are allowed to login and work on the standards that they are coded pink or yellow in, and they work to move those to green. They do this outside of the classroom. When students complete certain assignments or master certain standards, they are rewarded with some type of incentive (field trip, extra credit, candy, etc.). The students are not only rewarded for their hard work, but they are getting stronger in my course content by working so hard on their own. This allows students to truly take ownership of their learning.I also use USATestprep to create system-wide benchmarks. After seeing the success that I was having by using this tool, my school encouraged me to share my results with our system. I have led workshops both within my school and throughout our system. I have shown teachers how to not just create benchmarks, but how to effectively assess that data that they benchmarks provide. Our system is now using USATestprep for all of our secondary ELA benchmarks.

Ambassador Channing Anderson

I have been in education since 2007. I am Nationally Board Certified with a B.S. degree in Electronic Media, and a Masters in Classroom Leadership. In addition to teaching in schools, I also teach on the mat. I am a 200-hour trained yoga teacher, and yoga teacher trainer. Currently, I serve as the Instructional Technology Specialist at East Point Academy in South Carolina. My hobbies include reading, drawing, and hanging out with my husband and kiddos. My favorite quote comes from the novel Ghosts of Heaven: "It is enough to know that not to know is enough- it is enough not to know.

I have used USATestprep since 2008. It was a game-changer for me. USATestPrep provided me with a valuable self-check. Since the questions align with SC State Standards, I am able to spot weaknesses in student knowledge and my teaching. Last year, I had a 100% pass on the End of Course Exam for English I. 71% of my students received an A, and the lowest grade was a 78. I give USATestprep credit for being THE tool that helped me push ALL my students to their full potential.

Ambassador Donna Purvis

I am an American literature and analysis writing lover, a triathlon junkie, and a Jedi in training! Needless to say, one of my favorite quotations is: "I would rather be weird than boring." I believe in challenging myself and my students to achieve our full potential...no matter how scary or difficult the task may seem. I grew up in a small farming community, worked in public relations in metro Atlanta, and then decided that teaching was my true calling. I use my real-world work experience to help my students understand that reading, writing, and communication are keys to success in life. At the end of my day, my mission is not to simply help my students learn Georgia Standards of Excellence, but also learn to be productive members of our learning community. Ultimately, my teaching philosophy mirrors that of Master Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."

USATP is the ultimate tool for data-driven instruction and remediation. While I have been a user for more than 10 years, my grade-level group just came fully on board for the 2018-2019 school year. I used USATP to create grade-level common assessments that were then used to target specific standards that needed remediation. I then used USATP to create specific standards-based common assessments for our grade level. Using these assessments in conjunction with the personalized remediation option available for our students in USATP, we were able to target the specific needs of all our students. Our Milestone scores documented significant growth from the Spring 2018 administration. I fully believe that a key component of our student success and growth lies in our use of USATP. Thank you!

Ambassador Anne Edwards

Born in Scotland to British parents, we immigrated to Canada in 1958, then immigrated to the USA in 1964, lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kentucky, Illinois, New Jersey, and finally Florida! Married 40 yrs to my beloved husband Chuck, we have one daughter, Kirsty who works for the State Attorney here in Orlando. I teach 6th-grade Ancient World History and have done so for almost 20 yrs. I've been a teacher for 32 yrs!!! I love Ghost hunting, traveling, teaching, painting, creating original Disney ears, and Scotland.

USATestprep changed how I used independent time and content review time in my classroom. My students LOVE the Green Dot Challenge and the content related videos with precise/short questions to check for understanding. I would often find my kiddos doing the content related crossword puzzles without being ASKED!!! As a teacher, I love watching my students grow in confidence during the year when working in USATestprep!

Ambassador Katrina McDuffie

I am an educator at The Rise Charter School, in East Point, GA. I hold a Ph. D. in Education, a Specialist Degree in Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, a Master’s in Education, and a bachelor’s in Early Childhood. Over the past 20 years, I have enjoyed working with parents, and colleagues to implement curriculums that stimulate intellectual growth of every individual. I am passionate about creating an environment for young scholars that is conducive for learning. I am actively involved in guiding, stimulating, and encouraging growth in young children.I am a proud wife and mother of three from Jackson, MS. My hobbies include dancing, shopping, visiting the movies and attending football games.

USATestprep is a very useful teacher tool to evaluate student academic progress. It has helped to improve student test scores across the curriculum. It is an extremely useful tool to help prepare our students for standardized testing.“I used USATestprep for benchmark testing at the beginning of the semester to guide instruction for the 2018-2019 school year. I also used the program throughout the semester for formative and summative assessments.

Things that I love about the program: Students can work on various modules (Standards) at their own pace while engaging with their peers. The program tracks the data from students and assesses their individually academically performance plan. I use the data collected to track my student progress for individual learning targets. It also gives an analysis of the overall class performance. The academic learning games from the program gives the teachers and parents a chance to see the students learning through play, while at the same time preparing them for benchmarks and assessments. I love the data the program provides because the data collected individual and as a class helps me to data drive my lessons.

Ambassador Emily Edens

I grew up in Memphis, TN but moved to Missouri before my freshman year of high school. I got a degree in History because I wanted to work at a museum. I love playing volleyball and hiking. My family consists of myself, my husband, and our three fur babies (2 cats and a dog). I live in Sullivan but teach just down the road in Bourbon (Government and US History). My absolute favorite movie is Jaws; I watched it when I was about 3 or 4 years old and became obsessed with sharks. My favorite classroom experiences have been ones where we have veered away from the curriculum and just explored the topics.

USATestprep has changed the way I assess my students and how I use that data. As a first-year teacher, I was struggling with how to utilize the data from my student tests and how to apply them to further lesson planning to ensure that they were prepared for their EOC and for later courses. I began using USATP in my classroom the next year and my student's scores improved and they felt more confident going into the EOC. The types of questions that students are exposed to allow them to think critically about the information and apply the knowledge rather than just repeating it.I use USATP in almost every class period. I use short answer questions as learning checks, bell ringers, etc. The class party and games are some of my student's favorite reviews. I also love how user-friendly the platform is! If I have a question or a concern, it is always addressed right away.