Hello!
I’m Erika Romero, the creator of Ever Educating!
During my five years teaching as a PhD student, I spent so much time learning about, experimenting with, and reflecting on different teaching practices.
I’m sharing my knowledge through my Ever Educating content so you don’t have to start from scratch on your own teaching journey!
Take advantage of my successes and failures and start your teaching adventure with a digital library of resources at your fingertips.
Find out exactly what this website has to offer on its Welcome! page.
How did I get to the point of creating my blog and YouTube channel?
I started my college instructor journey as a teaching assistant during my second year as an M.A. student. I T.A.’d for two professors and spent my time attending their classes, grading their quizzes, and helping them with creating course content. For one professor, I was even given the opportunity to teach a lesson to her 100+ students class.
What a rush!
By the end of my time at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I had taken one course on “Teaching College English,” and had enrolled in another course with a similar theme as part of my teaching assistantship for my PhD program at Illinois State University. I had the teaching bug and I wasn’t going to stop!
During my time at ISU, I taught a range of composition and literature courses to classes of all freshman and to classes of a completely mixed bunch of undergraduates.
You can actually see descriptions of all of these courses on this website. Just head over to the “Academia” section if you’re interested, or if you’re set to teach courses in composition, children’s literature, or young adult literature.
With a school motto like “Gladly We Learn and Teach,” it’s no surprise that learning about pedagogy theories and putting them into practice was a requirement of my program. It was during my third year as a PhD student – once my coursework had ended and my exams began – that I decided to create this website and start my blog.
Now, at first, the blog was just about academia-related topics more generally. But, by the time that I realized my whole dissertation would be about teaching college courses, I had decided to focus basically all of my attention on teaching-related content.
Of course, most new college instructors are also grad students teaching as part of their assistantships. So, I make sure to include the occasional grad school specific post and video, as well.
At this point in my journey, I’ve finished my dissertation, experienced adjuncting at a local university for a year, and have transitioned into instructional design. But, I haven’t stopped wanting to help new college instructors who stumbled across this blog on their journey to finding their own teaching styles and strategies.
So, I’ll continue creating content focused on teaching tips, tools, ideas, and resources as long as I have new ideas to talk about! Plus, I’ll keep creating tools like digital bullet journals to help keep you organized!
With the need for help with online teaching that has cropped up due to COVID-19, I’ve made sure to increase my attention to digital teaching tools and ideas. Head over to the “Online Teaching” tab to see what resources I have available.
I hope you find what you’re looking for on this website or my YouTube channel. If you want to receive even more tips and free content, sign up for my email newsletter. You’ll be updated on my latest news and will gain access to my free resource library!
P.S. Want 1:1 help boosting your teaching confidence and creativity? That’s what my Creative Confidence Call is for!
