Westlake has gained a very positive reputation among the education departments of Christian colleges in this region, including Trinity International University, Moody Bible Institute, and Olivet Nazarene University. For that reason, each year we are approached by one or more colleges about placing a senior level student teacher with one of our veteran teachers to complete requirements for graduation. Because I have a heart for young teachers and want to encourage them, I try to accommodate them when we can. As a result, we have been blessed with the outstanding efforts of young, eager, enthusiastic, and well-trained education majors to experience real-life classroom time with us. Invariably this has been a boon for our students.
Next semester, starting in January 2015, Moody Bible Institute will be placing Miss Natalie Shull with Mrs. Ptasienski in the fourth grade. I have met Miss Shull and have been impressed with her professionalism as well as her total commitment to Christ.
Miss Shull grew up in Evanston where her father is a professor at Northwestern University. Her home was Christ-centered, and she became a believer at a young age. Her testimony is one of continual spiritual growth throughout her teen years and on to college. Her parents chose to home-school her and her siblings and gave her valuable experience living abroad, including lengthy stays in Paris and Mexico. She has a deep love for boys and girls and has been involved in the “By the Hand Club for Kids,” serving inner city children in Chicago.
Committed to the teaching profession in a Christian setting, she writes,
I chose, and continue to choose, elementary education because being a teacher is not merely the translation of facts, many of which will likely be learned, reproduced on a test, and then fade into the student’s memory. Rather, education is about developing the worldview through which a child will interpret everything they see, learn, and experience, and it is about building the foundation upon which they will build all future learning. Teachers have the God-given opportunity to shape young lives, and are themselves shaped by the children who fill their classrooms. Teachers do more than educate; they validate, inspire, challenge, and mentor, and being a teacher is a privilege and blessing that I do not take for granted.
Miss Shull’s primary interests outside of school are coaching swimming and writing. She maintains a very personable and interesting blog here.
Westlake welcomes Miss Natalie Shull to our fourth grade classroom!
