NLP hires new coordinator to oversee the Checkology™ virtual classroom

John Silva, who has used the News Literacy Project’s curriculum as a history teacher in Chicago, will now be aiding other educators as NLP’s Checkology™ virtual classroom coordinator.

The new position is the result of the explosion of interest in the virtual classroom, which was introduced in May 2016. In its first 10 months, 4,500 educators who teach 550,000 students throughout the United States and in at least 38 other countries have registered to use the platform.

“As a teacher, I saw firsthand the impact News Literacy Project had on my students and their ability to evaluate and think critically about news and online media,” Silva said. “I became an advocate for NLP among my colleagues and have used NLP curriculum for several years. I am very excited to join the NLP team and bring that curriculum to classrooms throughout the country through the Checkology™ platform.”

He comes to NLP with 13 years of experience as a history teacher with Chicago Public Schools, including seven years at Lindblom Math & Science Academy, one of CPS’s top selective enrollment schools. He began working with NLP at Lindblom, where he implemented the curriculum in his 8th-grade and 11th-grade history classes.

A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Silva spent several years in corporate telecommunications positions before deciding to become a teacher. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in the teaching of history and has a master’s degree in education, with a concentration in educational technologies, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2012.