Gregory Woodward teaches 7th grade at Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Boston, MA.  We featured his Columbus: Hero or Villain? lesson last month, so you may recognize him.  Read our interview with him below and sign up or login to check out his detailed and rigorous curriculum materials.

1. Three words that describe your teaching persona:
Urgent, Structured, Honest

2. Why teach?
Watching students develop as people and as learners is incredibly rewarding. I am extremely lucky to have such an awesome job and work with such dedicated people (teachers and students) every day.

3. What would you be if not a teacher?
Environmental Crusader

4. What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?
Students are always doing something that is clear, measurable, and meaningful in a way that is understandable to them. Every lesson has to have an urgency that is palpable to everyone in the room, or else all is lost.

5. Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?
Coffee. Definitely.

6. Describe your classroom management style in a few sentences.
My management style involves calmness and honesty. I make the stakes of the class clear to students, that history has direct ethical and political consequences. I try to eliminate myself from the picture and make it all about what we are studying.

7. Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher:
Edna Krabappel

8. Most vivid teacher dream?
No lesson materials or plan! Total chaos ensues!

9. Favorite Book:
Too difficult a question...I'll just give you the last book I read, which I definitely liked: Kafka by the Shore by Haruki Murakami

10. Is teaching a science or art?
Teaching is a mix of both. The results need to be data-based (which I suppose is scientific), but the methods can have artistic qualities.

11. Anything to add?
I am truly lucky to work in education!

Paul Hobson teaches 3rd grade at King Chavez Arts Academy in San Diego, CA.  We featured his Phases of the Oreo lesson last month, so you may recognize him.  Read our interview with him below and sign up or login to check out his  detailed and rigorous curriculum materials.

1. Three words that describe your teaching persona:
Caring, Industrious, Resilient

2. Why teach?
I teach to provide my students with any supports that may be missing in their lives. I teach to encourage them to do great things. And I teach them to care.

3. What would you be if not a teacher?
Psychologist

4. What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?
Whole Brain Teaching (Formerly Power Teaching). It utilizes Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic strategies to keep students' attention during the lesson.

I have also been lucky enough to use a Promethean Board this year. I use it for every lesson. Student engagement has increased a lot because they are all able to interact with every lesson that we have. 

5. Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?
Coffee and Pepsi MAX

6. Describe your classroom management style in a few sentences.
I utilize a lot of Whole Brain Teaching techniques. (Class! YES!, Mighty Oh Yeah/Mighty Groan)

I believe in logical consequences. Every consequence has to be directly tied to the behavior.

I also love the Responsive Classroom Approach. Students need to feel respected and cared about in the classroom, even when they make mistakes. The responsive classroom values the social/emotional needs as much as the academic needs of all students.

7. Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher:
Mr. Kimble in Kindergarten Cop

8. Favorite Book:
The Giver

9. Is teaching a science or art?
Classroom Management can be a science. If done right, logical consequences, rewards, and social skills training can drastically improve the classroom community.

As far as teaching is concerned I think in order to be a good teacher you have to have the art.

 

Christine Ranney teaches 7th grade reading at MATCH Public Charter School in Boston, MA.  Read our interview with her below and sign up or login to check out her detailed and rigorous curriculum materials.

1. Why teach?
Selfishly, I teach because I dont believe there's a more dynamic field for me. Teaching allows me to use my creativity, problem solving and critical thinking skills every day. There are few places I feel more alive than in a classroom. And, of course, I teach because I believe that there is great disparity in how education is allocated in our country. Having been the first in my family to graduate from college, largely due to the influence of a few key teachers and leaders, I believe that teaching is a responsibility.

2. What would you be if not a teacher?
Travel writer.. or an astronaut.. or both!

3. What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?
I spend a lot of time getting students psyched for the next book we're reading. We do everything from wrapping up books as presents (and unwrapping them layer by layer based on pre-reading questions we ask about the text) to simply telling them that the next book might be too much of a challenge (Theres nothing more motivating, after all, than telling an ambitious middle schooler that they  might not be able to do something!)

4. Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?
Always coffee

5. Describe your classroom management style in a few sentences.
We have a pretty clear set of rules and consequences as a school. Having a clear point and demerit system that is consistent in all classes helps maximize learning. I also thinking that looping with my students and continuing to build relationships helps quite a bit.

6. Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher:
Joe Clark, hands down.

7. Favorite Book to teach:
To Kill a Mockingbird and anything by Ray Bradbury

8. Is teaching a science or art?
In part, I think that teaching is both a science and an art. There are certain moves in the classroom that are proven to work and those can be taught and practiced. Moreover, theres a science to creating objectives that are measurable and assessing whether your students have mastered content. Yet, there is another element that feels like an art. The creativity required to teach a lesson effectively by manipulating the various parts in a way that works and invest students in what they're learning is a craft. A well executed lesson feels much like a performance, both for students and teacher.

 

Login or sign up to view this featured lesson by David Kujawski, 6th grade Science teacher at  Bird Middle School in East Walpole, MA.

Jason Armstrong teaches 6th grade math at Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Boston, MA.  Read our interview with him below and sign up or login to check out his amazingly detailed and rigorous curriculum materials.

1. Three words that describe your teaching persona:
Serious, nerdy, rigorous

2. Why teach?
Simply put, America needs each generation to be well-educated. 

More selfishly: a phrase I learned while taking Latin in high school was "Disco docendo," which means "I learn by teaching."  I think it's quite true: I understand math better as a result of figuring out how to get others to understand it.

3. What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?
One school-wide gesture we have at Roxbury Prep is silent applause, which involves raising both hands and shaking them to show excitement or appreciation without interrupting somebody with noise.  This has morphed these last two years into students wiggling hands or fingers in someone's direction if they agree with that person or if they want to show support while they think of an answer.  It's a great way to engage the class while using wait time.

4. Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?
Caffeine-free

5. Describe your classroom management style in a few sentences.
I use primarily direct instruction and individual practice work in my classroom.  I try to be as explicit as possible about my class rules, and I think my class runs best when students know what is expected of them at each time.  My goal is to become better at making room in class for student discussion, where I talk less than they do, but it's something that I need to work on.

6. Is teaching a science or art?
Teaching has elements of both.  I put on a performance in my classroom every day, and that certainly makes teaching artistic.  At the same time, there are many things I've come to "know" about teaching (the root of "science" means "know"), things which can be practiced and analyzed.  Either way you see it, there is always room for improvement.

Login or sign up to view this featured resource by Gregory Woodward, 7th grade Social Studies teacher at Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Boston, MA.

Login or sign up to view this featured resource by Zach Blattner, former 12th grade AP English teacher at Roma High School in Roma, Texas.

Jamie Fritz teaches 7th grade Writing at Chavez Prep in Washington, D.C.  His administrators nominated his as a Featured Teacher.

Here is our interview with him:

1. Three words that describe your teaching persona:
Goofy, strict, energetic

2. Why teach?
I like the intersection of serious thought and performance art that teaching offers.

3. What would you be if not a teacher?
Graduate student in philosophy

4. What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?
Silliness. Wearing strange hats, telling jokes, jumping around at unexpected moments, etc.

5. Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?
Caffeine-free

6. Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher:
Robin Williams in "Dead Poets Society"--though I don't teach anything at all like him.

7. Favorite Book:
Crime and Punishment

Login or sign up to join the featured network Free Reading.  FreeReading is a free, high-quality, open-source, reading intervention program addressing literacy development for grades K-3.

Login or sign up to view/download this Featured Lesson by Pamela Bookbinder, 11th grade history teacher at Global Enterprise High School in New York, NY.