In a time when teachers and educators are facing more challenges than ever, it’s important I communicate what is at the heart of all we do here at Certell. As a non-profit, we are all about providing free digital content to teachers to engage and improve the learning of their students. We’ve never charged for content before the pandemic, and we will not after it has passed.
We are all about helping teachers, not replacing them. In fact we don’t think that there there is any substitution for a passionate teacher pouring and investing into his or her students, and our materials help free up precious time so you can do just that. Only a great teacher can convey wisdom and meaning, and we want to help you do more of that.
Broken down into four main categories – knowledge, skills, wisdom, and motivation – here is a more detailed version of our philosophy:
KNOWLEDGE
We live in a paradox. On one hand, nearly all the knowledge of the world is accessible anywhere, any time. At the same time, our uniqueness is defined by the complex way we humans interact with knowledge. As such, Certell believes it is still important for students to learn things. Let technology do the heavy lifting of identifying and organizing information in order to free up precious teacher and student class time for higher-level learning.
SKILLS
Evaluating what what a student has learned serves several purposes. First, to engage them in critical thinking. Second, to assess their situation in the context of community. Both of these are critical to good citizenship. At Certell, we embed exercises and activities which allow students to develop these skills through their engagement with the material suitable to different learning styles.
WISDOM
The real heart of teaching is to take knowledge and skills and turn them into true wisdom. The privilege of teaching meaning and cultivating ambition in young people is what drew most teachers into the profession in the first place. With Certell’s content doing the heavy lifting, we aim to free up precious classroom time for life-changing encounters between teachers and students that make it all worthwhile to you.
MOTIVATION
Even the most inspiring teacher needs to apply a balanced arsenal of carrots and sticks. You might work for free if you could dispense wisdom all day, but you earn your pay by developing ways of motivating students to learn. Certell is not a substitute for a motivationally gifted teacher, but by making our content visually appealing, multimedia-rich, and fashioning it around the devices and learning modes of today’s digital native students, we hope to make this part of your responsibility a little bit easier.
Simply put, our desire is to facilitate the knowledge and skills part so you can focus more of your time and attention on the wisdom and motivation part. Whatever we have to do to make that possible, accessible, and effective for teachers, principals, superintendents, and anyone committed to educating students, we will do it.
Thank you again for your passionate dedication to your craft. I hope you found this encouraging and our free content a welcome addition to all you are doing, especially during this time.
Dr. Fred Fransen
Founder • Certell