Teaching and learning are two of my life's passions. I was seven years old when the desire to become a teacher "someday" enveloped me! As the years passed, I set my course to become an elementary school teacher with a study emphasis in Biology, graduating with a BA from Pacific Lutheran University. Later, I earned an MA in Education from Antioch University, Seattle. Teaching in a public school setting helped me hone my skills as well as fuel my passion for it through designing and implementing lessons that caused students to declare, "This is fun but I'm learning too!"
Much of my early career was spent working with intellectually and creatively "gifted" students. To this end, I was a past president of The Northwest Gifted Child Association and the co-founder of a school for these learners called, The Open Window. I taught in and directed it for nearly ten years before moving on to work with an environmental program in the private sector. Serving as a director and teacher/naturalist in this program, I was able to design curriculum that enabled students to learn how to "walk gently" on the earth. Since science teaching and spending time in the outdoors are two of my other passions, this experience was a definite highlight of my career.
Middle School students became a beloved focus for the next phase of my professional life. They have such a wonderful perspective on life and learning! I believe they taught me as much as I did them! Our academic explorations were focused on Life, Physical, and Earth Science. Concurrent with this teaching experience, I had the wonderful opportunity to teach adults just entering the teaching profession through an adjunct professor position at both City and Antioch Universities. My assignment was to teach them how to teach science to children. These adult education experiences helped me to really reflect on what the most important aspects of a well-rounded science education for children are: definitelycontent, yet their innate "sense of wonder" and natural curiosity must benurtured in order to truly embrace science as a life-long learning endeavor. My belief is that Science is "a Way of Knowing".
Currently, I'm working on publishing a co-authored multi-dimensional Curriculum Development Model and book with a long-time educational mentor.
This blog is a reflective look at my eLearning experiences in EDUC250 and EDUC251 at Bellevue College.
