Edulastic Innovator Spotlight: Carla Corbin

We are thrilled to introduce Edulastic Innovator Spotlight member Carla Corbin! Carla is a high school math teacher and department chair in New Richmond, WI. She loves to make lessons engaging by using hands on group activities and technology. Be sure to check out her Edulastic Story – it’s really heart warming! We enjoyed getting to know Carla and hope you do too!

Get to know Carla Corbin

What inspired you to work in education?

When I was in HS I tutored elementary school as part of my National Honor Society service work. I loved watching the light bulb come on for students when they finally understood something, and the joy when they were successful.

Please sum up your teaching philosophy in a few sentences?

I try to meet students where they are and extend on what they already know, to learn new content. I also try to make lessons engaging by using hands on and group activities and technology.

How did you learn about Edulastic? What is your Edulastic story?

I learned about it from our tech integrationist in the spring before our EOC exams in 2018. That year I used it a little for review and test prep for our end of course exams. The following year I was tasked with teaching an intervention class to juniors and seniors, who did not met the graduation requirements for math on the end of course exams from their freshman and sophomore years.

I knew these students needed something different to remediate 2 years of math content in a 3 month time frame. So I used a combination of desmos activities and edulastic assignments to reteach the material to the students. At the end of the semester, when my 18 students took the tests again, they improved a combined 28 points. Most of the student took the Integrated 1 and Integrated 2 math test, which are graded on a 5 point scale. And 17 out of the 18 met the graduation requirement for math.

What do you love about Edulastic? How do you use it in your classroom?

Since I teach using the integrated model curriculum, I love being able to search by standard, and not just by course. I also like being able to see and use questions that other teachers have created! There are a lot of the released test questions from the EOC exams that other teachers have already created.

What tips do you have for teachers who are new to Edulastic?

Take some time and look through the questions that are already created. You can create your own questions, but you don’t need to if you are just starting out.

Fun Facts

Favorite subject to teach:

Geometry

Favorite book:

A Merciful Truth by Kendra Elliot

What subjects do you use Edulastic for?

Mathematics

Favorite movie:

Somewhere in Time

Extracurricular activities:

I coached volleyball for 15 years and softball for 3 years. But after having 2 kids of my own, their sporting events and activities occupy my time.

Must have classroom decor:

Word wall with math!!

Funniest student moment:

One day this last year, somehow the subtitles option turned on in the middle of my class and every word I said appeared on the bottom of my smartboard. My students and I were laughing so hard, and it was so difficult for me to focus on what I was trying to teach, knowing that it was going to be spelled out on the screen. We laughed about that for weeks later!