Graduate named teacher of the year
WILMORE, KY—Asbury College graduate Adam Chisholm was named teacher of the year for the Jessamine County School District. Chisholm is a 2003 graduate of Asbury College and teaches 3rd and 4th grades at Warner Elementary School.
In his fifth year of teaching, Chisholm, was unaware of his nomination for this award by fellow teachers. He found out on opening day this year when he saw his family walking in the gymnasium.
“I felt honored and validated in what I had been doing,” he said. Chisholm tries to “think outside the box” when in comes to his teaching. “We move a lot in my class,” he said.
Originally Chisholm was set to go into architecture, but the Michigan native always enjoyed working with children so he decided to give education a try, signing up for an introductory education course. He was hooked and changed his major. In his first class he met his now wife, Diane King ’03 Chisholm.
To address the different ways children learn, Chisholm develops lesson plans using the seven different intelligences, including physical, linguistic, mathematical/logical, visual/spatial, musical, inter-personal and intra-personal. Chisholm says that if he teaches the content in all of those modes, he’ll reach every child.
He uses motions and actions for students to remember vocabulary words. He has also been known to bring in his guitar and write songs to help students remember information including writing a rap song about the continents. Chisholm’s methods are effective. “It’s not uncommon to hear students singing the song during tests.”
“Asbury has done a remarkable job,” he said. “I was very well prepared by Asbury College to teach because they focus so heavily with meeting the individual needs of students. If I came out with anything, it was to teach to the individual student instead of the status quo.”
Chisholm says teaching is “exhausting, but I won’t do anything else.”
Jan. 3, 2008
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