Hoosier Academies’ Head of School, Dr. Byron Ernest has a laundry list of accolades and career highlights under his belt. He’s won multiple awards including one from the Smithsonian Institution, regularly publishes thoughtful content on his blog Byron’s Babbles, was Indiana’s Teacher of the Year for 2010, was appointed to the Indiana State Board of Education in 2015 by then Governor Mike Pence, and has recently published his first book: The Hand in the Back of the Room: Connecting School Work to Real Life.
Dr. Ernest’s belief is that true learning occurs when the student can connect what’s on the page or board with real-life applications and relevancy. These deeper connections help students to fully understand higher-level concepts, moving from memorizing facts to pass a test to constructing and retaining knowledge in meaningful and useful ways.
“The learning style I outline in my book will not only reach the everyday student in most any setting, but a shining example of how it works can be seen through career technical education (CTE),” said Dr. Ernest. “In CTE settings, and especially in virtual CTE settings, the idea behind the teaching style is always focused on the end result, which is career application.”
His book contains research-proven methods for improving learning, thus student achievement and performance, by using relevant and real-world contexts and would be a great read for teachers and parents alike.
Also, follow Dr. Ernest on Twitter where he has a half million followers. His tweets are gems of wisdom on improving learning.
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