Kokopelli Consultants
Debbie Scruggs
Debbie Scruggs, owner and consultant of Kokopelli Educational Consulting, began her teaching career in 1991 in New Mexico at Zia Day School.
She has worked with the CENAC schools (Coalition of Educators for Native American Children) through various reform efforts. Debbie, with a
team of CENAC teachers, applied for a Rural Systemic Initiative (RSI) grant from the National Science Foundation. In 2001, Santa Fe Indian
School received a $2.5 million five-year RSI grant entitled the New Mexico Tribal Coalition - RSI on behalf of the CENAC schools. Debbie
was named as the principal investigator of that initiative.
Debbie earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Elementary Education from the University of Colorado and her master's degree in Elementary Education with Emphasis on Math and Science from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1997. Debbie has facilitated hundreds of math in-services and workshops, and has provided 5000+ hours of classroom modeling and coaching services in New Mexico and Arizona. She has presented numerous workshops for educators on preparing students for the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment – Math. Debbie has taught elementary math methods courses at UNM.
Russ Fisher-Ives
Russ Fisher-Ives has
over 23 years of teaching experience and is certified by the NM Department of Education in math and science.
From 1997-2004 Russ was the Head of Rio Rancho High School's SciMatics Academy where was responsible for overseeing the development,
implementation and maintenance of all math and science programs for two schools, for the high school and Mid/Hi.
Russ's dedication to the training and professional development of teachers, and to creating and implementing related programs are numerous. He developed Inquiry Facilitators, Inc., to provide professional development for teachers to embed research into their classrooms for teaching teachers inquiry-based educational strategies to promote student research and help them use research strategies to teach NM standards. Some of the workshops he has developed are: Bootcamp for Teachers and C.A.N.E. that focus on science and math inquiry to impact student learning by changing teachers' lives.
Tina Aragon
Tina Aragon is a licensed master teacher with a BA in Business Administration (NMHU 84) and an MA in Elementary Education (UNM 98). She is currently in the process of earning a Master of Science Teaching degree from New Mexico Tech in Socorro. Tina’s experience as a classroom teacher includes five years in the New Mexico public school system and eight years with the Bureau of Indian Education. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she served as a school-wide Math, Science, and Technology (MST) School Leader.
Tina’s expertise is in Brain Compatible Instructional Techniques, Standards Based Instruction and Assessment Strategies, Science and Mathematics Coaching, and International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) protocol. Her passion is to ensure that students are provided opportunities to enjoy learning within a rich educational environment and to realize that their potential is unlimited!
Debbie Perkowski
Debbie Perkowski
has spent her educational career helping people understand mathematics. For over 25 years, she
has worked with teachers and students at all grade levels from pre-K through college. She has conducted numerous mathematics
workshops throughout the country to help teachers, teachers of teachers, and school administrators better understand mathematics
content and pedagogy.
Debbie is well versed in both content and pedagogy at all grade levels. She has been repeatedly recognized by students and colleagues as an outstanding classroom educator and has received the Governor's Teaching Award for college professors in her home state of Missouri. She and her husband, Michael, are co-authors of the book “Data and Probability Connections: Mathematics for Middle School Teachers.”
Tom Hoopingarner
Tom Hoopingarner has spent his educational career helping people understand mathematics. For over 29 years, he has worked with teachers and students at all grade levels from K through ninth grade. He has conducted over 2,500 hours of mathematics workshops throughout the country to help teachers, teachers of teachers, math coaches, and school administrators better understand mathematics content and pedagogy.
Tom is knowledgeable in both content and pedagogy at all grade levels. He has been repeatedly recognized by students and colleagues as an outstanding classroom educator and has received the Southern Arizona Middle Level Educator of the Year award twice. Tom has also been recognized as a Distinguished Graduate from his high school for the work he has accomplished for mathematics education. Tom has also authored numerous test questions used for district benchmark tests and state level assessments.
Chris Confer
Chris Confer has been a bilingual educator for 30 years, as a mathematics consultant, an elementary teacher, resource teacher, instructional coach and coordinator of a district mathematics initiative. As a math coach she helped guide Pueblo Gardens K-8 School in Tucson, Arizona from “Under-Performing” status to “Highly Performing.” Although Pueblo Gardens students speak five languages and 96% of its students qualify for the free lunch program, 94% of its third grade students have met or exceeded the standard in mathematics for four consecutive years and other grades at Pueblo Gardens score similarly high.
As a national mathematics consultant, Chris has worked with schools, teachers and principals from coast to coast, working as an independent consultant as well as with Math Solutions Professional Development and WestEd. Chris has authored four books about mathematics education, Math By All Means: Geometry for Grades 1-2, Teaching Number Sense in Kindergarten, Teaching Number Sense in Grade 1, Sizing Up Measurement: Activities for Grades 3-5, and she contributed the lead article to The Math Coach Field Guide: Charting Your Course. Chris has served as a technical expert for the Center for the Mathematics Education of Latino/as and was a teacher leader for the Educational and Community Change school restructuring project.
Chris is featured in the Annenberg Institute’s video series, Teaching Math: A Video Library K-4, and she served on the national committee that developed the National Standards for Early Childhood Mathematics Education in the year 2000. Chris Confer received her B.A. in Elementary Education and her M.A. in Reading from the University of Arizona, she has administrative certification and is endorsed in bilingual education and early childhood education.
Cindy Chapman
A 30+year veteran
of elementary classrooms, Cindy has been a Board member and is the International Representative of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
She has held numerous positions and committee memberships for NCTM. Cindy is a founding member and past Board of Directors member of
TODOS: Mathematics for All, a new national affiliate of NCTM.. Cindy's school, Navajo Elementary, is currently the official
elementary TODOS School.
Cindy won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching in 1995. Cindy was a Fellow of the New Mexico Fellows for the Advancement of Mathematics Education.. She has held many state and national positions, and Board memberships for committees and programs that assist in setting standards and develop teacher excellence to further the goal improving mathematical education. Cindy participated in a US-Russia project to learn about a Russian mathematics curriculum under the auspices of Best Practices in Education. Cindy spent two weeks in Moscow and in Siberia to see the curriculum in action in Russia. Cindy has made numerous local, regional and national presentations on mathematics education. In 2002, Cindy attended the XVI Congreso de Asociacion Nacional de Profesores de Matematicas in Saltillo, Mexico where she presented a workshop for elementary teachers in Spanish.
Cindy delights in children's mathematical thinking and knows that all children CAN learn mathematics. She says some of the most exciting times of her life have been watching and listening to children think and do mathematics.
