Category: Perseverance
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STEM Teacher Preparation and Retention
As we prepare the enter the 7th week of the fall semester, I can’t help but reflect on how quickly time passes. In fact, the summer seems both as though it was just yesterday and yet a lifetime away. I’ve met new students and families, attended countless fall sports games, spent precious evening hours planning…
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Building Math Skills Through Short Tasks
I used to laugh at, and repeat all the jokes about math and numbers. You know – “there’s an infinite amount of real numbers – why make up imaginary?!” Or the “I liked math until they started adding letters!” and so on. I thought that, after I scraped by Calculus 2 in college with a…
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Teaching STEM: Navigating a Path to Success Part 1
Do what I like to call taking the ‘temperature’ of the class as students enter the room each day. No, I don’t mean that you should literally measure their bodily temperature as they walk in (thank you COVID for that flashback to the 2020-2021 school year).
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Voices From the Field Panel – Noyce Summit 2023
I love to share about small town America, and about how many opportunities are available to those who live there, even if those opportunities aren’t immediately obvious. In June of 2023, I was invited to speak on the Voices From the Field Panel at the NSF Noyce Summit with 5 other Noyce Fellow teachers. We…
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The 2023 Noyce Summit
I was a shy child. I remember feeling incredibly frustrated with myself whenever someone would try to talk to me because instantly my tongue would feel as though it was stuck to the bottom of my mouth and I could only mumble a few words quiet filled with spoonerisms (e.g. a chy shild rather than…
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Top Ten Tips for New Teachers
Congratulations! Diploma in hand and certifications acquired, you are ready to step into your own classroom! It is a scary but exciting time, and it can be hard to know where to start. Here are some tips to help you establish a positive and effective learning environment: Build Positive Relationships Take the time to get…
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Why Choose Teaching After 2020?
There’s a lot of negativity surrounding education lately, but especially following the COVID pandemic. I absolutely agree that there is a lot to be down about: lost learning time, education gaps and missing foundational skills, a widening achievement gap, and a complete end of education for some (World Economic Forum, 2022). That’s to say nothing…
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A Summer Haiku
In honor of summer rapidly approaching, I wanted to share a few summer themed haiku. Haiku is a Japanese style of poetry written in three lines, the first line containing 5 syllables, the second 7, and the 3rd line with 5 syllables once again. Haiku also typically describes nature or the seasons, what better way…
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Who Am I?
The world can take you wondrous places and lead you to meet incredible people. Life brought me to small town Kansas, to a school with fewer than 200 students K-12, to a farming community lucky enough to have a bank, a hospital, a bar, and 5 different churches. This is my home. I will live…
The Small Town STEM Teacher 