Steve teaches ten to twenty of our courses at any given time and emphasizes group discussion between all course participants. As he says "it's not a lecture series" that he is giving but a collaboration on teaching strategies. Feedback for Steve's courses is overwhelmingly complimentary and at least 50% use the exact phrase "Steve Novak is fantastic!" We understand w...
Guess what? March is Music in our Schools Month, and appropriate in my opinion. If you live in the northern half of our country you always feel relief as winter fades and spring approaches. If you live in the southern half you look forward to earlier and longer sunshine. Time to get out of the stale indoor air and filter your lungs and watch the trees and plants build buds on their way to flowe...
Lynn (Henny) with Jade, Chau with Emerald
Lynn Nguyen is my aunt. Well, she’s my wife’s aunt. Ok well she’s not her hereditary aunt, but she fell in love with my wife and her two sisters when they were all babies and neighbors and she’s been an incredib...
Melissa Pettey is swirling in the rapids of a truly inspirational charter school project and I got to interview her about it yesterday. As usual my notes look like tornado fallout because excitement got the best of me and she could discuss it for days. I’ve said it more than once but I&rs...
These articles are meant to spotlight excellent teachers with whom I've had the good fortune to discuss education and their unique perspectives, and yet I so often commit the sin of talking about myself. So here we go again...
On the path to career piloting many spend time as an FAA Certified Flight Instructor. To earn that certificate you have to learn to teach after having learn...
I read yesterday that there are more planets in the universe than seconds have passed since the Big Bang. It’s not even close - 20 sextillion planets (conservativ...
I’ve been looking for someone with whom to discuss alternative teaching methods, and Jill Rockwell introduced me to the best possible teacher to begin. I forgot to ask Steve Schank for an inclusive title for his teaching position, but he did say he teaches:
Animal Science - Livestock
In each conversation I’m noticing a similar pattern, which is somewhat attributable to the line of questioning:
Why did you become a teacher?
I've known for a long time that I wanted to work with kids.
Why did you become the kind of teacher you are?
Well I just sort of arrived there.
How did that happen?
Karlee Hunt has taught the third graders at Little Elementary in the Denver suburb of Arvada, CO for four years. The school is named for John R. Little, who neither of us know much about, but it’s also actually somewhat little and even shrunk a bit last year. The district opted to move sixth grade students and teachers into middle school. Change is stressful but necessary for evoluti...
Tammy originally wanted to teach history, but there were no vacancies. In preparation for the open position in Special Education, she completed two post-secondary courses and dove into an unexpected passion. She didn’t rate it out loud to me, as such, but she is so obviously into teaching, and improving at teaching, and succeeding at teaching, and candidly offering her affinity for teachi...
For opening your classroom doors every day and unlocking students’ potential – we thank you.
For sharing your wisdom with students while they share their germs with you - we thank you.
From teaching students how to compute complex math equations to showing them that they count – we thank you.
For awakening hearts and inspiring minds – we tha...
Kaylee recalls with certainty “I knew in first grade that I wanted to be a teacher someday,” which to me seems early. I focused on jokes, snacks and naps back then. She was so impressed with her teacher that she made efforts to...
