Attend the Learning Lab! | Teacher Testimonial

Speaker: Erika W., 4th Grade Teacher, TX

What would you tell another educator considering attending the Learning Lab?

Erika W.: I would tell another educator to definitely attend a Learning Lab, just because I think one of the big things for me was to go in to make sure that what I was doing was correct, what I was doing was right, but also to kind of gauge other people’s ideas — kind of where were they coming from and how they were applying Studies Weekly to their lessons. What were they getting out of it? What were they doing great on?

So it just allows you as a teacher to be like, “Okay, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing correctly,” because sometimes you don’t get that.

What new ideas from the Learning Lab are you most excited to implement?

Erika W.: I’m excited to implement these interactive notebooks. We talked a lot about it in our Learning Lab, and I like how this notebook kind of lives with them throughout the year.

And it’s not just me handing them worksheets, you know, sometimes there are sheets, but it’s a lot of them filling in their own information, filling in their thoughts coming from our discussions about a topic into them, writing it into their own words.

So when they are able to go to the test, they are able to look back on the information that they personally gathered from their interactive notebooks and apply that to assessments.

What do you and your students love about Studies Weekly?

Erika W.: I think the thing that my students and I love about Studies Weekly is how engaging it is through conversation.

I think our unit before, well, the curriculum we used before, was a lot of bookwork, and with Studies Weekly it allows my students to not only have conversation with partners or their tables.

It allows us to bring ideas together and to talk about it more. And so they’re able to be engaged longer, and it allows that information to kind of sink in a little bit more.

Erika lives and breathes teaching! With two parents in education, she feels born into the profession. With a five-year career behind her and experience teaching every grade from Kindergarten through fifth, she has consistently found joy in the love that students find in learning.

She beams, “When they get a question right, when they are proud of their work, when they get giddy about a new lesson…that’s what I look forward to!”

Erika is also passionate about showing her students her enthusiasm and love for teaching: “I love [teaching], but I know they love having a teacher who loves it!”

She strives constantly to help her students enjoy the learning process and not worry about looming assessments and grades. It is important to her that her students feel present and engaged in class and that the classroom is a happy and enjoyable place. 

One way she accomplishes this is through classroom conversations and discussions using Studies Weekly Social Studies. Remembering her old curriculum, which was mostly bookwork, she reflects, “Now, [history] is something that my students look forward to.”

For teachers struggling to make learning enjoyable, her advice is to remain easy-going and focus on the journey as a whole.

“If you don’t get to a lesson, that’s okay. If a lesson takes two days longer than you thought, that’s okay. As long as you’re teaching what you need to be teaching, make learning fun, and the journey an unforgettable one.”