LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Alexx Sherman was nominated anonymously.

This past year, Ms. Sherman was an eighth-grade teacher, and she is transitioning to sixth grade. As a teacher who has educational experience at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels, one thing is for sure: students want to be seen and heard. They want to know that someone cares about them. For many students, the only person that they have as a constant is their teacher. It is a heavy weight to carry some days, but one that she is happy to take.

She fosters a positive classroom environment by giving students multiple opportunities to have choice in their learning, embracing inclusivity throughout lessons and the creation of problem-based projects, and helping students integrate their learning into issues that they will face in each unit. She makes differentiation a priority to meet the needs of all learners, whether they're a gifted and talented student, a student learning English for the first time, or a student with IEP/504 accommodations. She differentiates lessons through math menus, interactive notebooks, and scaffolded STEAM problem-based learning tasks. In this way, she encourages students to make and learn from mistakes. Her classroom environment promotes engagement and self-ownership by incorporating choice boards, project-based learning, and activities that blend math across several disciplines. When students enter her classroom, they enter a space created with them in mind.

Her class has posters that meet students where they are in the mathematical world. These posters advertise careers that students are interested in, which also include a variety of ethnic expressions. This is essential to students, as it gives them a place in the classroom by seeing their demographics represented and included. Students are also provided daily opportunities to utilize hands-on manipulatives that empower all students to take risks and grow.

Additionally, in the interests of differentiation, she pulls targeted small groups to reteach missed math concepts in a smaller group (4-6 students). This helps a lot of students who may feel shy in whole group instruction. She began implementing small groups in January 2025 and saw an exponential increase in student achievement on the district common assessment, as well as their confidence in the classroom. Those students felt seen.

Additionally, many of her behavioral issues began to decrease. Helping students think not only has a profoundly positive academic impact, but also a profound social impact. Finally, she integrates real-life scenarios into lessons, like financial literacy and appropriate ratios for a filtration system to assist with oil spills. This helps students see the value of math beyond the classroom.

She consistently attends professional development sessions to increase her competency in the application of the following: applying manipulatives to improve hands-on learning in mathematics, alignment of instruction with gifted education best practices, and equity-focused strategies (specifically for ML students, IEP/504 students, and students of color). She believes that she creates a positive classroom environment because she is constantly focused on the well-being of all of her students, regardless of their diverse needs. Students need to feel seen, respected, and challenged to reach their full potential.

She thinks that the most pressing classroom need is to create an environment where all students feel seen, heard, and supported, especially in classes with diverse academic and behavioral needs. She serves students who have seen significant educational and social progress when small group instruction is implemented, thriving in a more focused setting. However, during class, significant behavioral challenges have made it difficult to maintain this structure consistently. As this is only her third year teaching, she is still learning what works for her students. 

Last year, approximately halfway through the year, she implemented ClassDojo as a way to reinforce positive behavior and make sure that students who consistently met her expectations were recognized. This helped shift the culture in her classroom, allowing students who are often overlooked to feel validated. Students who were causing minor behavior issues were also motivated to make different choices with the implementation of ClassDojo. Although she may still have to temporarily stop small group instruction due to disruptions, the frequency of this issue has dramatically decreased. She believes that support in managing these classroom dynamics would directly impact students by allowing for consistent implementation of strategies to assist with emotional regulation and provide a more inclusive, equitable classroom environment.