It is important to understand the many ways that students learn. Some students learn better visually, which is through seeing; some are auditory learners, which means they learn easily by listening; and still others are hands on learners and learn best by doing. This last category of learners is kinesthetic learners, and they need to engage in something physical to get the best learning experience. 

Teachers who took part in our December 2021 Twitter Chat addressing safe learning environments reported increased capacity for reducing incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying in schools. Because school safety is vital for student academic performance and their social-emotional well-being, it is important that new teachers gain awareness and confidence in this area early in their careers.

In fall 2021, Rutgers Alternate Route launched its Content Conversation Series. The Content Conversation Series is an initiative created for educators to learn collaboratively. A volunteer facilitator is selected by Rutgers Alternate Route to lead a virtual hour-long session on a skill, topic, or resource relevant to an instructional content area. For the fall Content Conversation, attendees discussed implementing the Next Generation Science Sciences (NGSS) from veteran science educator, Minal Thakur.

Faced with responding to the needs of our communities during the height of the pandemic, our faculty and staff proved exceptional at every turn, starting with the sheer logistical challenge of turning an in-person learning landscape into remote classrooms nearly overnight. Returning to in-person instruction brought new challenges. To even begin, we needed to connect with our staff and understand what they needed to be successful. We did our best to ensure the safety and health of our faculty and staff, but even our most valiant efforts did not please everyone. At the beginning of the school year, we too had teachers resigning at the eleventh hour.  All the while we continued to recruit new hires who would be a great fit and who wanted to be in-person with scholars. I’d be lying if I told you this was easy.