“After graduate school I immediately got a summer school teaching job (….) That was a learning experience in and of itself, being able to juggle multiple preps while also touching on lots of key concepts and processes and providing supports for students who were struggling in the school year in such a short amount of time. So that was a real crash course in curriculum development and supporting students with those extra needs (…)”
“Three weeks later I hopped on a plane and flew to (…) China, where I got my teaching career fully started, but not in a secondary school classroom like I studied for (…) I actually entered a [pre-school] (…) That was definitely a shock to the system, because I was now teaching 3 and 4 year-olds instead of 13 to 18 year-olds like I was used to. I spent about two years there. The second year was interrupted by the Covid pandemic, but for a good year-and-a-half I had a full course-load of teaching two half-day programs to two [pre-school] classes and that really enlightened me on the foundations of education. My focus in [graduate school] was leadership. And so I tried to apply leadership theory (…) to the [pre-school] classroom, focusing on routines so that students could be more independent and self regulated within the classroom—so even if I was not there, a student leader could lead Circle Time and take them through the Circle Time routines.”
“After two years there I decided it was time to head back into the high school classroom and I was lucky enough to find a high school History teaching position in the same city. It was a public Chinese high school, but they ran a few foreign programs—the American AP, the U.K. A-Levels (…) But there were just a few other foreign teachers—foreign experts, as they call them here. I was teaching AP U.S. History as a two-year course to Grade 10 and 11 students and doing a Writing Workshop with Grade 12 students. And that's where I really got started working on my Social Studies pedagogy, really trying to cultivate and develop a project-based classroom. I spent three years at that school and it was full of challenges (….) Unfortunately, I did not have much support from the administration—not a lot of observation and supervision, not a lot of direction. Not a lot of ‘Yes, this is good’ or ‘No, try something else’. So it was really up to me and I was really relying on my students a lot to provide feedback. So while I was doing self-reflection on my teaching practice, I had them doing self-reflection on their learning experience, their learning practice, and I still use that as a core part of my curriculum and pedagogical development. How are the students experiencing this lesson, this project? What are they taking away from it? What could be improved? A lot of the insights I get from students are extremely helpful in further cultivating and improving upon my ongoing project of a project-based classroom (…) And so that was a lot of trial and error.”
“I've moved to (…) a bilingual school in [a different city]. I was really able to apply all the lessons I learned (…) and use that in the classroom with students who do have a much higher [English language] level and can keep up with the rigor of a project-based classroom more easily. And so the projects became more complex and students were able to keep up with them and the discussions became more engaging and insightful. And the reflection process also became much more insightful because the students had the ability to engage with content and skills on a deeper level and then convey that to me with their higher English level skills. And so the feedback I've gotten just over the past year and while working at this school from these students has been fantastic. And now I've been teaching AP World [History]. I just started teaching AP European History this year, along with AP World. I'm working on creating an even more project-based classroom where I'm trying to make student-centered learning the method of learning in the classroom, so that students can come in with their previous knowledge from a video or reading and all I need to do is pose questions, have the students generate ideas, create their own claims and arguments, and do history in the classroom. And that's where I'm at right now.”
“I also got a nice little promotion to Chair of the Social Studies Department this past year, so now I'm having the conversations I was having with myself the past five years with my colleagues. And it's really fun because I forgot how much I love discussing Education theory. I've been sharing project-based learning articles and backwards design models with my my colleagues and performing observations and coaching sessions to follow up, and it’s just very rewarding because they're eager to improve and they're open to these suggestions. And it's just the beginning of the year.”