WWEA's October Educator Spotlight

The Wheaton Warrenville Education Association (WWEA) would like to introduce Ms. Rachelle Terada, a 20 year science educator with 13 years of teaching at Wheaton North High School in District 200. Ms. Terada has experience teaching multiple academic levels of Biology, Chemistry, and Forensic Science. In addition to her role as an educator, Ms. Terada earned Coach of the Year in 2003 for coaching boys soccer in the East Suburban Catholic Conference. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University in Biology and a Master’s degree from Aurora University in Educational Leadership.

Ms. Terada knew that she wanted to be a teacher and a coach since she was in elementary school. She enjoys breaking down big ideas into basic concepts to help students understand and apply science. Seeing her students achieve something that they didn’t think they could master brings her daily satisfaction in her classroom. Science concepts can be challenging topics, and overcoming those challenges can be thrilling for the learner and the educator. Ms. Terada believes that her greatest accomplishment as an educator began about 3 years ago when she moved to a self-paced pedagogy in her Chemistry course that continues today. Students are given a list of required learning targets (curriculum goals) for a unit and are allowed to move through content videos for learning, worksheets and lab activities for practice and application and assessments at their own pace. They are given a due date to complete their learning and have enrichment opportunities if they finish early. At the end of the unit they take a summative assessment to show how well they have mastered their learning. In addition to learning chemistry content, her students are developing the intrinsic skills that will help them be successful adults; breaking down large projects into daily components, self-assessing their learning, and advocating for themselves. Ms. Terada enjoys where her students return after graduation to tell her how they are currently doing, how they’ve excelled based on information and skills learned during her class, or how they chose a college major based on something she helped them learn at WNHS. Seeing these long-term effects motivate her to stay current on teaching methods and encourage her to continue building positive relationships with students.

Thank you, Ms. Rachelle Terada, for creating an environment where students take ownership of their learning, problem-solve, and self-assess to meet their goals. We are lucky to have your experience, motivation, and science background to support the growth of our students in District 200.