Sarah Fischer, Ph.D.

When I was a student in high school, I was certain that I wanted to be a psychiatrist. However, I had a teacher who encouraged all of his students to get out into the community and learn about various professions firsthand. He would organize fieldtrips for us and set up meetings with community members. Interestingly, we never met with teachers or administrators about the field of education, but the role my teacher played in designing these learning experiences around each of us as individuals made me realize how much of an impact teachers had made on my life. I chose to become an elementary teacher, because I value the opportunity to teach all disciplines and am very interested in the ways children choose to use their increasing independence to explore the world around them at this age.  

Hobbies
Exploring new and familiar places with my family, running and hiking, kayaking, reading, watching Angela Lansbury movies and collecting Little Golden Books

• Ph.D., Penn State University, 2015
  Curriculum and Instruction; Concentration: Language, Culture, and Society
• M.Ed., Penn State University, 2012
  Curriculum and Instruction; Concentration: Children’s Literature
• B.S., Penn State University, 2008
  Kindergarten and Elementary Education

• EDUC 226: Children’s Literature
• EDUC 301: Literacy: Climate, Curriculum and Instruction I
• EDUC 302: Literacy: Climate, Curriculum and Instruction II
• EDUC 330: Instructional Design and Assessment

Research
• Intersections of reader identity and theories of place
• Emergent literacy practice
• Marginalia
• Texts for children