explore the adventures within
"JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTH" | Explore a month-long environmental literature expedition to Antarctica and Patagonia.
"THE EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE" | Expand your education toolkit and collaborate with fellow educators.
"AUTHOR" | Immerse yourself in the new world of secrets and action with an upcoming debut novel.
"THE EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE" | Expand your education toolkit and collaborate with fellow educators.
"AUTHOR" | Immerse yourself in the new world of secrets and action with an upcoming debut novel.
Jenna ErvinEducator & GLobetrotterThe statement "it's in my blood" quite literally could apply to my life and teaching. My entire extended family are all educators in some field or another. It is safe to say that I grew up teaching, and could often be found helping my mother in her K-1 class starting when I was in second grade. I fought the calling, but eventually returned to my roots and found my home teaching middle school English Language Arts in Lake Tahoe. As a lifelong learner, my instruction and toolbox is constantly morphing and adapting to meet new communities of students and new educational standards.
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In the real world, many jobs are completed in teams or by asking others for new perspectives and suggestions. Learning should occur the same way. My teaching philosophy is very constructivist and no excuses. I believe learning occurs best when students build brain pathways to knew content for themselves, by engaging new concepts through doing, especially in a social framework. I try to form units and assignments based on individual student exploration, student collaboration, and kinetic activities. I also strive to never let my students cop-out of anything. When they provide the answer “I don’t know”, I love to ask “Well, if you did know, what might you think?” Then they are forced to critically think and rely on prior knowledge, context clues, and peers to start forming an answer. I am also working on building autonomous students. I try to answer all student questions with guiding questions of my own to help my students figure out how to problem solve and find answers for themselves.
My passion for writing, travel, photography and adventure lead me to seek out the great moments in life that not many get to experience and write tales about them. Personal traveling has taken me farther than I ever imagined. I spent a week in Washington D.C. with a backstage pass of sorts that granted me access to the Pentagon, the House and Senate buildings, the White House and various other government buildings. I also spent 17 days traveling through Europe with 40 students and my high school senior English teacher visiting Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Italy. The greatest adventure of my life occurred in January of 2008, when I fulfilled a childhood dream and traveled to Antarctica. Having actually visited the bottom of the world my new goal is to travel to the remaining three continents.
My passion for writing, travel, photography and adventure lead me to seek out the great moments in life that not many get to experience and write tales about them. Personal traveling has taken me farther than I ever imagined. I spent a week in Washington D.C. with a backstage pass of sorts that granted me access to the Pentagon, the House and Senate buildings, the White House and various other government buildings. I also spent 17 days traveling through Europe with 40 students and my high school senior English teacher visiting Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Italy. The greatest adventure of my life occurred in January of 2008, when I fulfilled a childhood dream and traveled to Antarctica. Having actually visited the bottom of the world my new goal is to travel to the remaining three continents.