Teaching in India: The Best Year of Your Life?
BOOK REVIEW: May This Be The Best Year of Your Life Sandra Bornstein faces choices: Will she stay in her home in Colorado alone or find a new job on another continent? Her husband’s new job requires him to live part time in India. She must make a decision that might rattle the rest of [...]
Is Travel With Kids “Worth it?”
“I’ve always said I didn’t want kids because I wanted to travel and adventure… but meeting you guys has blown that argument out of the water…” I laughed over my wine glass as our backpacker guest of the evening proceeded to ask a million questions about “How we do it” with four kids, and expressed [...]
Lisa on National Television! (Video)
As a University of Pennsylvania Quaker, I feel a special kinship for Benjamin Franklin. I am impressed by all he did for our country in so many different realms. He was a true renaissance man. Here is one of my favorite quotes by him: “Hide not your talents, they were made for use. What’s a [...]
In Westside Today: Local Brentwood Science Teacher Does Good
Thank you to Amy Sommer for her article in Westside Today! I will be on NATIONAL TELEVISION on Saturday September 29 on KTLA’s Career Day. The article begins: On Saturday, September 29, 2012 KTLA’s “Career Day” will invite viewers in to science teacher Lisa Niver Rajna’s classroom and see first hand how she inspires her [...]
In the HUFFINGTON POST: Teachers Need a Village
My article appeared in the Huffington Post Education section last week. “Teachers Need a Village” is about the support that Educators need to do an excellent job. When I started a new job which required teaching seven grade levels, I created my own science teacher network in Los Angeles. As I said in the article, [...]
Tony Danza’s I’d like to apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had
Book Review: I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had, by Tony Danza “Never smile before Christmas…They will eat you alive.” This advice, given to countless new teachers for decades, is given to Tony Danza as he starts his next adventure as an educator. Danza’s warm banter makes me feel I have a [...]
Get Out of the City and into the Swamp
So often when people travel for short trips to a specific city, it is the city they tend to explore and nothing more. They pull out their city maps, with all the hot spots highlighted and listed alphabetically, and plan walking or bus routes to see what they can see. And there’s nothing wrong with [...]
Barbara Boxer, United States Senator: Thank you!
Congratulations on your nomination for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. I understand you were nominated because of your mastery of the subjects, instructional methods, leadership in education and dedication to improving student learning. I am pleased to have this opportunity to join your colleagues, family and friends in offering my [...]
Lisa on the Radio with The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve What is Integrated Learning? Why Are American Students Behind Other Nations in Science Education, and What can Be Done About it? Lisa Niver Rajna is an honest-to-goodness science teacher working in the trenches at K-6. Lisa’s success is evident in the following: One of her students WON an international award with OXFAM [...]
Hands-on Science Boot Camp
It’s a Hands-on Science Boot Camp for Teachers. There was an entire group of Science Specialists from my Los Angeles Science Teacher Network at the Anaheim Boot Camp 2010. You can see Joseph and I learning in the front row at the Steve Spangler all day training in Los Angeles last year. I love Steve [...]
