American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

Providing support for teen and tween students can be a challenging task, “particularly for new teachers,” writes Tennessee high school math teacher Ty’ara Jones.

“The classroom should be a safe haven where students feel comfortable no matter their level of proficiency,” she writes for Edutopia. “It’s essential that educators build appropriate and trustworthy relationships with students, so that they’ll develop a passion for learning.”…

According to Mike Chapman, a former instructor with the Cadet Corps Leadership Program at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., “the greatest opportunity that the pandemic provided was the opportunity to teach — and learn — outside.”

“For example, at my school, we were fortunate enough to teach all of our classes outdoors for most of this past year,” he writes for Edutopia. …

There’s an element of risk involved when an educator shares classroom ownership with students, writes special education teacher Rachel Jorgensen for Edutopia.

“Teachers must let go of the expert role and understand that students do best when they have the opportunity to take part in meaning-making,” she writes. “Strategies such as co-created notes offer a structured approach to collaborative learning in the classroom, inviting students to work with their teacher to construct meaning from content knowledge.”…

Sharing photos of pets and expressing a range of emotions are ways in which teachers can be themselves at school and in the process “enhance the learning environment and improve our overall job satisfaction,” writes longtime Houston educator Crystal Frommert for Edutopia.

Read her full teaching strategies column here.

Prior to being a tutor, Keven Tell says he had “never given a serious thought to a career in education.”

“Full- or part-time tutoring experiences could have a similar impact on others,” writes Tell, a public school teacher in Minneapolis since 2014, for The Hechinger Report. “In fact, tutoring might be one solution to help address the teacher shortage following the pandemic, while providing meaningful work for new college graduates looking to make a positive difference in the world — and helping students learn.”…