An Effective Educator

Like many others from my graduating class, I left college and headed for the fast track of world of law and finance. After two years crunching numbers, juggling million dollar real estate projects and emerging from Black Monday (October 1987) relatively unscathed, I realized I hated my job. Landing a teaching position at Fessenden School became a watershed event in my life. Looking back over the past years, I fully realize that teaching is an essential part of me. Whether creating a model of the Yangtze River Valley with vivacious 6th graders, discussing the importance of the Bill of Rights with ebullient 7th graders or explaining the decline and fall of the Roman Empire to a loud bunch of 9th graders, I love educating students.

Michael Thompson, once said, "There are some teachers who are effective and know why, others who aren't effective and don't know why, and a third are effective but aren't quite sure why." After five years at Fessenden, I felt like the latter. Therefore, I decided to attend graduate school in order to become a more effective educator. Theory, practicum, and research aside, graduate school was an epiphany for me. It confirmed in me that leading a school was more than a choice; it was a calling.

After earning my degree, I took a middle school job at Harvard-Westlake, where I quickly moved from the classroom into several different administrative roles. As a team leader for several years, I was responsible for supervising the progress of 250 7th grade students, overseeing a team of eight 7th grade history teachers, which included evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum and teaching, and reporting directly to the Middle School Head and Assistant Headmaster. In addition, it was my job to h...

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...e to create a school environment that promotes the development of its faculty and student body. Moreover, an effective curriculum is a crucial part of any school. My job is to evaluate the curriculum and investigate ways to improve it. Furthermore, a vibrant and engaging school is created through a sense of teamwork and hard work. As an educational leader, I endeavor to foster a collaborative spirit among the faculty, within the administration and throughout the entire school community. As a head, I am responsible for guiding the process through which we are preparing students for the future; this involves much. I am passionate and systematic about my work and, I am dedicated to supporting the students, parents, and teachers equally in order to insure that critical learning objectives are mastered and that all constituents are engaged in the learning process.