Click above to listen to Podcast Episode 26: “The Importance of Student Relationships with Bridget Hocutt“ I still remember sitting across from a student during my prep period, watching her eyes well up as she finally admitted she had no idea what was going on in class. This was a junior who had been in … Read more
In month 3 of my first job, teaching World History for three months by then, I still had a student who hadn’t muttered a word. Not once. She turned in maybe a third of the assignments. I remember standing there, thinking, “I have no idea what to do with this kid.” That moment stuck with me … Read more
Student-Centered World | Jenn Breisacher Student-Centered World Struggling withstudent apathy?You’re in the right place. I’m Jenn, a high school teacher turned teacher teacher. I help educators break through the post-2020 engagement crisis and build classrooms that actually work. Learn my story → One email a week with tips, tricks, and strategies for today’s classroom. Join … Read more
I remember the exact moment a teacher I was coaching realized she had completely lost one of her students. She had been struggling to reach this particular kid for weeks. No eye contact. No participation. Assignments were turned in blank or not at all. She told me about it during one of our coaching calls, … Read more
I remember the exact moment I realized that “just try harder” wasn’t going to cut it anymore. It was the second semester with a group of high school juniors in a World History class. I had spent the previous evening meticulously crafting what I thought was a genuinely interesting lesson on the Silk Road, complete … Read more
I still remember the exact moment I realized how badly I had misread a student’s disengagement. It was my third year in the classroom, and a 10th grader sat in the back row of my World History class, hoodie up, head down, contributing absolutely nothing. I assumed he didn’t care about the material, that he … Read more
After 17 years in the classroom, I learned that the most dangerous thing in a room isn’t a disruptive student…it’s a silent one. The first time I realized student apathy has nothing to do with laziness, I was staring at a former student who’d failed my history class but could recite the damage-per-second stats of … Read more
I was standing in front of my period-four U.S. History class, midway through the second semester, when I realized not a single student was looking at me. I had a meticulously crafted lesson on muckrakers and trust-busting, complete with primary source photographs and what I thought was a compelling discussion prompt about corporate power. A … Read more
The first time I realized something had fundamentally shifted in the classroom wasn’t during a difficult lesson. It was during one of those low-stakes, can’t-fail activities I’d used for years in my high school classrooms. My juniors stared at me like I’d asked them to perform surgery. These weren’t hostile or disruptive kids…they just refused … Read more
Imagine you are about to start a group activity with 28 students. You give verbal instructions. Three students raise their hands immediately. Two more start arguing about supplies. One gets up to sharpen a pencil that doesn’t need sharpening. By the time you finish answering questions, half the class has already done the wrong thing. … Read more
I’ve been in enough high school classrooms, both as a teacher and as a coach observing other teachers “long distance”, to know that “how to engage high school students” is not a theoretical question. It’s the thing that keeps you up on a Sunday night, the thing that makes you rethink an entire lesson plan … Read more
We all have our favorite ways to engage students in the classroom, but there is always room to find more in classroom activities that will get your students excited about learning. Whether you are a new or experienced teacher, there is no replacement for finding activities that your students will actually want to participate in. … Read more
Most of us are trying to tackle the wrong one…and we’re starting the school year at a deficit instead of our nervous systems being back to 100%.
Find out what type plagues you the hardest and develop a plan to change it ⬇️