Mentally Engaged Minds supports educators to engage learners to reach success

The journey of Mentally Engaged minds began in 2022 when Rebecca Byerly, an experienced educator, began to explore starting her own educational consulting business.  This led to the creation of the company name Mentally Engaged Minds LLC inspired by the mantra that she and her students often used to be “mentally engaged”.  This phrase encapsulates the essence or Rebecca’s educational philosophy, which revolves around fostering active, engaged learning based on the well-balanced planning of direct instruction, structured routines, differentiated responsibilities and accountability.

Rebecca’s vision for Mentally Engaged Minds was propelled after participating in self-awareness exercises and learning to develop SMART goals. With a renewed sense of purpose, she took on a project manager for Fairmont International Schools which worked exclusively with Beijing 21^st Century International Schools.  This position allowed her to gain invaluable experience in educational consulting, mentoring and coaching teachers, as well as developing and running professional development programs, working collaboratively with 2 other program managers.

At Beijing 21^st Century schools, Rebecca played a pivotal role in transforming the teaching practices within the biology department. As the only educator working with a predominantly Chinese team, she encouraged teachers to shift from traditional lecture-based instruction to more dynamic, standards-based lessons that incorporated hands on activities with multiple transitions.  Rebecca also helped the team design labs that were both practical and effective, utilizing existing resources.  Rebecca also worked throughout multiple disciplines providing one-on-one coaching sessions with detailed feedback. She provided personalized support that provided significant improvements on teacher effectiveness – a service she now offers through Mentally Engaged Minds LLC.  

Rebecca uses data- driven insights to tailor her professional development sessions.  Particularly for new teachers, classroom management can be a challenge. Although most teachers come armed with content knowledge, classroom management is often not taught in many educational programs and with the teacher shortage, many teachers are coming into teaching from alternative pathways without any teacher training.  Rebecca designs workshops to address this critical skill as well as active learning, and practicing essential standards based critical skills.  Her approach to professional development is rooted in the belief that learning should be interactive and engaging and all students can learn; for this reason, her workshops are crafted to be as mentally engaging for teachers as the lessons they are trained to deliver.