Meet The Teacher Across the Hall

We are a collective group of experienced teachers offering support to beginning and in-service teachers.

About us and our work:

“Teacher Across the Hall” is a term that we affectionately give to the many teachers who are welcoming to any other teacher who might have a question, want some advice, or need a shoulder to cry on. If you are lucky, you have a Teacher Across the Hall at your school site who is willing to help you at any time you need it. This teacher may be physically across the hall, or in the classroom beside yours, or will simply be someone at your school site who doesn’t seem to mind the million questions you need answers to.

We believe that beginning teachers in particular need a Teacher Across the Hall on their side to help them navigate through the challenging first year(s) of teaching. Some beginning teachers are assigned an official mentor teacher, but experience and research says that the beginning teacher will gravitate towards the Teacher Across the Hall for the really tough questions and for the things that they care about the most.

Whether you have a Teacher Across the Hall at your school, or even if you are a Teacher Across the Hall for one of your colleagues, we would like to be here for you as well.

Several research studies serve as the basis of our work, and include questions, reflections, and input from a total of 41 first year teachers, representing every grade level from kindergarten to 12th grade and special education.

The suggestions for practice summarizes the wisdom and experiences of a total of 29 experienced teachers, each with 3-37 years of experience teaching in kindergarten through 12th grade, including special and gifted education.

There is an abundance of research on the issues teachers are facing, and research on teaching practice has identified key terms for many of these issues. But the choice has been made to talk to you as a colleague, offering practical and realistic advice from our own experiences.

If you are a beginning teacher, we hope that you are given advice and suggestions that you will be able to use in your first year of teaching. If you are a teacher with experience, we hope that you will be able to find some helpful ideas for your classroom as well!

What teachers need

Classroom experience

Practical advice

For all teachers

Meet the Founder:

I'm Molly. This is me in first grade, the same age that I taught for 10 years after college. I have also taught 4th grade, 8th grade, and pre-service teachers at the college level.

I have three degrees from the University of Arizona including an elementary education degree and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Teaching and Teacher Education. I was an Assistant Professor at U of A for ten years.

I am co-author of an elementary classroom management textbook published by McGraw-Hill. It balances the latest research on classroom management with the wisdom of practice from experienced teachers.

Hello!

This is a picture of me with some of my elementary teaching colleagues. At this particular site, I served as the Site Professional Development Coordinator and a member of the New Teacher Induction Team.