Upon entering one of Cynthia Rudolph's biology classes at Hopewell High School in Huntersville, NC, one might be slightly perplexed. On any given day, students might be singing, dancing or creating works of art all in the pursuit of biology. Not only are Rudolph's teaching techniques often unconventional, they are incredibly successful. Test results for her inclusion classes drastically surpassed district expectations, and End-of-Course (EOC) exams show all of her students exceeding state standards. In addition to teaching her students, she is teaching her colleagues and teachers all over the country that science can be taught with a lot of creativity. Rudolph co-teachers two biology inclusion classes as well as honors classes. She challenges each and every student with the same mantra to get out of their comfort zone in order to increase their academic achievement. Rudolph integrates art, dance and song into her classes to do just this. For example, each year Rudolph composes new lyrics to well-known holiday songs for her students to sing during their finals review sessions. Because the district considers Rudolph's classes to be such a glowing example of achieving results in biology, her classroom is open as a learning lab to new teachers for observation. Rudolph was selected as a professional development master teacher in her district in 2008. As artistic as her courses can be, Rudolph balances them with practical and research-based strategies she has gleaned from her many professional memberships and activities outside of her classes. She helped to develop the district's science curriculum and serves on the state department committee for testing and test development. She was also one of 20 teachers in North Carolina to be selected for the State Biology Standards Development conference.
2016 Wingate University, Ed.D
1986 University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, B.S.
