Standing in the middle of a home improvement store last summer, one of Matt Reynolds’ students gave him a call, needing help learning how to acquire a specific type of whiteboard for his future classroom.
It’s moments like these — when current and former students reach out for advice, to share milestones, or to offer to speak with current students considering a career in education — that Reynolds loves.
“One of my more proud accomplishments in the College of Education is the work that my students are doing,” said Reynolds, an assistant teaching professor of science education in NC State’s College of Education. “I enjoy that they feel comfortable reaching out and asking me questions, even after graduation; hopefully, they see the effort I put into working with them and learn that those are the relationships I want to see them form with their students.”
The effort Reynolds puts into working with students in his capacity as a teacher, program coordinator and advisor hasn’t gone unnoticed, as he was selected as the recipient of NC State’s 2024-25 Outstanding Teacher Award.
The Outstanding Teacher Award recognizes creative and innovative teaching and learning practices at all levels. Recipients are nominated by their peers and students, and become members of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers for the duration of their tenure at NC State.
Reynolds has been nominated for the award four years in a row — every year he has been eligible as an assistant teaching professor in the College of Education— and says he has been humbled each year when he sees the number of students who are willing to write letters of support during the award process.
One aspect that stood out from the nomination letters, Reynolds said, was that his students are recognizing some of the intentional practices he builds into his coursework to help prepare them to eventually lead their own classrooms.
For example, students cited his “Teacher Timeouts,” a practice in which he will call a timeout in the middle of teaching in order to explain to students why he is doing something a certain way. It’s a practice he developed through his own research into the development of teacher pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), or how teachers think about what they know.
Additionally, students cited the segment of Reynolds’ classes called “Science Time and Teacher Life Hacks,” during which a teacher candidate gets 10 minutes of class time to show off something interesting or cool they’ve recently learned about. The teacher candidate’s lesson can be about anything related to teaching, even if it’s not related to science, because the goal is to not only help the class build out their toolbox of resources, but to give them additional opportunities to practice teaching.
“If you’re learning to teach, the best way to learn is to actually teach,” Reynolds said. “So, giving them 10 minutes in front of the class is valuable because they will recognize that talking for 10 minutes and sounding structured can be a challenge and takes more effort and planning than they think.”
Leaving his own role as a former high school science teacher was a difficult decision for Reynolds. Teaching, he said, was a calling for him, and he always valued the important role education could play in the lives of K-12 students. However, he realized that he could ultimately have a bigger impact as a teacher educator, working with hundreds of future teachers over the course of his career who would then go on to influence thousands of students of their own.
Several of his former students have gone on to win Beginning Teacher of the Year and Teacher of the Year awards or have become department heads or leaders of professional development programs at their schools. He also fields yearly phone calls from principals of schools where his former students now work, asking him to recommend new graduates for open positions.
He is hoping to bring even more future educators into STEM teaching roles through his work as a co-principal investigator on the NC State STEM Education Scholars Program. The program, which admitted its first six students during the 2024-25 academic year, is preparing 21 high-quality math and science teachers who will commit to serving four years in North Carolina school districts facing teacher shortages.
STEM Education Scholars receive scholarship funding of up to $34,000 across their junior and senior years as they earn an undergraduate degree in mathematics education or science education, or up to $22,000 for participants with an undergraduate STEM degree who are earning their Master of Arts in Teaching.
“This year has been a big year for me. It’s been a nice win having two kinds of dreams hit at once,” Reynolds said of both launching STEM Education Scholars and winning the Outstanding Teacher Award. “Hopefully, this grant eases some of the [financial] burden to get people into the classroom and, if we can help get them through relatively debt-free, they might stay in the classroom longer.”