High School Founding Faculty
“It is the ability to critically examine mythologies and narratives that continue to shape society. If we’re not able to recognize the power of narratives on society, and on us as individuals, we become passive consumers; we absorb narratives about ourselves, about other people, and about the way the world should work. My goal is to help students critically examine the narratives that surround them and decide: ‘Do I believe in this or not? Do I want to accept this? Do I want to reject it? Do I want to change it?'”
Highlights: Critical thinking
“My hope for my students is to embrace mistakes rather than feeling ashamed of them.
There are similarities between learning to ride a bike and learning a new language:
– the more you practice, the better you become
– falling — or making mistakes — leads to growth
– regardless of proficiency, mistakes can still occur”
Highlights: Classroom Culture, Growth Mindset
“If I could do this job without giving you a grade, that would be the first thing I would drop. Because it is handicapping your ability to be creative and find your voice. Feedback has many layers as well. You have certain responsibilities, a criteria that you’re trying to get the kids to meet and work toward as a teacher, skills and so forth. But I also really do try to pull as much as I can out of them for them to reflect and give their own feedback, and for me to coach…”
Highlights: Assessment, Intrinsic motivation
“I’m a big advocate for project based language learning. So learning the language, learning the vocabulary and learning the grammar, they are not the finish line. They are the process that the breaks that you need to use to build a building and to create authentic opportunities for students to use the language.”
Highlights: Project-based Learning
“What I would like rigor to mean is not so much that I’m working so hard but that my brain is working hard… that my brain is tingling in a way that is sometimes uncomfortable but also really exciting… that this education is challenging me to think in new and innovative ways and critically examine my assumptions.”
Highlights: Rigor
“When you sit down to write something, you are entering into a conversation. When you sit down to write an essay, the end goal must be something more than just to proving to me that you read this book and you understand it. There must be a compelling *WHY*.
What I want to know is: How did your interpretation of this text contribute to a wider understanding of this text resonance in today’s world?”
Highlights: Perspectives, Meaningful writing