Introduction- Sarah Pankratz
Hello! My name is Sarah Pankratz, and I teach at Cornerstone, a private Christian school in SE Washington, DC. This is my 4th year teaching full time and my 5th year at the school. I have been teaching high school math, and this year I am teaching Biology too. My concentration for this Masters at MSU is in Math & Science Education. I hope to teach overseas some day and have some informal experience teaching ESL. Some of my goals professionally are: 1) to grow in creating engaging lessons for students to get them excited about biology & math, 2) to have students conceptually understand math and make real-life connections, and 3) to foster a love of learning that will take students past high school.
Initial Definition of Curriculum: Curriculum encompasses the whole of student learning in a class, including projects, lessons and their specific objectives, class materials such as textbooks, notes, and worksheets, and anything the teacher adds on in teaching the material. Ideally, curriculum is driven by student-learning and what they need, not what a textbook dictates.
One of my personal interests is to learn about other cultures and travel: about a year and a half ago I had the opportunity to travel to India and visit a school there that I was interested in teaching at. I also enjoy staying active and spending time with family and friends. I recently did a triathlon with some family and friends which was a lot of fun! The most important person in my life is Jesus. I am a Christian and am forever grateful for God's love, care, and faithfulness throughout my life.
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your introductory post. I enjoyed reading it. As a person of faith as well, I enjoy when people embrace that aspect of their identity and share how it figures into what they do. I look forward to our time together.
I like your holistic definition of curriculum--anything learned in a class. I might even extend it: anything learned in life. That removes it from it's school context somewhat, but, ideally, there is no reason to separate out life inside and outside of school. In that way, the idea of religious education is powerful. No barriers needed.
I'm curious about your interest in travel and teaching. It's something I did before I got my licensure and taught in this country. It was one of the greatest experiences in my life. Certainly something to consider. And what a place India would be to do this. The land of so many religious traditions (I think of Life of Pi in this regard, a favorite book of mine).
Thank you for sharing your goals with me. I hope I can connect with them and support you in this course.
Kyle