Jim Bentley

Jim Bentley teaches 6th grade in Elk Grove, California. He integrates research, reading, and writing with GIS, audio storytelling, filmmaking, civic action and environmental literacy in a project-based learning classroom. Bentley is a National Faculty Member for PBLWorks, a National Geographic Society Education Fellow and Explorer, and a KQED Media Literacy Innovator. As National Faculty, he leads professional development on implementation and refinement of Gold Standard Project Based Learning. As a Fellow, he reviewed and refined National Geographic’s Geo-Inquiry Process materials, trained teachers at national institutes, and contributed to the development of an online Geo-Inquiry course. As an Explorer, Bentley and students have researched and mapped how plastic moves from suburb to sea. They’ve studied the rise of orbital space debris and its parallels to marine pollution. More recently, they’ve begun using geographic information systems to analyze their community to understand how diversity, opportunity, and inequality are distributed spatially. Working with KQED and PBS, Bentley has supported media creation and literacy initiatives to empower teachers and students to be creators and consumers of digital media. Bentley graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in social sciences and an emphasis in cross-cultural studies.