My name is Sara and I’m the one behind the screen. My passion is teaching and learning. It always includes some arts & crafts because I can’t imagine a world without colours. How about you, what is your passion? 🙂
Learn – Explore – Teach – Model – Empower – Innovate
Education of teachers is very important (in special education even crucial), but theory should never be learned without practical experience for testing, analyzing and improving knowledge. When hands and mind work together, skills and knowledge must be synchronized in the same way. I have tried my best to find my way into the real teaching environment, and it was my motivation and vision of future. It was easy to learn about pedagogy through observation, I had so many great experts around. Don’t get me wrong, experts that I’m speaking of are parents, young or experienced, they have been most useful insight into the diverse population of children and young people.
The very start of my pedagogical education was in primary school when I became a scout leader. It was just a first step, but it helped me develop practical skills I needed in my further education. Most important skill? Hmm, play! Finding fun in every activity, learning and enjoying the process. Positivity is contagious.
As I said, formal education is an important base for every educator, and for that reason, I am proud of my choice at the University of Zagreb. Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation was my home for 3 years of Bachelor’s degree in Educational Rehabilitation. With some modules in medicine, psychology, and education, I have developed a wide knowledge base covering the multidisciplinary approach to pedagogy.
In 21st century teaching, apart from the multidisciplinary approach, global and international education is something every child needs to experience to develop values like tolerance and democracy. I wanted to develop the same, so I continued my education in Riga, at the University of Latvia. Master’s degree in Educational Treatment of Diversity has equipped me with all needed competencies and skills to meet the needs of diverse students, including cultural diversity which is currently a hot topic in education systems of Europe.
I am now a proud PhD student and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Edge Hill University in the UK. Lot of work is in ahead of me, and a lot behind me; growing and learning is what drives me. I’m embracing new mistakes as they lead me to new perspectives – from stress to success, one mistake at the time.
This motto I share with my students because learning should to be understood just like sport – practice makes perfect. One who has made all the mistakes is not a loser but an expert. Academic practice is a constant challenge of ideas, arguments, and reasoning, which inspires me to critically analyze myself, my teaching and learning while I teach students to do the same.
I’m striving to make my teaching:
- Inclusive
- Individualised
- Creative
I believe that everyone can learn and should learn throughout their life; that learning process is not defined by age, gender, race, religion, abilities, location, culture, language, social or economic status. Everyone must be granted with learning opportunities, but not in an identical way, because we are all unique thinkers. Diversity is what makes each group rich in perspectives and ideas, therefore it should be recognized as a value. By differentiating instruction teacher can inspire every student to reach its potential end enjoy learning in whichever way it is preferred by that student; diversity in teaching methods, materials and strategies are supporting the diversity of learners in a classroom. Finally, to achieve that connection between the learners and content, a teacher needs to be creative and innovative. Keeping up with technology development and real-life problems can transform a classroom of abstract facts into a discovery problem-solving area. And by modeling that creativity in planning and instruction, a teacher is teaching the most important skill of the future – creative problem-solving, the only skill that computers will never outperform humans.
Augmented Toys 