Your Place for Fun, Rigorous, TEKS-Aligned Resources for Upper Elementary
We've GROWN!
When we first began Watson Works back in 2014, we had no idea how much we would grow or how much an extra set of hands would benefit us. In the beginning, we thought we could tackle it all ourselves, so with a “can do” attitude, we spent many late nights and weekends glued to our computers trying to crank out high quality resources for teachers. Slowly, we began collaborating with other well-trusted, brilliant teachers, who wanted to help create more top-notch resources that they could use in their classrooms, too. We quickly realized that the more great minds we had on our team, the better resources we would be able to make for teachers. We are so proud and thankful to have these teachers and helpers on our team and want to introduce them to you!
More Great Minds = More Great Resources
Ashley Watson
Co-Founder and Designer
Shannon DeVillier
Product Creator and Intervention Specialist
Heather Watson
Co-Founder and Curriculum Coordinator
Heather began her educational career in a 4th grade classroom teaching reading, writing, and science. While in the classroom, she truly believed that learning could be rigorous and fun at the same time, so she strived to create an environment that all students enjoyed while challenging them to think at higher levels and empowering them to take initiative in their own learning. Finding quality teaching materials that were aligned with standards at the level of rigor she needed was difficult, so she and a teaching partner often teamed up in their own time to write resources to use in their classrooms. She fell in love with curriculum and creating materials that helped her students be successful; little did she know, this would be the start of something bigger later on down the road.
After 4 years of teaching, she earned her Masters degree in Educational Administration and was offered the position of library media specialist in a PK-4 elementary library. As a librarian, she devoted her time to fostering a love of reading in her students, but she was also able to extend her reach beyond the library by collaborating with teachers on her campus and helping them incorporate creative teaching ideas and technology into the classroom. She often helped create resources for her teachers, and it was actually one of them who told her about a little thing called TeachersPayTeachers.com and suggested she begin creating resources to sell on their website. Since she knew she couldn’t do it alone, she joined forces with her sister, Ashley, and in 2014, they created their Watson Works store on TpT.
For the last 2 years, Heather has been working as the PK-12 curriculum coordinator for ELA and social studies for her school district. She helps oversee elementary and secondary curriculum and teaching standards and provides support and training for teachers. This invaluable experience has given her a broad perspective of elementary and secondary classrooms and enables her to stay in touch with learning needs and emerging trends in education.
Shannon has over 25 years of teaching experience at the elementary level. Most of her experience has been as a third grade classroom teacher, but a few years ago, she accepted an interventionist position, which has gladly forced her to learn both 2nd and fourth grade skills so that she could better prepare her students. She has taught all subjects, but math is her passion! Her teaching experiences include general education classes, self-contained inclusion classes, gifted and talented/talent pool classes, compensatory classes, and private tutoring. All have given her insight and a better understanding of where all types of kids are coming from and what they need to be successful. She is also a trainer of teachers for summer math academies and finds sharing and enabling other teachers to be a real thrill!
She is currently an intervention specialist and has aided teachers and serviced students in 1st through 4th grades, but her main focus has been 3rd and 4th grade students. Helping write for Watson Works was a no brainer! She needed rigorous, TEKS-based resources for her students and knew teaming up with Heather and Ashley to help them realize their vision would help her students, as well as thousands of students and teachers across Texas and beyond!
Ashley has spent the past 7 years doing graphic design for companies such as On the Border®, Michaels® Arts and Crafts, and Overwraps Packaging. Knowing she wanted to be part of something that made a positive difference in the world, she teamed up with her sister, Heather, to dedicate her talents full-time to making graphics that are visually stimulating and proven to increase student engagement in the classroom.
She received a bachelors degree in graphic design from The Art Institute of Dallas. As an experienced graphic designer, Ashley is able to create graphics for Watson Works' products that are eye-catching, bold, and uniquely different from others you see in education, making her an invaluable part of this team. She also designs and manages the Watson Works website, as well as all digital and print advertising and marketing campaigns.
Wendy Beall
Product Creator and 4th Grade Reading & Writing Teacher
Wendy has over 14 years of teaching experience teaching elementary in both public and private schools. Her experience includes teaching a 2nd grade self-contained classroom, being a 3rd and 4th grade reading and math interventionist, and for the last decade, she has taught 4th grade reading and writing, and she couldn’t love it more! Teaching reading and English is her passion, but as anyone who’s taught these subjects knows, because of the vast number of skills students are required to learn, it can be overwhelming to try to fit it all in one class period a day. Quickly she found that worksheets and textbooks didn’t spark a love of reading and writing in her students, and the one thing that was missing was fun.
And that’s what her experience with Watson Works brings to her classroom. She enjoys helping to write, and using, the material she helps create with her students. It brings differentiated learning to all the students she teaches, and it makes her job even more enjoyable. She can eliminate most of the typical worksheets or flipping through pages in the textbook from her lesson plans. Now, her students beg to do Watson Works games and activities, and it makes her job totally worth it!
Janie Kennon
Product Creator and 4th Grade Math Teacher
Janie brings an immense amount of math teaching experience to the Watson Works team as she has been teaching 4th grade math for three decades! So, to say teaching math is her passion would be an understatement. She has spent the last 30 years honing her craft and has teaching math to elementary kiddos down to an art. She has a gift for breaking down difficult math concepts for students so that they understand them and are able to feel successful in the classroom and on their end-of-year assessments.
Helping to write math materials for Watson Works has added a wealth of differentiated and student-centered learning activities to her teacher tool belt. She now has a go-to spot for skill-specific resources to help reinforce her students’ learning and to help prepare for state testing that she has been unable to find elsewhere. Students enjoy her classroom like never before, and she is at peace knowing that she is teaching every standard to the level of difficulty and rigor her students need to be successful in her classroom and beyond.
Vicki Watson
EDITOR
Krystal Watson
EDITOR AND SOCIAL
