How Do We Love Learning? Let Us Count the Ways

To celebrate Valentine’s Day and the month of love, we at Scientific Learning (now part of Carnegie Learning) want to share some reasons why we love learning and helping students learn.

For the Love of Learning

Andrea Culver, Senior Customer Success Manager, says:

I love learning because it keeps me on my toes!

I love trying new ideas out, and I can't do that unless I'm constantly expanding my knowledge. And, as Schoolhouse Rock taught us, "it's great to learn because knowledge is power!"

That's the same reason I love teaching. Empowering students (and teachers!) to think about the same thing in a new way or to realize their own strength is so cool! Watching people fly as they realize that learning gives them wings is the coolest thing on the planet to me.

Andrea is a former ELA and ESL teacher with experience in instructional coaching and curriculum writing. She loves helping teachers and students learn about Fast ForWord.

For the Love of Teaching

Cory Armes, Senior Content Specialist, ELAR, says: 

I love teaching because it is a giving-and-receiving job. You do your best to help students build skills and love learning, but you also get so much back. Some of my favorite “receiving” moments were when a student:

• told me why it was important for her to do her best every time, whether she felt like it or not.
• who didn’t want to read suddenly discovered the magic of books when I read Sarah, Plain and Tall to the class because she loved cats and Sarah had a cat.
• came back to visit me years later to tell me she wanted to become a teacher because I had helped her and she wanted to help other kids, too.

Cory has eighteen years’ experience in K-12 education as a general and special education teacher and educational diagnostician.

For the Love of Exploring

Mirvat Farah, Fast ForWord Implementation Manager, says:

As a previous educator, I Iove to encourage exploratory thinking. For example, when a student can’t recall a detail from the story being read but can provide a related detail from their own identity or cultural background, there really are no “wrong” answers.

I also love teaching students strategies to help them become more independent, both inside and outside of the classroom. Some of my favorite skills to watch students learn are self-advocacy through asking for help and expressing their answers using different methods such as drawing, writing, or gestures.

Previously, Mirvat worked with high school students as a speech therapist. She is now committed to making learning more accessible to students of all abilities through her training in learning design and technology.

For the Love of Empowering

David Rose, Fast ForWord Customer Success Specialist, says:

I love learning because it represents self-empowerment, such as when I watched a teacher encourage a student who had never spoken in class to try the Reading Assistant Plus program.

The student decided to give the oral reading practice a shot in a socially safe environment set up by the teacher, who later reported the student was now speaking in class! It was so fulfilling to be able to support this amazing progress.

David enjoys working with Fast ForWord customers at all phases of their implementation, from determining school level goals to reviewing individual student progress.

Why do you love learning and teaching? Tell us in a comment below!

Let educators and students tell you the ways they love the Fast ForWord 3-in-1 program that develops reading, cognitive, and social-emotional skills. Read their case studies.