About Me

catherinecabinessSM

In my 27 years as a classroom teacher, I have seen trends come and go, and I’ve outlasted many initiatives with good intentions but little staying power.

In 2022, I made the decision that it was time to retire from classroom teaching. While I enjoyed the children (they were AMAZING), I was ready to try something different. I plan to stay in the educational sphere, but branching out to work with other districts and organizations to hopefully effect positive change not just for teachers but for students as well.

During my tenure in the classroom, I taught Medieval World History at the middle school level, and I loved every single minute! The kids were great, they kept me on my toes, they made me laugh, on occasion drove me crazy, but more importantly they made me realize that I had found my true calling.

I worked in a 1:1 iPad classroom for ten years – which brought its share of highs and lows – mostly high, thank God. Because of the pandemic, my last two years in the classroom were spent doing remote, in-person, remote, hybrid, and then in-person teaching. Although it was a whirlwind, technology consistently reminds me that Murphy’s Law is just around the corner and to always have a Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D ready.

I served as the history/social science department chair and co-technology coordinator–two positions that allowed me to not only share my expertise but also indulge my passion for learning and discovery. I also designed and facilitated technology professional development in the areas of online/blended learning, differentiation, and technology integration not only for my department and school site but also for my district. Because I love to share the wonderful work of my students, I have had the privilege of presenting at over 75 conferences and workshops both regionally and at the national level.

I have several publications in the areas of technology capacity-building, educational technology, social emotional learning, wikis, and historical analysis skills. And because I have a love for learning, I decided that it was high time to take the next step in my educational journey–earning a doctorate. In July 2019 I successfully defended my dissertation at Johns Hopkins University School of Education where my research focused on technology integration in K16 education. My dissertation title: Supporting Teacher Technology Implementation Practices Through Peer-to-Peer Coaching: A Mixed Methods Study. It was a crazy three years, but well-worth the effort.

In May of 2021, I began my journey as a learning consultant by joining the awesome team at Consult4Ed. I am humbled to collaborate with an amazing group of forward-thinking educators. We are ready to provide support in the areas of story-telling, curriculum design, online/blended learning, report writing, research, and strategic planning (check out Our Work). I also joined the incredible team at EdTechTeacher. We pride ourselves on being a group of former and current classroom teachers who have practical teaching experience and edtech know-how who are passionate about supporting our colleagues who are still serving on the frontlines of education: our classroom teachers. Continuing my pursuit to find opportunities to flex my research skills and passions, I had the incredible opportunity to work with an amazing research team at The Learning Accelerator. Working with fellow alumni from Johns Hopkins meant that we shared common research practices and high expectations for our work. Fast forward to 2025, I have a new research opportunity on the horizon with the team at ISTE — one that I am especially looking forward to because I get to delve into qualitative data collection and analysis — my happy place. 😊

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers!

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