Thank You

I would not be nearly the teacher that I am today–still in the works but more learned than ever–were it not for the guidance, wisdom, and love of some key people. This page is in no way exhaustive, but I hope it begins to show how grateful I am. Thank you to…

• Heather Roberts, who on top of being an amazing professor is also a phenomenal human being. Heather guided our humanities cohort on a daily basis, which included writing comments that competed with War and Peace in quality and length (unlike Tolstoy’s tome, Heather’s comments were never boring).
• Peter Weyler, my ninth-grade mentor teacher, who consistently gave me the most efficient constructive criticism while I evolved in classroom management every day. I cannot express enough gratitude to you for pushing me to be my best. Pete, you and I share a love of Herman Melville and Socratic seminars, but I will always be worse at playing soccer.
• Deirdre Carlson, my eleventh-grade mentor teacher, who helped me hone my practice when I added a junior class to the mix. Your flexibility and keen eye for how I could better challenge students allowed me to demand the most from them, in addition to myself. I always appreciated the corny English memes via text…

• Cindy Roach, my eleventh grade co-teacher, thank you for your patience with me as I figured out both teaching and co-teaching simultaneously. You have always been a voice of reason and I appreciate your dual sense of fun and no-nonsense.
• Ricci Hall, the principal of Claremont, thank you for all the wisdom and empathy of your own experiences. I will never forget two of your lines this year. From the first day of school: “In a way, the content knowledge is secondary; focus on teaching your kids to be good human beings first and the rest will follow.” And from January: “I taught history pretty poorly for the first few years; don’t be too hard on yourself.”
• Andrea Allen, who I have known for many years now in a couple different roles at Clark (though “friend” will stick forever), thank you for your guidance in helping me evolve from my very early days as a freshman at Clark when I told you I wanted to teach. We did it!
• Dad, you have been my rock and my role model my entire life. I appreciated the daily pep talks and text messages–it was always nice to get a friendly note to start each of my days at school. I love you.
• Cara, we made it! I am so happy that you and I could share stories of good and bad days, the best and most challenging students. I look forward to the next chapter and am so grateful you are a part of my life. I love you. (Check out her eFolio HERE–it’s pretty sweet.)
• To my fellow Claremont MATs, Bess and Jenny, and to all my fellow MATs this year, it was great to collaborate and share stories. You are an amazing cohort.
• To some other members of the Claremont Ubuntu Team who helped me in various ways this year: Mike Eressy, Amber Pouliot, Adelina Zaimi, Samir Tokatli, Christine Hamm, Sean Carroll, Linda Tomaino, Bob Knittle, Jesse Bicknell, Lori Simpson, and Kelly Rivera Barrios.
• To some other members of the Clark Education Team who assisted me this year, including Jie Park, Tom Del Prete, Eric DeMeulenaere, and Cindy Gabriel.
• And, most of all, my students. Your patience, honesty, and passion helped me a great deal this year. I hope that I can take all that I have learned and apply it to future classes. I will never forget these many stories from the past year together.