Learning brings me joy. For as long as I can remember, I have always enjoyed learning new things. It didn’t matter when, where, or how. I can remember being in elementary school and waiting anxiously to find out what the class would be studying next. Continue reading Creating the Space for Reflection: Teacher as Learner
Category Archives: 1st Post
The Role of Writing in the Process of Learning a Foreign Language
Writing and teaching have always been the main drivers of my identity. Doing both at the same time has been, in one way or another, a recurring theme in my life. That is why for my self-study I’ve chosen to focus on how my own experience as a writer has impacted my teaching career throughout the years, making me develop a language program that uses writing as a central component of the practice and acquisition of a foreign tongue.
Continue reading The Role of Writing in the Process of Learning a Foreign Language
Creative Writing As a Lens for Exploring My Creative Practice
For my tenure self-study, I will focus on my own creative writing practice. This year, I am specializing in the teaching of English/Language Arts rather than Humanities as a whole. This means I am designing new curriculum and a major focus of the year for me is the teaching of writing, both expository and creative writing. Continue reading Creative Writing As a Lens for Exploring My Creative Practice
What Do I Value?
The following are a set of questions and initial reflections that are framing my self-study inquiry. While these questions and reflections have an initial orientation towards students and subject matter, I think that they also have significant implications for my own practice as a teacher. Continue reading What Do I Value?
Facilitating Early Childhood Collaborative Play Under COVID-19
The 2020-21 school year has been like no other for all faculty, students, staff, and administrators across the country. Continue reading Facilitating Early Childhood Collaborative Play Under COVID-19
Curriculum as Windows and Mirrors
My self-study has gone through a bit of an iterative process.
Continue reading Curriculum as Windows and Mirrors
The Role of Nature and Play in School
As I begin my eighth year at LREI, I realize that I’ve been thinking a lot the past few years about play. Last year, I came across Global School Play Day. Elena encouraged me to share this event with the Lower School and we had several classes participate. It was a lovely day for my class. The children engaged in decision-making, turn-taking, sharing, compromise, and practiced social skills such as initiating play and joining play all day long. I’m excited to participate in Global School Play Day again this year and hope many of my colleagues across all three divisions do as well. Continue reading The Role of Nature and Play in School
Self-Study as Redesign
For me, the timing of this self-study has been fortuitous because it coincides with the redesign of learning support in the middle school, partnering with a new colleague, and additions to my role as a middle school learning specialist. Continue reading Self-Study as Redesign
Portfolios as Windows and Mirror for Learning
My focus for my self study will be to commit myself to a year long portfolio with my students. Sometimes they will choose work based on where they are in the process of their work. Sometimes it will be work that I have assigned them. There will be times where I challenge the students to think about specific ideas. (What was something challenging? Something I have improved in. Something I still need to work on.) Continue reading Portfolios as Windows and Mirror for Learning
Mindfulness Mission
Meaningful Homework Assignments and Beyond …
Through this project, I would like to explore how to make my assignments (homework and in the classroom) even more interactive and centered around listening comprehension and speaking in the target language in order to engage the students, reduce their anxiety (since it will not require a final product) and actually incorporate some mindfulness exercises. Reflections and discussions will take place in French. Continue reading Mindfulness Mission
Creative Practice
For my self study, I’ve chosen to refocus on my own creative practice. During the self-discovery phase, I explored my passion for endurance sports — swimming, running and cycling — specifically. What I’ve learned, and what I teach my students, is that writing and producing films requires the same training, diligence and most of all, persistence as running a marathon, or finishing a hundred mile bike race. In my self-study, I plan to complete a re-write on a feature screenplay and work on production on a short personal documentary film. I hope to complete both projects, but will, at the very least, complete one of them. Continue reading Creative Practice
Staying Relevant
As a teacher with almost 30 years on the job, I worry that I will “fall behind”. I am concerned that my habits, practices, and perspectives are no longer relevant/effective. Students are now swimming in a different sea. Understandings of race, gender and privilege have all evolved and in some way been transformed. Social media has changed not only how students communicate, but also how they interact with the world. Since I’m not retiring soon, I have to find ways to avoid becoming the faculty dinosaur while at the same time preserving some of the reasons why I chose to become a teacher. Continue reading Staying Relevant
Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
The focus of my self-study will be to increase my physical fitness, put plainly “to get back in shape”, documenting my work with a training log in the style that I hope my students will use, and reflecting on the process with the self-study process. Healing and preparing my body for the next 10 years of teaching and coaching was the initial idea, but I think that branching out into sports or races that I have little experience in, and forcing myself to compete in them would be helpful to the empathy that I hope to build through this process. Continue reading Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
Opening Up to Artistic Freedom
Over the course of this self-study – and ideally beyond – I hope to push myself outside of my comfort zone and into areas of artistic practice and expression that have hitherto felt daunting or unattainable. I want to be able to apply the expectations I place on my students to myself with regards to my own practice as an artist. I want to generate work, A LOT of work and be open to and OK with the fact that much of it won’t be good, or polished or finished. I want to work fast and with less control. Continue reading Opening Up to Artistic Freedom
Sparking Scientific Curiosity
FINDING MY FOCUS
What has been one of my peak experiences as a teacher? I am lucky that there are many instances in my career that make me feel engaged and motivated, that spark my desire to expand my knowledge base, but there is one that especially stands out in my mind. Continue reading Sparking Scientific Curiosity