Guest Contributor: Lucas Richardson

I was the first teacher ever to try TeachFX.

My brother-in-law Jamie is the former teacher who created the tool, and he asked if I would try out his very first prototype in my history classroom. This early version of the tool didn’t have all the rich data TeachFX provides today, but it did something simple and powerful: it reflected back to me what percent of my class was teacher talk vs. student talk.

Keeping track of the amount of time I was talking compared to my students really helped me to be more reflective about my teaching. It also encouraged me to continue to create a more student-centered classroom.

When I first started using TeachFX, I was surprised by how little my students were speaking (compared to me), even though discussion and active learning have always been important to me.

After seeing the data, I decided to adjust my curriculum to include more simulations and focused discussions. I designed a unit on Ancient Greece around a student reenactment of the Trial of Socrates. It was awesome.

The students were more engaged than I had seen them all year, and with TeachFX I had evidence to support my assumptions. During the Trial of Socrates, students were speaking over 80% of the class! Of course, not every class was like those Trial of Socrates sessions, but the ratio of student talk to teacher talk was moving in the right direction.

Having that data on a daily basis was a revelation — it forced me to be more reflective on my teaching, and to be more proactive about getting student voices at the center of my classroom. I guarantee that incorporating TeachFX into your own teaching routine will help you get your students talking, too!