Matt's blog

At BetterLesson, we're kicking off the new year with a campaign to recognize highly effective teachers called Featured Teachers. While part of the campaign is to capture and share their curriculum with other teachers on the site, the second part includes an interview to learn more about the teacher as well as to glean their insights into effective teaching practices.

We start off the Featured Teachers campaign with one of our very own, Christopher Cullen.

Chris taught 6th grade science at Roxbury Prep in Boston, MA from fall 2007 to spring 2009. He now works full-time with BetterLesson. Here is our interview with him:

1. Three words that describe your teaching persona:
Calm, Quirky, Demanding

2. Why teach?
I decided to teach because the process of education has made all the difference in my life and I wanted to continue to be an agent in the process to both give of myself as well as to continue to learn.

I continued to teach because it was an awesome challenge day after day, because I grew by embracing the challenges in a reflective and open way, and because I loved the relationships I developed with students in and out of the classroom as their teacher and on the soccer field as their coach.

I stopped teaching so that I could work with Alex at BetterLesson in an effort to strengthen the teaching profession through sharing and collaboration tools as well as through working to help teachers receive recognition for their work.

I learned that if I can teach, I can do anything. I will return to teaching down the line.

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

4. What do you do to optimize student engagement in class?
High expectations. Clear instructions. Fast pace. Body movement. Short clips of multimedia whenever possible.

5. Coffee, tea, or caffeine-free?
Water wakes me up!

6. Describe your classroom management style in a few sentences.
Very clear expectations and strict enforcement of the rules. To be fair is to be consistent.

7. Favorite Cartoon/TV/Movie Teacher:
Mr. Miyagi

8. Most vivid teacher dream?
100 students show up to my class, and I only have 25 sets of copies. I can't do anything to get their attention.

9. Favorite Book:
The Prophet

10. Is teaching a science or art?
With 25 sixth grade students in a class, teaching is theater and its success depends on practice, reflection, and refinement.

11. Anything to add?
I owe all of my professional development as a teacher to the wonderful staff at Roxbury Prep.

It's an exciting time at BetterLesson as the new school year begins. Networks of schools and educators participating in our fall pilot are building, organizing, and sharing their innovative curricula with teachers across the country. And as BetterLesson's community of educators grows, some in the press and blogosphere have taken notice.  

After Alexander Russo profiled BetterLesson in Scholastic Adminstrator, the popular technology news site CNET asked its readers, "what do you get when you cross teachers, tech, and social networking?" The answer: "A BetterLesson." CNET's Dara Kerr wrote a solid review, as she combined a keen understanding of BetterLesson's unique model with excerpts from her interview with Erin. The online technology magazine Digital Journal also spoke with Alex about BetterLesson's origins, purpose, and the response so far from teachers participating in beta testing. In the interview, Alex explains that when a teacher makes "a connection... even with a single educator—it can transform an entire year of instruction."

In the August issue of Scholastic Administr@tor magazine, Alexander Russo discusses BetterLesson and the promise of online curriculum-sharing. The article finds that "more and more, teachers are sharing and using lessons online," which provides "a more bottom-up, democratic approach to doing things." Russo points out that busy teachers want a site that is easy to use, is content rich, and ensures that the best resources rise to the top.

The piece discusses BetterLesson's recent round of funding from NewSchools Venture Fund, and compares BL to social networking sites like Facebook and Yelp. Check out the entire article here.