yShD6

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Students Take
Learning Outside
Typical Classroom
Summer break couldn’t stop education
students from learning and teaching others.
Students in the online course Family Law and
Public Policy traveled to Washington, D.C., as
part of their curriculum, which focused on how
law and policy impacts families. Dr. Kristie
Chandler, course instructor, said the trip provided
context and a historical element to the class.
“Although students can learn in a traditional
classroom setting, I believe the D.C. experience
really helped the course material come alive,”
Chandler said. “Being there provided that extra
element of knowledge, experience and interest.”
Highlights of the trip included meeting with
the communications director for the Baptist Joint
Committee, who is a Samford graduate, touring
the new National Public Radio studio and
meeting with a representative from the Family
Research Council. They also had the opportunity
to meet with Congressman Spencer Bachus,
followed by a private tour of the Capitol.
Hannah Barnette, senior education major,
spent most of her summer last year serving at
Terra Nova Academy, a small but growing school
in Uganda. Barnette assisted in a classroom half
the week and taught art to students the other half.
She said the classroom placement stretched her, as
the age group she worked with was younger than
she had experienced, but said she enjoyed the
opportunity for growth.
She said her time in Uganda helped her
realize that she was the one who learned so much.
“I am beginning to understand that to be a
teacher really means you are a lifelong student,”
she said. ◗
Education major Hannah Barnette works with
Ugandan youth.
www.samford.edu • 25