teacher spotlight | Educational Development Software

September 24, 2020September 23, 2020

Teacher Feature: Kelly Huber

September: when weather starts to cool down, foliage may begin to change, and of course, school is back in session. The COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting this current school year, so students and teachers alike are adjusting to further changes. To honor the hard work teachers do everyday, we are continuing our ongoing series where we spotlight teachers.

Kelly Huber is a first grade learning-support teacher at the Punxsutawney Area School District in Punxsutawney, Pa. She gives her students instructions on how to perform better in school and helps give them modifications to achieve these performance increases.

Her passion for teaching comes from her love for children and helping them achieve their “Aha!” moment. She finds it important to be real around students because they are smart, and they know when you are “putting on a show.” She tries to establish a good relationship with her students in case a kid is acting up in her class. Kelly often sees that their acting up is out of frustration, so she is determined to see if something is going on so she can understand their problems.

Kelly lives by example for her students; she tries to be respectful, a good listener, and polite to encourage her students to follow suit. If there is a conflict between her students, she sits them down to learn both perspectives in the situation.

Like many teachers, Kelly encourages her students to help others. She rewards students who have a good explanation to help their fellow students understand a topic. She tells the other students to congratulate them and give them a round of applause. When she sees a student helping another, she tells them good job. They also have a “token economy,” where students are rewarded with tickets as prizes for committing good deeds.

When the pandemic struck hard in March, she was doing instruction in the classroom but had to quickly adjust to reaching out to her students from her home. For this fall school year, she is still unsure what will happen but knows everyone will do what they need to reach out to the students.

Google Classroom was the biggest classroom used in their school districts, where they sent instructional videos and had assignments based on them. They used phone calls and Google and Zoom meetings for spelling lessons.

“Everyday is going to be different. There will be good days and bad days, but that doesn’t indicate you as a teacher. As long as the children are learning something and feel proud of themselves and cared for, that’s what matters,” she said.

If you know a teacher you’d like us to feature, feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook page!

July 30, 2020July 29, 2020

Teacher Spotlight: Nikki Silva

It takes a special person to be a teacher, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2019-2020 school year tested teachers all over the world on their adaptability skills. It may be summer, but we still feel that a teacher’s hard work should be noticed.

Meet Nikki Silva, 3rd grade teacher at Carteret School District in Carteret, New Jersey. Nikki is an upbeat and passionate person who hopes to spread this behavior to her students. As an avid reader and writer, Nikki dreams that one day in the future she can publish a children’s book that encourages them to be who they are.

The desire to encourage children follows her in the classroom, too. One of her favorite things about teaching is that she’s able to impact the future by making a difference in students’ lives. To her, nothing feels better than watching concepts click together in her students’ heads, giving them that “Aha!” moment.

When it comes to reinforcing life skills like kindness and empathy, Nikki says “it needs to be sprinkled throughout the school year.” She recommends that other teachers find it in everyday life and bring it to the lesson, rather than trying to plan lessons for the topic.

“Not everyone has those cheerleaders in their lives to teach them that kindness, empathy, and friendship is important. They’re in school for most of the day, so we have to teach them to be the best little humans,” Nikki said.

One example she thought of was when her class was reading a book called “An Extra Yarn.” As they read through the book, she pointed out occurrences of kindness throughout the story. She’ll also tie in other current events to showcase the kindness and empathy that can be taken from the stories.

Outside of small comments during every lesson, she tries to teach her students that not everything in life is perfect, but it’s important to try to make the best of every situation. Nikki and her students will have morning meetings where they talk about how even the smallest gestures can improve someone’s day. If she’s having a rough morning, she’ll let them know, but also tell them that seeing them made her day better.

Nikki also feels it’s important to praise her students when they naturally perform kind actions. She tries to teach them that not everyone is good at everything. For example, she has “tech students” that will help other students with connectivity issues.

“Some students are just spirited that way in which they’re helpers and want to do it themselves, which encourages other classmates,” she said.

They also have a “secret” gift they give to other students outside of their classroom, called kindness tickets. Whenever her students see someone outside of their class doing a kind deed, they give out kindness tickets to reward others for their actions.

