Click below to hear about career changes and more:
When I first started this podcast, I knew I would love to interview my dear friend and past co-worker, Jamie Whitlock. I learned so much from Jamie as her coworker and learned even more from her just through doing this interview, and I am so excited to have her on the show.
In this episode, you’ll hear about Jamie’s experience in the classroom as a full time teacher and what she has learned from spending the last four years in other teachers’ classrooms observing and supporting them as an instructional coach.
We cover career changes, like Jamie’s transition into teaching as a second career, teaching a high stakes EOC-based course. We also discuss working on a team of teachers and how to collaborate with coworkers, even difficult ones or those NOT in your subject area.
Along with the topic of career changes, Jamie provides so much wisdom with regards to whole classroom management strategies as well as garnering respect from students, particularly in the difficult setting of teaching in a post-pandemic classroom.
She shares her experience working on her educational doctorate while teaching full time and raising two children and how earning this additional degree has really opened some amazing doors for her in the field of education.
Jamie is a second career teacher. She was in outside sales when she decided to go back to school to become a teacher. After 7 years as a high school biology teacher, Jamie moved out of the classroom and is currently an instructional coach in a large high school in South Carolina.
She partners with her teachers and works in classrooms co-teaching, planning, and modeling lessons. She approaches teaching and coaching with the firm belief that every student can learn and that meeting students where they are and moving them forward not only builds confidence in students, but helps teachers feel successful as well.
If you love today’s episode or want to know more about Jamie, reach out to me on Instagram. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the upcoming episodes. Next week we are starting an epic series about how to end your school year strong in order to set yourself up for next year!
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Topics Discussed on Collaboration, Career Changes, and More:
- Suggestions for working with other teachers in your department
- Why having differences in a group is more valuable than having a group that’s all the same
- Tips and strategies for classroom management that create an environment where all students can learn and feel that they have a place in your classroom
- How to communicate with parents in a way that keeps them involved and builds trust
- Keys to earning respect from your students and how perspectives and attitudes have shifted during and after the pandemic
- Importance of teaching to the standards and how it can have a big impact on test scores
- A first hand perspective example of career changes
Resources Mentioned:
Related Episodes and Blog Posts:
- A Manageable and Effective System for Parent Communication
- Start Strong: 5 Beginning of the Year Procedures to Teach
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More about Secondary Science Simplified:
Secondary Science Simplified is a podcast specifically for high school science teachers that will help you to engage your students AND simplify your life as a secondary science educator. Each week Rebecca, from It’s Not Rocket Science, and her guests will share practical and easy-to-implement strategies for decreasing your workload so that you can stop working overtime and start focusing your energy doing what you love – actually teaching!
Teaching doesn’t have to be rocket science, and you’ll learn exactly what you need to do to simplify your secondary science teaching life so that you can enjoy your life outside of school even more. Head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/challenge to grab your FREE Classroom Reset Challenge.
