Miss Sarah, Teacher/Principal

  Key Ingredients of Critical Thinking How Critical Thinking Relates to My Teaching Context   I am a teacher in a small, multigrade classroom. My students are younger (kindergarten to second graders), but due to the nature of our classroom, they have to learn independence very early on. Even if our classroom atmosphere didn’t require this level of independence, I would still want to teach my students to be self-directed and think for themselves, as it is an important ability they will need to use all through their lives. What I find is that some students seem to inherently be able to look at a new assignment and figure out what to do for themselves. However, there’s always “that one student” who just doesn’t seem to be able to “get it” (every teacher has at least one). It’s hard to engage them, hard to get them to participate and to do assignments without walking them through each step, and they struggle to apply something you just explained to them in new situations. Th...

As teachers, it is so important to learn and incorporate and understand the technology that is so much a part of our students' lives. When we are able to interact with them and teach them using technology, this can help make the education process more meaningful and applicable to them (I Need My Teachers to Learn, 2009). One of the ways that we can do this is by embedding videos into our presentations or course communications.  For example, today I am going to be sharing a video that really caught my attention. My own recent studies about artificial intelligence led me down some cyber rabbit trails to the really interesting topic of music created by artificial intelligence. As a music-lover, I found this idea so captivating and interesting to learn more about. I hope you enjoy it as well:  References [changingworldbyfilm] (2009, August, 31). I Need My Teachers to Learn. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RxHb5QVD7fo 

True Success in the 21 st Century: Abilities and Attributes I want My Students to Develop In Order to Be Successful                 There’s no doubt that the world has changed a lot over the last century. Just looking at our education system shows just how different our mindsets are now. While learners of the past were required to just listen and repeat (Crombie, 2014), today “we have the flipping of education where the learning takes place outside the classroom, but the essential engagement and practice is still conducted at school by the all-important facilitator rather than the teacher” (Fell, 2016, video). However, amidst all this change, our mission as believers has not changed. Our God has not changed. As a teacher, I ask myself how do I can prepare my students to meet this new world head-on, while still not forgetting what true success is in God’s eyes. For this reason, I believe that in order to be succ...