Cindy Snyder

Cindy Snyder is a special education and life skills teacher at Lone Star Middle School in Nampa, Idaho.

Cindy began her journey in special education as a sophomore in college where she was a peer mentor in a special education classroom. Her passion for special education grew when she was accepted into Teach For America’s 2018 corps and was placed to teach special education in Nampa, Idaho. Cindy is now in her second year of teaching special education at Lone Star Middle School. Cindy is passionate about making sure her students receive a competitive and equitable education. She seeks out tools in educational technology to help elevate her students’ educational experience.

Cindy on Powerful Learning:

What’s a strategy teachers can use to incorporate powerful learning?

“Try Edpuzzle! You can assign students to watch videos that have already been made, or are on YouTube, and have them answer questions as a formative assessment. This can be done for homework or during class time. This strategy is connected to being personal and accessible. I personally use this as a way to help students refresh themselves on their IEP goals by assigning relevant videos to them on their goal’s focus. They are then able to independently access this on their personal devices.”

What book has influenced your thinking on powerful teaching and learning?

“The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st Century Schools by Mariale Hardiman helps to explain how educators can teach to the student brain. It goes over the six brain targets and how we can meet the brain’s needs. I am looking forward to learning more about how I can tie this information to educational technology.”

Learn more about HP Teaching Fellows.