29 Jan 2013
“This is where I want to be,” WW Teaching Fellow Matt Oney told the Jackson Citizen-Patriot–in a high-need high school getting the students who most need the help excited about science. “I like seeing that light bulb go off.” Four Fellows were featured in the Cit Pat’s January 28 article on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s [...]
22 Jan 2013
Earlier this month, Indiana parent Krysten Moon saw 2009 WW Teaching Fellow David Johnson on a local TV show. Here’s what she had to say: I’m a mom on winter break in central Indiana, watching a [local] television program … with my teenagers. It is a discussion by teachers of their goals, disappointments, hopes, but [...]
07 Jan 2013
From IUPUI’s School of Science comes this great story about John and Jordan Skomp—both IUPUI grads in chemistry, and now both WW Indiana Teaching Fellows in the IUPUI master’s program preparing Fellows to teach STEM fields in high-need high schools. The Skomps married before graduating—she in December 2011, he in May 2012—and were both named Woodrow [...]
03 Jan 2013
Just before the holidays, Ashley Westra and Marsha Zimmerman–both 2009 Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows–were named as Fellows in the National Science Teachers Association’s 2012-13 New Science Teacher Academy. Ashley, a top 2009 biology grad from the University of Indianapolis (YouTube), is now an eighth-grade science teacher at Goshen Middle School in Goshen, Indiana. Marsha, [...]
17 Dec 2012
Teaching Fellow Sheila Pritchett describes what it was like to have veteran teachers mentor her during her year of clinical placement. That’s what the WW Teaching Fellowship calls student teaching, but it’s student teaching on steroids–for a full year, with expert mentors all the way. Sheila, who now teaches freshman bio and biomedical enrichment classes [...]
29 Nov 2012
Ryan Cox, a 2011 WW Indiana Teaching Fellow from IUPUI, teaches engineering and technology at Sheridan High School in Sheridan, Indiana. As WISH-TV recently reported, his students have created an alternative energy plan to power their school. The local school board is considering the proposal. More on the story in this three-minute video: Sheridan students [...]
08 Oct 2012
As the days get shorter and the air chiller, the leaves of summer are turning from green to gold. How can teachers incorporate the arrival of fall into their lesson planning? Check out this idea from the Kitchen Pantry Scientist for a seasonal treat the whole class can enjoy! Using a few odds and ends [...]
20 Sep 2012
This past week’s Chicago Teachers’ Union strike has once again drawn public attention to teachers and their work. In a great blog post this week on Education Week Teacher, teacher Sandy Merz talks about the need to clarify public perceptions of what teachers actually do and their roles in influencing education policy. “Most everyone recognizes [...]
10 Sep 2012
Last spring I read Searching for Hope: Life at a Failing School in the Heart of America by Matthew Tully, a journalist who wrote a weekly column in The Indianapolis Star while spending a year at Manual High School in Indianapolis. Having taught at a “failing” inner-city urban school, I am always amazed at how [...]
30 Aug 2012
I’ve heard of an old military saying: “Amateurs talk strategy, dilettantes talk tactics and professionals talk logistics.” It’s not clear who said it first (perhaps Gen. Omar Bradley), but that doesn’t make it any less true. In the classroom, you can have phenomenal content knowledge (strategy), amazing lesson plans (tactics), but if you don’t have [...]