Author: Jolene Zywica, PhD

Teacher Spotlight: Catherine Dempsey

Last week, Catherine Dempsey, one of the exceptional teachers at Quest Forward Academy Omaha, shared some of the ways she engages students in active, skills-forward learning.  As a science teacher and coach since 2021, Catherine... Read More

10 Strategies for Developing Work Skills

In my last post, I described four essential work skills to help your students work smartly, efficiently and successfully. Those skills are:   Focus   Plan   Make an Effort   Document Today I’m going to focus on... Read More

4 Work Skills Your Students Need To Succeed

Today we’re going to focus on four work skills that will help your students work smartly, efficiently, and successfully. These skills emphasize executive functioning and are essential for students to succeed in school, career, and... Read More

Engaging in class, in school, and in the world

Learning happens everywhere, not just in school. To truly understand and support a student’s engagement in learning we need to look beyond the classroom.  Engagement in learning can be seen from several perspectives: in class,... Read More

Effective Feedback Loops Help Students Engage and Learn Actively

As teachers, we know that students learn and perform their best when they’re actively engaged in the learning process. While there are many different ways to make learning more active, one strategy we’re focused on is on... Read More

Get to know the Learning Skills that help students COMMUNICATE

At last, we arrive at our final category of Learning Skills: Communicate! Check out the first 3 if you haven’t already seen them: Explore, Analyze, and Reason. Communicate includes the following Learning Skills: ... Read More

Get to know the Learning Skills that help students REASON

In our last two posts we focused on strategies and activities to help students build skills as they Explore and Analyze.  In this post we focus on a third category of skills, Reason, which includes the following Learning... Read More

Teacher Spotlight: Kyle Haselton

Last month I visited Quest Forward Academy Santa Rosa and had the pleasure of meeting Kyle Haselton, a second year English teacher. Kyle’s been kind enough to open his classroom door and share his experiences, including ways he... Read More