OK, so here is a look into my background for school, for those of you who have interest in reading more about the author of curriculum you might own or webpages you might read.
Now that I’m a homeschool mom, a curriculum developer, a blogger, etc., I personally find it neat to look back and see how what I’ve learned (in school and in experiences in real life) work together into what I write for my audience nowadays – the books, the blogs, and the other stuff for my own family and friends.
More than anything else, if you’re going to read about my background for education, I’d like for you to grasp the idea that God led me and arranged my life into what it is for His purposes, to be amazed along with me at His wisdom, care, and power in yet another person’s life!
I had a lot of fun being a student!
And I really appreciated learning things which were important, not trivial busywork or a waste of time!
Things learned well the first time can tend to “stick” with a person for a long time.
Kindergarten through Secondary
I was an early reader since I was taught by my mom for ‘kindergarten’ at home and she knew how to teach in an effective and appealing way.
(My mom was a teacher who specialized in literacy. She was also a very creative person who liked picture storybooks, hands-on learning with manipulatives, presentation projects, and play-based learning. Both of my parents and my aunt had taught for a number of years in old-fashioned rural one-room schoolhouses.)
I definitely liked being homeschooled!
I enjoyed my public education too! My teachers often taught well. I was known as a ‘gifted’ student, a ‘different’ student, and a bit of ‘a character’ at times. I rarely studied much for tests (unless it was a big exam and then I at least skimmed/scanned over my notes). I tended to learn the material well-enough in class-time instead; a few teachers were frustrated at times but my marks were often at or near the top of the class so there wasn’t a reason to require that I do more homework or take unnecessary books home. Taking good notes is an important skill and later I learned to colour-code them sometimes too. (I’ll admit, maybe I should have studied more for a few of those tests though.)
That lack of homework left my evenings to do things I liked to do, such as help with garden or farm work, play the piano or other musical instruments, read extra books, explore crafts (sewing, painting, drawing, handcrafts), play baseball with my dog, etc.. I grew up without a television in my home although there was one at my grandparents’ house next door where I could watch occasional programs, for example, Mr. Dress-up, farm/garden programs, and Billy Graham specials.
I realize God designs each person and He chose to give me an ability to often learn quickly and to do well with academics and artistic things. But I also think that a significant part of why I did excelled in my education was because I had people in my life who taught in a way I could understand and allowed me a deviation from standardized learning. I do think that, many times, teaching methods can make a real difference between a successful student or a struggling student. This is big reason why I design curriculum the way I do – to offer something different than much of ‘the stuff on the market’, something that I think is more effective to a broader group of kids wanting to learn, including those who would be bored or frustrated with standardized (or disorganized) lessons.
I still think – “What would I like to see for curriculum if I were “the student” eager to learn and, how can information be presented in an interesting way for even an older person like me?”
Even when I was a kid, if I had time and a thought or so, I didn’t mind just adding in “a bit of something” that would be less-usual to say or write for an assignment or even a test.
In our home we’d call that providing “what the teacher wanted us to know plus adding in a little extra” or, “putting it in an interesting way on purpose”. (I mean, I wouldn’t want to aim for this ALL the time – only just to sprinkle it ‘here and there’ some of the time.) Here’s an example of my writing when I was younger:
For schoolwork, usually I’d prefer to do project-based learning instead of filling-in-blanks or writing answers to questions. I liked being given a choice for at least a sub-topic to delve into more.
Part of my completion of an assignment often included being somewhat creative, to use some sort of visual aid to help make it remembered. For example…
- I could bring in props to explain something in an oral presentation – toys such as dolls, teeter-totters, strollers with a homemade seatbelt, tapioca in a glass loaf pan with bits of yarn, netting, etc. to represent a model of skin, etc.. Because my dad had a hobby in photography, I learned the skill of giving slide presentations, long before PowerPoint was around, with a 2-slider machine or a carousel tray of slides. We’d take pictures of pictures in books or magazines or use other photos we had around, perhaps even add some music alongside the speech using a cassette recorder.
- I might add school-related funnies (comics) or jokes to my lab reports to make my teachers enjoy a lighter moment while marking reports. (Why not?!) One time I also wrote my report about toothpaste IN toothpaste! Of course, it was still wet when the teacher asked for everyone to hand their reports in. I sat at the front of the class so I was first to slap a duo-tang down… ha ha! My teacher quickly grabbed it before the rest of the class piled theirs on top!
- I sometimes dressed-up… as an elderly Canadian politician, a bubble entertainer, a pioneer school-girl, an owl with newspaper wings, a singing Shakespearean jester who memorized the script by putting it to a tune of historical styling, etc..
- One of my favourite techniques in later grades (and a bit for post-secondary) was to draw on Bristol board, a portrait (or full-length person), then to cut that out into simple puzzle-shaped pieces. The backs of those pieces were my cue cards for an oral presentation and I’d write my points on those. I’d either arrange these in a pile in such a way that I could roll a bit of tape somewhere on each card without sticking them to themselves, or I’d have a set of bits of tape prepared near me to use. When I’d finish my first cue card, I’d tape it to the blackboard behind me. I’d continue adding my cards one-by-one so that when I’d finish my speech, there was a full picture of what or whom I had just spoken about!
