 Jenavieve is busy Gibberish-ing it up in Los Angeles, and Julie is doing all the science in Santa Clarita!
So who exactly is Shopgibberish? Julie Huffman and Jenavieve Brown, from Los Angeles, CA are a mother daughter team that are busy making "the art of being a geek". Julie has an extensive background in science (both in informal science education, and in secondary and post-secondary classrooms) and both Julie and Jenavieve have a background in creating and selling art. ShopGibberish has 2 books + one on the way!How can so many wonderful things happen in one short year? That's the question we are asking ourselves! Shortly before the academic year began, Julie and Jenavieve signed two book contracts. One was for a postcard book, with quotes of famous scientists and artistic representations of their discoveries,
seen here:
Please go to the Books tab in the top right corner to find out more about them!
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"To love what you do and feel that it matters...how could anything be more fun?" -Katherine Graham
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Julie was chosen as a Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year!
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At a ceremony on September 18, 2015, Julie was honored as one of
16 Los Angeles County Teacher's of the Year. There are over 70,000 teachers in the county, so it was pretty awesome! What is the best part? Being able to take the honor back to her kids and fellow teachers at Golden Valley High School. GVHS is a school filled with amazing students from a diverse range of backgrounds, all with a great work ethic, and a super bright future. To be able to represent all of the talented teachers at her school and in the district was a dream come true! Here she is with her principal, Mr. Sal Frias! GO GRIZZLIES!!! |
And just when we thought it couldn't get any better...
Julie won her school, Golden Valley High School's Teacher of the Year award, and then went on to be selected as the William S. Hart Union High School District's Teacher of the Year! Boom!
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Julie Huffman Named Hart School District Teacher of the YearSANTA CLARITA, Calif - The William S. Hart Union School District has announced Golden Valley chemistry teacher Julie Huffman as the 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year. Huffman, who was the teacher of the year at Sierra Vista in 2007, has been teaching for 19 years, the last 13 with the Hart School District. She is co-chair of the highly collaborative science department at Golden Valley, helps run an at-risk program at the school, and created a family resource program at Sierra Vista Junior High.
"Julie is recognized as an exceptional teacher by her peers," said Mike Kuhlman, Assistant Superintendent, Education Services for the Hart School District. "She's incredibly creative in her lesson planning and her classes, as I've observed them, are rigorous, creative and fun. There is an excitement in what's happening in Miss Huffman's class." Huffman points to the teacher-driven "Next Generation Science Standards" that has increased collaboration throughout all of the science departments in the district as one of the more rewarding accomplishments of the last two years. But her "good days," of which there are many, always revolve around her students. "Good days are filled with learning, plain and simple," Huffman wrote. "And often times it is just heard in the silent smile or straightened spine of the student that just heard me exclaim loudly, ‘You, my friend, are brilliant!' followed with, ‘Now, can you help your friend here?'" |
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Shopgibberish
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...began over 6 years ago, after Julie created periodic table tile necklaces for the teachers she worked with! After lots of design adjustments and research, the ETSY shop was opened and kindred geeky souls were found! By the time the first holiday season rolled around, Jenavieve became part of the team and ShopGibberish has been growing ever since! ShopGibberish was fortunate to have their items sold in the gift shop at MIT and to be featured in New Scientist and BUST magazine, and to recently have their solar system necklaces featured on the amazing ThinkGeek website! ShopGibberish was a featured seller on ETSY's front page in June of 2011, which provided a great deal of worldwide exposure and led to being able to sell products in the gift shop at the Nobel Museum! Meeting so many interesting, enthusiastic science geeks in the last 6 years through ShopGibberish, has been ridiculously fun!
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California Science Teachers Association, NSTA and Maker Faire!
We obviously love science and we love making wearable geeky art, but more than anything we love combining the two! Going to science conferences and the one and only Maker Faire have become the highlight of our year, and a true FAMILY event! We really are a group of happy nerds!
The University of LaVerne
Julie has taught as a part-time instructor for the last several years! She teaches a class that is designed to help elementary teachers to teach science in their classrooms. She loves the curriculum and the chance to work with pre-service teachers again! They are energetic, enthusiastic, and ready to get into the classrooms! More pics to follow!
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Graduation!!
We love school!
Education and Science Director, Mad Science of Omaha and Los Angeles
After graduating from college, Julie was invited to help start Mad Science of Omaha and the opportunity to continue teaching science (while being loud, crazy, and having tons of fun!) was too appealing so she decided to put off classroom teaching for a wee bit, to help launch this super fun science program! Conducting large interactive science shows, workshops, birthday parties and summer camps was another great opportunity to help students fall in love with science!
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Camp Director at the University of Nebraska's Aim for the Stars Summer Camp
The Physics Department at UNO (where Julie was a full-time student) had received a large grant from the U.S. Army to conduct a summer program and Julie was hired to help them get the program in place. She was given a space in the department and the task of helping to create a multi-week, several hundred student summer camp program called Aim for the Stars. It was crazy, and a whirlwind of planning, but it was ruled a huge success!
Science Educator at the Omaha Children's Museum
Julie performed "science shows" for large crowds, helped supervise a legion of volunteers, taught seasonal workshops, scout workshops, overnights, helped with summer camps and r & d of new programs to get/keep the kids of Omaha learning and loving science!
Julie
 Nicholas is a lead and core trainer at Disneyland. He loves his job and his family, and I couldn't be prouder!
is a full time high school chemistry teacher and is working with the other teachers in her school district (in Northern Los Angeles County) to usher in the Next Generation Science Standards! She also teaches pre-service teachers as an part-time instructor with a Los Angeles University. What is she most proud of? Lots of things! She has found that raising two amazingly talented kids, Nicholas and Jenavieve, to be lots of fun! Watching them successfully navigate the world as young adults continues to be super rewarding, and their accomplishments are a constant source of joy! Working with hundreds of spectacular, promising students in the 20+ years of her career in science education has also been extremely fulfilling. Meeting so many amazing kids and their families and knowing that you've positively effected their attitude towards science is a thrill that is hard to replicate in any other professional endeavor. However, after spending all day teaching challenging chemistry concepts, she is grateful for the creative opportunities that ShopGibberish provides her!
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Jenavieve
now works full-time for ShopGibberish! She has always had a passion for art, having sold her first painting when she was thirteen years old. She was also enrolled in Saturday High art classes at Pasadena Art Center College of Design to further her education in illustration and fine art. She recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Feminist Studies. While she didn't study science as rigorously as her mother, she still finds it quite fascinating! She currently lives in Los Angeles where she makes the majority of the ShopGibberish products and writes many of the blog posts. She is enjoying life as an artist and couldn't ask for a better job! Working with her mother is one of the best parts, and working from home isn't half bad either!
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