I have been so fortunate to access amazing resources in ZIS, AAS and SLS. Please scroll down to share in a small sampling of the contributions I'm proud to have made:

Reader and Writer Workshop with IB?!

In the last 4 years, I’ve been inspired to draw from the Reader and Writer Workshop model by the amazing work Erin Kent, Mary Ehrenworth at Columbia University, and our own in-house master teachers at ZIS’s Lower School. The crisp and deliberate mini-lessons (clad with giant sticky note concepts and skills) has made for so much more collaborative close reading and writing, and allowed me to help all students level up their performance and engagement. Why? Because we have so much more time for guided practice. The work emerging from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College is so relevant too - especially around issues of identity, anxiety, differentiation, and diversity. Mary Ehrenworth’s vivacity and research based work is really inspiring! I’m grateful to ZIS for the opportunity to spend a week at Columbia U’ in Jan 2019 (a last trip before we were all staying safe, at home for a while!)

The Inaugural Extended Essay Exhibition, class of 2015

Question → Process → Discovery

Typically, EE's are shelved to gather dust, relegated as vacuums of inquiry and discovery, but I determined to mine this treasure for it's examplary depth, exploration and passion. Like our PYP exhibition students, our seniors deserved a platform to showcase their interest and process. When asked in an assembly if they cared about their investigation, 90% of the students raised their hand. In response to their authentic inquiry, I created two events that would move their work out from the isolation of 13 pages to visible learning: a thirty minute symposium, and exhibition + Gallery Walk. We celebrated their learning, their passions, their inquiry... and their suffering, as well engaged the community in conversations for further inquiry. The results are manifold: the exposure invigorated time management, it invites future DP cohorts to advance with deeper and more meaningful reflection, it celebrates learning.

This Sunday, Nov. 24th, I was in AAS's Hall of Flags adding some final touches before the week's IB DP Extended Essay Exhibition - an effort to make learning  visible. Our amazing Communication's Department collaborated to make these amazing po… — This Sunday, Nov. 24th, I was in AAS's Hall of Flags adding some final touches before the week's IB DP Extended Essay Exhibition - an effort to make learning visible. Our amazing Communication's Department collaborated to make these amazing posters in the forefront, and the seniors prepared the 3 documents (question, process, discovery/abstract) during advisory. The PTO framed the photos and name-plates and will make a celebratory lunch, Students gathered Friday afternoon to mount the work. A team effort for learning! I can't wait for Tuesday's gallery walk!

Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet

Paul Muldoon--Pulitzer Winner, Princeton Chair of Creative Writing, Irish Poet, and my professor--stopped in to AAS in May to share his poetry and discuss the work of his contemporary, Seamus Heaney. Our Language and Literature students studied Heaney for their Paper 2 practice Exam; can you think of a more authentic way to dig into a poet's contex in Moscow? It was sublime!

Mr. Paul Muldoon and the Honourable Irish Ambassador to Russia, generously stopped by to help orient our junior Language and Literature students around the historical context in which Seamus Heaney  wrote his poetry. — Mr. Paul Muldoon and the Honourable Irish Ambassador to Russia, generously stopped by to help orient our junior Language and Literature students around the historical context in which Seamus Heaney wrote his poetry.

Women's Day Address

Since serving as Grade 9 Leader 6 years ago, I capitalised on the flowery celebrations for Women's Day in Moscow by inviting extraordinary women from our community to address the school. Our first event started small: I invited CFO to General Motors and mother of 4 daughters to address the Grade 9 class in 2011; then the initiative grew so that two more extraodinary mother's were invited to address the whole high school in 2012 and 2013. Last year's aroused the greates success as International Space Station Commander Sunita Williams (an astronaut!) visited.

Giving platforms for stories like these helps students to envision a more diverse, accepting and vibrant society.

Page to Stage

Experts in drama all concur that the most powerful approach to analyzing a piece of drama is to perform. Here I took the stage in my final year at Bread Loaf School of English: Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida." It was thrilling and inspirational to work with a professional acting ensemble and director. Now, as we read "Oedipus Rex" and "The Cherry Orchard" students regularly take the stage to grasp the tension, implied characterization, and themes.

Discovery weeks... so much adventure, so much learning

Trips lead: Ruka, Finland; London (science); Capadoccia, Turkey; Dolomites, Italy; Mendoza, Argentina; Croatia... as well as a visit from slam poet Taylor Mali.

Invited Independent film maker Velcro Ripper to SLS, 2004

Our English department drew links between film documentary in the contemporary world and the archetypal journey found in classical literature. The hip and insightful visitor invigorated the learning, helping students to make connections between the curriculum and the world around them.