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Meet Ms. Al Joukhadar!
- Years in Education: 20
- Years at Blyth Academy: 6
What/who inspired you to become a teacher?
Since I was little, I have always enjoyed sharing my skills, strengths, and love of math with others! My friends were the first ones who told me in many different “kids’ way” that I DO make a change! Every year at school, I used to meet a new math teacher who used to see a little teacher in me and have always encouraged me to teach since I was in my early school years. The biggest influence though was definitely my heart that has always been filled with passion and love to help others learn and most importantly ENJOY their learning!
If someone walked into your classroom tomorrow, what would they see, hear, and feel?
They would see pencils, erasers, and lots of papers! They would not see pens! Pens judge us when we do mistakes! Pencils do not! In my classrooms, we embrace errors! All it takes is erase that error and move forward. They will also see handmade TOOLS!!! Yes, we do construct our own tools to investigate, test, and experiment with different laws, theorems, and formulas using our hands- AWAY from the textbook! They can also hear some banging of rockets launched to experiment with Quadratics or to test Galileo’s equations of motion and much more! They will definitely hear: Thank you for doing this AWESOME MISTAKE! Students always get rewarded for their mistakes because these are the biggest steps that lead to success.
What is one of your favourite memories as a teacher?
Every student I teach leaves a very dear memory that never leaves my heart or mind. One of them was when students constructed their launchers and one of my students’ launchers was too large that did not pass through the school gate. We had to disassemble it and reassemble it. When we headed out to the park to launch a baseball and calculate its final velocity as it strikes the ground, people of all ages gathered around us and were mesmerized for more than 30 min watching the launching and learning Projectile Motion!
What is most rewarding about being a teacher?
Teaching is the most rewarding vocation! Getting students to replace “I am not good at a certain skill" into “I love learning about that same skill” feels to me like I have conquered the world!
What is one skill you think every student should learn?
An important skill students should all learn is the skill to STRUGGLE successfully. Students should be given every opportunity to struggle and to get helped to emerge out of this struggle successfully. This is a very hard skill that humans by nature tend to avoid, but it is the key for the great things that humans can accomplish! The bigger the struggle, the greater the achievement!
Want to learn more about Blyth Academy Orbit?
Blyth Academy Orbit revolves around the same principles and academic structure as our physical schools but operates in the virtual space. Our campus offers Grades 7-12 and focuses on small class sizes with individualized attention.