Public school, private school or homeschool? What will it be? Having teaching experience in all three has been a blessing that I love to share with others. Sometimes it feels like I have been teaching all my life–and maybe I have. Playing school was my favorite game when I was a kid. Teaching experiences filled my teen years with meaningful activity. I taught in Bible clubs, worked in day care, and started substituting while I was still in college. (Dad was principal of a big Christian school, so I had an inside track on that one.) My Bachelor of Science in Education (cum laude) comes from Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee. As a Texas certified teacher I taught for 7 years in San Antonio public schools. Those public school teaching experiences include 4 years in remedial reading programs (though I don’t call myself a reading specialist) and 3 years with gifted/talented language arts. I was Teacher of the Year for my school for 2 years and runner-up for Teacher of the Year in my district one of those years. Those awards recognized my habit of trying to make the subject meaningful to my students.
The next twenty years since were the richest and most rewarding of my teaching career–I raised and homeschooled my two children–giving me a variety of wonderful “aha” moments as well as my most challenging teaching experiences. My son is a graduate of Bryan College and happily married with one child. My daughter graduated from Biola University. Both are doing well in the careers they chose to pursue. Both are active in their churches.
During those homeschool years I developed a passion for teaching history and government. When there was a need, I started a homeschool group in Alabama which called me leader for 6 years before my husband’s work moved us to Florida where we joined another homeschool group and I got familiar with yet another way of doing things.
I began teaching Starting Points at a co-op in the north Dallas area when we moved here in 2004. Starting Points combined my love of history, literature, and Bible knowledge, so it was a good fit. My daughter and I went through David Quine’s World Views of the Western World three year curriculum at home. That eventually transitioned into teaching World Views when THEO began. Putting my favorite subjects together in a new format has been a challenge I have enjoyed (emphasis on the CHALLENGE.) This is the most difficult subject I have ever taught—and the most rewarding. Since 2004, I’ve been taking notes on world views and apologetics topics and putting them to use in the classroom. I would love to teach your child, as I taught mine to “Live with your brain turned on.”
Please click on the links below to view Mrs. Stewart’s videos.