I also enjoyed being a student helper (for kids with special needs), a teacher’s helper (to do some marking, to arrange bulletin boards, to look after class for short times if she had stepped out for a few moment), a bus patrol (annual safety training, bringing kids to the attention of our principal), and a librarian helper (fixing books, stamping and organizing cards at sign-outs and returns, arranging books on shelves and bulletin boards, helping with various book sales, working at recesses or if I was finished class assignments early).
For extra-curricular activities, the science fairs were my favourite! In the high school grades, these were optional to do but I competed each year into the county science fair, even if I was the only student in my school to do so. (Yes, I won various awards.) Here were the titles of my projects:
- Float or Sink (buoyancy)
- Skunks
- Mixing Colours (light spectrum, colour wheel, etc.)
- Magnets
- Soap Bubbles (surface tension, etc.)
- Handedness (left, right, ambidextrous)
- Colours in Plants (genetics)
- Physical Therapy (types of therapeutic modalities)
- Physical Therapy (with five models I had made re: parts of the body/ walking gait pattern; shown here). This time, it was after I had worked as a co-op student in a hospital dept. and had borrowed some of my supervisor’s university textbooks to learn from.
Post-Secondary
I’m thankful for the courses I took after high school too. Many people don’t get the opportunity to get the wide variety of science courses that I ended up doing. I didn’t really plan to use some of these longer-term, but God knew what would be helpful to me to know and I believe He led me in those studies too, not just for the purpose of finishing a degree.
- Biology, Chemistry, Physics (all standard intro. courses for any science student)
- Psychology that was an intro. course that wasn’t just the normal, general one. It was specifically for students aiming for health professions.
- Human Physiology – how the body is to work normally. I got to hold a pickled human brain for my peers to line up and touch. The inside of a brain feels like smooth silk. There were a few profs for that course. The one just before Christmas break ended his neurology lecture saying, “Class, I want you to think about something over the break. We’ve studied about the brain and it’s amazing design! And an amazing design like this, needs an amazing Designer, don’t you think?! I’ll repeat that for you – an amazing design like the human brain needs an amazing Designer! You can go now. Class dismissed.” (I spoke briefly with him afterwards too.)
- History of Science in Medicine – an overview of historical views and inventions
- Introduction to Pathology – It was offered from the Faculty of Medicine but open for students who had the pre-reqs and wanted to learn alongside those in that program. Pathology is the study of disease.
- Introduction to Hydrology – the study of water in the atmosphere and on earth…
- Introduction to Geology – identification of rocks and minerals, volcanos, earthquakes, etc.
- Cell Biology – more details about the function of living cells
- Microbiology – about bacteria and viruses
- Ecology – general environmental science principles
- Biology of Freshwater Pollution – effects on fish, etc.
- Outdoor Recreation and Resources Management – eco-tourism trends, caring for natural resources
- Science of the Senses – details about the 5 senses including things like functions of the parts inside a nose, marketing fragrances, functions of the eye, etc..
- Intro. to Optics – reflection, refraction, eyeglasses, etc.. It was offered from the Optometry school but open to other students.
- Understanding Nutrition – an upper-level health science course with a textbook I still keep on my shelves as a good reference book.
- And other courses such as computer sciences, language/culture, history, working with fabric textiles and pattern-making.
- (My dad said I should take at least one course in computers and I hesitated but agreed to do that anyways. That course was my introduction to web design, something that I just thought I’d learn to get the credit and then never use again.)
For Biblical studies (where I submitted assignments and/or tests; in other words, not just the type of studies that are ongoing or that we watch and take notes only), these courses were:
- at secular university –
- Paul: His Life and Letters (one of my main independent projects was about women in ministry according to the Bible, which was a ‘hot topic’ at that time in churches)
- Christian Hymnody (my main research project was ancient Biblical music for the time periods of the Bible and up to the first couple of centuries of the early church)
- through Moody Bible Institute (adult-ministry-level, correspondence) –
- The Life of Christ (e.g. Harmony of the Gospels)
- 1 Corinthians: A Guide for Contemporary Christians
- Being a Christian Leader (Biblical leadership principles)
Because of my environmental illness that hit in the middle of my post-secondary education, my plans changed so I attended more than one school for undergraduate studies. In order to meet the requirements of a science degree by the time I returned with a reduced course load and was told to stay out of science buildings due to my new sensitivities, I ended up taking more courses overall than would originally have been for the typical student getting that degree.
I didn’t realize at the time that so much of my education would be used for what God wanted me to be in life.
“…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 NKJV
To God be the glory!
For further reading…
- About Joy (general)
- About “Our Twist” (educational style for curriculum)
- My EMF Story As It Began
- EMF MCS-Related Posts Start Here (Table of Contents for that section of my blog)