#1 — What brought you to Emma Willard School

I had been an adjunct/visiting professor during the pandemic, so many places were scaling back their contingent faculty. My wife recommended that I look at local high schools, and it happened that there was a leave replacement needed at Emma Willard. I applied and heard back pretty quickly! 

I was really nervous because, although I had trained as a high school teacher and obtained my New York State teaching certifications, I had never used them. But the experience I had once getting here has been universally positive!

I loved it. I loved those kids. I felt very welcome and very included right away. That was an amazing three months to the point that I cried a little bit when Dr. Legg told me that I wasn't needed anymore, the person was coming back. The students were great. When I told them that I was leaving, I was very sad. This was when we had transitioned to fully remote classes during the early part of COVID, and as all the kids came into the Zoom one day, their cameras kept cutting out. I thought, “What's going on? Is it a hardware issue?” Then they all turned their cameras back on at the same time, and they all were holding signs for me, and I bawled. I instantly cried. I knew this was a really special place with kids like that. 

I stayed in touch with some of the people I met, and the next year, there was an opening. I applied, didn't get that one, but tried again the following year, and that was the year I got it and haven't looked back!

 

#2 — What is a typical day in the life at Emma like for you?

If you could see my desk, you'd get a sense of barely organized chaos, but in a really good way!

It's a nice mix of time spent with my students in my classes. I have anywhere from one to three classes in a given day, one-on-one meetings with advisees, and, ideally, some planning blocks for myself to stay on top of grading and to look a little bit ahead in my schedule. It's a lot of spinning plates. There's always something unplanned that pops up, or a student needs a little bit of extra support, but there is a lot of support for those kids and for those of us who provide it. I know I have resources I can turn to that are very helpful. Even though it is a lot to juggle, I'm never juggling it alone.

And then once indoor track season starts, my day extends by an hour and a half because then I go off and coach, and then on weekends it's track meets!

 

#3 — What is one thing about working at Emma that would surprise people?

I don't know if it would surprise people, but a pleasant surprise for me has been how much professional development support there is here. Especially as somebody who had been away from a high school classroom for a long time, having opportunities to go to events like The Association of Boarding Schools Conference was huge. 

The school has also sent me on things that are professionally related but not directly connected to my teaching. I've gone to present at the Organization of American Historians about the benefits of game-based learning for high schools. I was the only high school teacher on that panel, and that felt awesome. I've continued to publish, and my most recent book review now has “Emma Willard School” under my name! 

This year I’m learning Mandarin. I'm delighted that the school agreed that learning a language that a large number of our international students speak is part of our goal. We like relational teaching, and it’s relevant to the classes that I’m teaching but we also have students from China in many classes, and to be able to say something to them in a language that might help them feel a little more seen, a little more welcomed, is important. 

 

 

#4 — What were you like in high school?

I don't know that I had figured out who I was yet, though I did know then that I wanted to be a historian. When I was in high school, I was a little awkward, even more so than I am now. I played sports, but I wouldn't have considered myself an athlete. I got really into volunteer work, I played hockey, I wrestled, and I did play the trombone for a while (mainly because Jonathan Frakes's character plays it on Star Trek). 

I very much enjoyed gaming in my free time. So PlayStation, a Super Nintendo, and I loved board games (I still do, except now I get to use them professionally when I teach, which is great for me)!