Hi! We're
Kim and Annie.
We didn't start PRISM because we had all the answers. We started it because we spent years looking for them — in classrooms across four continents — and realized too many teachers were doing the same thing alone.
Proudly obsessed with great teaching.
Kim Mackenzie
Educator · Instructional Leader · Curriculum SpecialistI'm a science educator, instructional leader, and curriculum specialist with over a decade of experience teaching and developing curriculum across diverse educational contexts, from New York City public schools serving over-aged, under-credited students to elite international schools in Korea and Ghana preparing graduates for top universities worldwide.
I specialize in inquiry-driven instruction, evidence-based assessment, and the design of rigorous, standards-aligned curricula across NGSS, AP, and IB frameworks. I've led departmental curriculum initiatives, redesigned assessment systems, and coached colleagues on data-driven instruction, all with the goal of creating intellectually vibrant classrooms where students engage in critical thinking, scientific argumentation, and authentic problem solving.
My work blends deep pedagogical expertise with creativity and warmth, helping both students and teachers develop the confidence and curiosity needed to thrive in challenging academic environments.
Annie Peterson
Educator · Researcher · Curriculum SpecialistI'm a passionate educator, researcher, and curriculum specialist with experience spanning a diverse array of educational settings. My career started in less formal education settings, doing community outreach and teaching English as a second language, and eventually brought me to several years working at top international schools in Korea, China, and the Netherlands.
I have taught and developed curriculum for an exceptionally diverse range of learners, from students with special learning needs and English language learners to high-performing college-preparatory students bound for elite universities. These varied experiences have given me a deep understanding of how to design instruction that is both rigorous and accessible, ensuring every student has a pathway to success.
With students at the center of my practice, I believe meaningful learning happens when teachers bring both confidence and authenticity to the classroom, creating environments where curiosity, challenge, and support work together to help all learners thrive.
Deep expertise.
Real classroom experience.
Our backgrounds span frameworks, systems, and student populations that most educators never encounter in a single career. That breadth is what makes our work practical rather than theoretical.
Curriculum Frameworks
Expertise across NGSS, IB MYP and DP, Advanced Placement, as well as state, national, and provincial standards from the UK, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Diverse Learners
Extensive experience supporting multilingual and ELL learners, students with special educational needs, those in credit-recovery and alternative pathways programs, and high-performing college-preparatory students across very different school contexts.
Global Experience
Combined teaching and curriculum work across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa in international schools, public systems, and community settings has made us highly adaptable collaborators, comfortable working alongside teachers, administrators, and communities with very different needs and starting points.
Assessment Design
Deep experience building assessments that are rigorous, inclusive, and aligned to learning goals. Our approach draws directly from education research, ensuring that what we design actually measures what it claims to measure — and produces data that teachers can use to make meaningful instructional decisions.
We built the thing we wish
had existed for us.
We both look back on the infancy of our teaching careers with a wince and a rising heart rate like most teachers do.
Though we came to teaching very differently (Annie through a steady two-year college program, Kim through a whirlwind six-week alternative certification) we both realized very quickly that we were underprepared and desperate for information we didn't have and weren't sure how to get.
When the two of us met teaching together at an international school in South Korea in 2015, we spent every second of our planning time dreaming and scheming how good our courses could be. We put our sciencey brains to work digging through research to find out:
- How do kids actually learn?
- How do we find out what our students know?
- Which instructional practices really work?
But a few other questions crept up, too:
- Which of those things is going to help me get through my classes tomorrow?
- How do I put all this into practice when there's never enough time in the day?
- And, most confoundingly: Why isn't anyone teaching us this stuff?
Since then, our careers have taken us to classrooms across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Different schools. Different systems. Different students. But the same questions kept following us around: about what teachers actually need to teach well, what good support really looks like, and why it's so hard to find.
PRISM is our answer — built by two teachers who still remember exactly what it felt like not to have one.
Ready to bring PRISM
to your school?
We would love to hear about what you are working on. Reach out and let's start a conversation.