Luann Lee became a National Board Certified teacher in 1998 while teaching chemistry in Ohio. She came to Oregon where she now teaches chemistry and AP/dual credit chemistry at Newberg High School. She currently serves on her district’s Teaching and Learning Council and is a candidate support provider in Oregon. Luann is a founding member and current president of Oregon Accomplished Teachers, Oregon’s National Board network oregonaccomplishedteachers.org. A graduate of The Ohio State University and Wright State University, Luann holds a doctorate in science education from Ball State University. She blogs at www.chemistar.com/blog and can be found on Twitter as @Stardiverr.
Know Your Students
October 3, 2016
As a science teacher, I send a safety contract home with all the other beginning-of-the-year paperwork for my students and a parent, guardian, or other family member to read together and sign. Their signatures indicate that that they read and understand the course information and syllabus, the school’s electronics policy, the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, and the class safety rules. The truly important questions, though, are on the other side of the paper. As Joanna Schimizzi wrote in her last post, “Ban the Word ‘Parents,” families differ in ways that are important for teachers to understand. Families can also…
Read MoreLeading Together to Transform Teaching
August 25, 2016
It seems everyone has an opinion on teaching as a profession, these days. Nearly everyone can speak fondly of a favorite teacher, describing meaningful experiences and the impact that teacher had on students. Putting a label on the specific skills and qualities that made this teacher effective is not as easy. What attitudes, strategies, philosophies, or practices did this wonderful teacher possess that can be observed and developed in other teachers? How do we apply these criteria to teachers as we evaluate their work? And how might we develop such habits of excellence in other teachers? The National Education Association…
Read MoreEvery Student Succeeds Act – NBCTs Can Act Now!
March 21, 2016
No Child Left Behind has been left behind, after 14 years. Students in schools today have had their entire school experience influenced by NCLB. Teachers who have taught for fewer than 14 years have never known anything else, but that’s about to change with authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which has been titled Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). I learned about the changes coming with ESSA at the 2016 Teaching and Learning 2016 Conference, from Shelly Moore Krajacic, NBCT, and Donna Harris-Aikens of NEA, in the session titled “ESSA Implementation: Opportunity, Student Success, and Action.” Shelly…
Read MoreStudent Learning Parallels Educator Learning in National Board Certification
November 16, 2015
Editor’s Note: Luann Lee is an NBCT teaching chemistry and AP/dual credit chemistry at Newberg High School in Oregon. She is a founding member and current president of Oregon Accomplished Teachers, Oregon’s National Board network. The views expressed in this blog are her own. The goal of every educator is to help students learn. Perhaps our more important goal is to help students become independent learners, actively guiding their own learning. There’s nothing sweeter in my classroom than when students own and drive their learning. This kind of learning is not just student-centered; it’s also student-driven. Getting students to this…
Read MoreAligning Learning and Standards
July 17, 2015
Editor’s Note: Luann Lee is an NBCT teaching chemistry and AP/dual credit chemistry at Newberg High School in Oregon. She is a founding member and current president of Oregon Accomplished Teachers, Oregon’s National Board network. The views expressed in this blog are her own. Standards are changing, again. Presently, both my state and my district are working through a full-blown implementation of both Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). I’ve been asked to by my state submit a review of their draft NGSS High School Model Content Framework. And I’m one of 9 high school science teachers in…
Read MoreA Teacher’s Evolution through Board Certification
June 10, 2015
Editor’s Note: Luann Lee is an NBCT teaching chemistry and AP/dual credit chemistry at Newberg High School in Oregon. She is a founding member and current president of Oregon Accomplished Teachers, Oregon’s National Board network. The views expressed in this blog are her own. Most teachers write notes in lesson plans or course units about what worked and what didn’t work. It may be a single element that needs to be rewritten, modified, re-purposed, but sometimes, the whole plan just needs to be thrown out. A skilled, reflective practitioner has a system for making these lesson-planning decisions. This decision-making process…
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