EDUCATION SPRING 2018
Tech Teaching: A Family Story By Makala James To the Longs, Adventist education is a family matter. The entire family either attends or teaches at Burton Adventist Academy, and family value is even instilled into their classrooms. Aaron and Carrie Long simply strive to provide a well-rounded and technologically progressive learning environment. “There’s a tight-knit, connected community element here,” said Aaron. “To me, that’s what really makes what we do so special. Then you add in the fact that I believe we are sharing truth with the kids daily. It’s such an important thing and it’s a blessing as well.” Aaron and Carrie met at Burton Adventist Academy, not as teachers, but as students. Their romance blossomed in high school. After dating for eight years, they married in 2002 a few weeks after graduation from Southwestern Adventist University. Initially, neither Carrie nor Aaron planned to teach. That changed when they became student missionaries in Chuuk, Micronesia where they both worked as teachers in the field. “In Chuuk, I realized that I loved teaching and wanted to do it as a career,” said Aaron. Carrie’s decision to teach came later. After giving birth to two children, Caden and Adeline, Carrie decided to be a stay-at-home mom and homeschool. Yet, she kept an eye open for potential jobs in social work. Five years later, an unexpected job opportunity presented itself when the sole teacher of a small Adventist school resigned. While Aaron and the school board searched to find a replacement, they looked far and wide to no avail. Rather than allow the school to shut down, Carrie and Aaron agreed to fill the position together. “I was actually lined up to work with autistic children with behavioral therapy,” said Carrie. “But just landed in teaching instead. I’ve been there ever since and really enjoy it.” Aaron taught the older children and Carrie taught the younger children, including Caden and Adeline. Although few kids attended the school, Aaron decided to use his love for technology to improve the learning experience and help increase enrollment. “In 2008, Apple had just come out with wireless screen mirroring on the iPad. It blew me away and I thought, ‘How can we use this in the classroom?” Aaron wanted to do something big. Technology renovations seemed an ambitious and exciting goal, so he creatively funded a school remodel with an emphasis in technology. After successfully fundraising the money, they completely stripped the two classrooms out and updated them with technology centers. The school flourished under its new structure. “It was such a neat tool for diversified instruction,” said Aaron. “Self-directed learning, delivery of information, feedback from the kids; if I had to go back to paper and pencil, in terms of teaching, it would be very difficult.” When Aaron and Carrie accepted an offer to teach at Burton Adventist Academy in 2013, Aaron immediately set to implement an iPad program. The school raised $40,000 for an initial investment to
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remodel the infrastructure. Now, Aaron is the representative for the Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to help schools across the state start iPad programs of their own. As Aaron implements these programs to help in the classroom, Carrie uses apps to share reports, pictures, and behaviors with parents and families outside of the classroom. “Carrie is a total champion of communication,” said Aaron. “She’s just fantastic about capturing the experience of the kids at school and constantly sharing that with their parents.” Ultimately, the use of technology is secondary to a greater mission for Carrie and Aaron: teaching children about Christ in a comprehensive education. “I like the well-roundedness of Adventist education in teaching the whole child,” said Carrie. “Now that we have children there’s no place I would rather have them than in Adventist education.”