Category: Fresh Perspective

What's Your Teaching "Stethoscope"?

9/21/2015

I am grateful that the nursing profession has been recognized in the media lately. I have a daughter who is a heart nurse and I know how hard she works and her passion for helping each and every patient. She also is studying to be a nursing professor. I am glad she will become a teacher as well. She will be great at this new venture.

I started thinking about our occupation - the wonderful profession of teaching. What is our "costume"? What is our "stethoscope"?

I know for me as I enter my school each day, I need to be clothed in compassion, grace and a boatload of patience. I need to put all the cares of my life aside and focus on the needs of each of my students. How can I help them understand this concept? How can I further their learning? What can I do to increase their confidence and help them feel good about being a learner that day?

My stethoscope is always with me. It is my eyes as I look into the hearts of each of my students. Are they sad today? Did they have a hard start to their day or was one of their peers a bit unkind to them today? How can I lift their hearts and their spirits? Do they have something exciting to share with me? In what way can I show them they are dear to me and that they are a unique and special creature on this spinning ball we live on?

Each occupation has its hurdles, its challenges, its passions and its rewards. Isn't it wonderful that we all do have varied talents and strengths so we can support each other with the gift that God has given to us to share with our world? What is your "costume" and what is your "stethoscope"? I would love to hear about it.

Susie Word Nerd

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A Fresh Perspective before Going Back to School

8/4/2015

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Last week I went to a reading conference. The teacher Criselda Guajardo Alvarado shared a few analogies about reading that really resonated with me. I like to share one with you.

One analogy she shared described teaching reading to most students is like traveling down a busy highway from Dallas to Frisco (a northern suburb). The teacher teaches, the students learn and they move on down the road of reading. However, when your student has a reading learning disability like dyslexia, reading is more like taking all the back roads to that same destination. It might take a little longer, you might get a little lost, but ultimately this student arrives at the same destination – the destination of reading.

            I thought of my students and I like this picture. When I am teaching my dyslexia students, it does take longer to reach the destination and sometimes we do have to backtrack and practice a reading skill over again, but ultimately my students learn to read. I teach in a different way, different from the normal approach.

            Another reason I like this analogy is that the way I teach is so interesting to my students because it is an approach that they need and it works for them. I personally like to drive down back roads to places. It is more peaceful and so much more interesting to me.

            I will definitely be sharing this with my students and their parents this coming school year. I hope it encourages them like it did for me.
~Susie Word Nerd

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What's Your Teaching "Stethoscope"?

A Fresh Perspective before Going Back to School

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