Like many teachers, the COVID-19 pandemic has made Nikki’s way of teaching change. She’s learned to try new things, such as even more programs and technology. They used FlipGrid, Kahoot, and participated in virtual field trips to make learning remotely more exciting. She and her students still held morning meetings over Zoom, but it wasn’t exactly the same because the personal aspects were missing. Her solution was to split her students off into smaller groups so there was a little bit of closeness.

She has definitely missed hugging her students and doing other hands-on activities with them. Despite the change to remote learning, she still feels they maintained their connection. She drove by their houses to see them, and when she did so she gave each student a rock to paint. This rock signifies that they may be separate now, but they will always be part of her third grade family.

When Nikki isn’t teaching her students, or working on her novel, she’s spending time with her daughters. Keep an eye out in the future, and maybe someday you’ll see Nikki’s novel out there in the world!

Do you know a teacher who you think should be featured? Send us a message on Facebook!

June 10, 2020June 9, 2020

Teacher Spotlight: Brooke Mischler

Many people become teachers so that they can not only teach students basic learning skills, but also teach them behavioral skills and improve the world as well. This is no exception for Brooke Mischler. Brooke is an elementary life skills teacher at Somerset Area School District in Somerset, Pennsylvania. Her passion for teaching comes from the love of watching her students grow.

Maple Ridge Elementary School, where Brooke teaches, has a program to show the importance of positive behavior. The program highlights positive characteristics and rewards students for showing them. Inside Brooke’s classroom is a bucket with the purpose of being filled with poufs. It gets filled with poufs when kindness is seen in the classroom. Once the bucket is full, the classroom has a pizza party to reward the students for their actions.

The students are also taught social and emotional lessons through literature. It’s not a curriculum, but rather literature-based lessons with examples.

“I try very hard to practice what I preach,” Brooke said about how she lives by example. Even when she is having a bad day, she tries to be upbeat to exemplify the characteristics that she teaches to her students.

“Teachers must be models of kindness, especially at elementary level. Teach kindness explicitly. It takes a community of examples to make it a part of their being. It starts with us,” Brooke said.

However, she did add that teaching kindness to children should happen everywhere they go.

As for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching, Brooke had to adjust the ways she communicated with parents and incorporate new technology into her teaching. She began writing her students letters, which is something she traditionally wouldn’t do since she sees them almost daily in normal circumstances.

The Somerset Area School District used instructional packets with YouTube videos. With the use of bi-weekly Zoom calls, the teachers were reading books, teaching skills, and generally trying to keep their students connected.

When she’s not teaching, Brooke enjoys hiking, camping, group meditation, and attending concerts.

April 17, 2020April 16, 2020

Teacher Spotlight: Renee Saylor

During this stressful time for many teachers, we want to show our appreciation for them. Last month, we showcased a teacher on Facebook, and we want to dedicate a blog post to her, too.

Meet Renee Saylor, a 12th grade teacher at North Star High School in Boswell, Pennsylvania. Renee is passionate about teaching because of the relationships she can develop with her students. Since she teaches seniors, she enjoys giving them the skills and knowledge to help prepare them for the world. Renee tries to relate many of her lessons to current events and adjusts her curriculum to what they want to know.

She also incorporates team-building activities and encourages her students to make eye contact and shake hands with their partner. When her students are reviewing each other’s writing, they use a “1 glow-up, 1 grow-up” system, which means they’ll say one thing they like about the piece and one thing that needs improvement.

During a unit she had taught on relationships, she found an article that said today’s teens are thought to be the loneliest generation yet. She asked them to write their thoughts on it and share it with the class. She wanted everyone to know that we all get lonely sometimes, so it’s important to remember that before you think. She could tell many of them were getting emotional on the topic and self-reflecting.

At the back of Renee’s classroom, she has a “Senior Brag Board.” Its purpose is for her students to shout each other out. Renee says all kinds of encouragement and praise are on the board: from Fortnite wins, to college acceptances and big-game scores.

One of the biggest ways Renee tries to relate and empathize with her students is by being as authentic as possible. She holds one-on-one conferences with her students to keep up with their lives and see if they’re anything going on. She wants her students to know that teachers are more than just figure-heads at the front of the room; they’re real people, too. She apologizes when she makes mistakes and participates in writing activities and shares what she wrote. This is how she tries to lead by example.

When Renee isn’t teaching, she enjoys exercising, crossfit, and teaching yoga.