A True Inspiration

Our learning journey, from kindergarten to university, is definitely one of the most influential and character shaping journeys a person will embark upon. If an individual is fortunate enough such a journey is life changing and uplifting. Science class, and later on biology, from grades five through to brevet, were by far the most memorable part of my personal journey at Salah El-Deen Educational Center. Miss Faten, this enthusiastic and vibrant teacher who would go on to teach and inspire so many began her pedagogic journey by teaching my grade five science class. Because my generation came of age in an educational atmosphere still very much influenced by the remnants of archaic teaching practices, it was awe-inspiring as a ten year old to see a creative, active, as well as intelligent teacher breathe life into the otherwise limp learning experience most of us were living. Whether it be bovine organs to show heart valves and ventricles or beautiful, fresh flowers to show reproduction in plants, this teacher was always looking for ways to keep us intrigued and captivated by the subject matter at hand.  She also used a very generous, non-food reward system in which she made certain the “smart” students didn’t monopolize rewards as we had experienced occasionally with other teachers. What was obvious during my teacher’s lessons was that she was always prepared. She explained her lessons with clarity allowing us to master the art of analyzing, interpreting, describing, hypothesizing, and constructing graphs, by the end of grade six. Moreover, she would make sure each year after that we were able to apply these pillars of scientific method.   Classroom preparation is not however exclusive to a plan book. Her remarkable effort was seen through all the posters she meticulously hand crafted, and the actual animal organs she would supply to aid in demonstrating the different systems within animals. She had short, stress-free quizzes to assess how well her previous lesson went so that she would know where our level of comprehension stood. Perfection is something we all strive for but can never achieve because we are always looking to do better-to be better. As a first year instructor, this science teacher may have been going through all of the trials and tribulations a first year teacher goes through but in retrospect she was a motivator, an innovator, able to balance proper classroom management without sacrificing fun science.