New Teacher Bio: Courtney Pazin
Tessa Martin | tmartin25@dtechhs.org
Douglas Washington | rwashington24@dtechhs.org
Courtney Pazin is d.tech’s new tenth grade d.lab teacher. Her room is located on the second floor, room 227.
Pazin went to UC Santa Cruz, and studied modern literary studies. She got her masters in education from Notre Dame de Namur, just down the road on Ralston Ave in Belmont. While her teaching background is in English, she enjoys her students and learning new things while teaching design for impact.
Pazin enjoys surfing, reading, writing, and playing with her dog and cat. She describes herself as ocean-oriented and a lifelong learner. Her favorite things about d.tech so far are her advisory group, running her clubs.
Pazin runs two clubs, poetry club and reading room. She says that poetry club typically takes place during Wednesday's second WYN session. She describes the club as a place for students to read, write, and present poetry. Pazin also hints at exciting activities in the future, such as poetry slams. She created this club because she loves poetry and wanted to provide a place for students to explore this subject. Reading room takes place on Fridays and is a place to bring a book and relax while reading. Pazin says that she started this club to create a space where students could zone out and focus on their book.
Pazin thinks the school could improve by having a library and jokingly mentions it would be nice to have no school on Mondays or Fridays.
Design for Impact, Pazin’s subject, is about how to use the design thinking process to come up with a solution to an aspect of one of the seventeen United Nations’ sustainable development goals. These are goals that are considered most important to be solved by 2030 and range from quality education, to clean water, sanitation, sustainable cities, zero hunger, life underwater, and more. Students spend their Sophomore year on a project related to one of the goals. They try to solve one of these problems on a local level in their community. For example, a student focusing on sustainable cities and communities may create a plan to create green roofs on public buildings. Students have the choice to continue with their project for the innovation diploma, this is when they would begin to implement their plans.