教师重点:2020年4月

 

KW: I graduated from Fenwick in 2001, after being the first person ever from my grade school (St. Richard on the southwest side of Chicago) to come 在这里. I then attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, w在这里 I graduated in 2005 with a B.A. 英语，辅修中学教育. 我收到了我的M. Ed. 埃尔姆赫斯特学院的领导学.

 

 

KW: I like to joke that I 'took four years off from Fenwick to go to college' -- I started teaching 在这里 right after graduation, in the fall of 2005; I did my student teaching down at Urbana High School 和 Paxton-Buckley-Loda Junior High. I also worked for (too many) years waiting tables at T.G.I. 星期五.

 

 

KW: I am the kind of person who gets involved in several books at once. 目前，我在读普林斯的回忆录 美丽的人 和 水舞者 作者:Ta-Nehisi Coates. 如果 康纳·马尔卡希，20岁 在读这个，我也在读 《esball世博》!

 

 

KW: As an English teacher, I love good stories -- which sometimes means I watch too much TV. 我喜欢阅读，我喜欢电影和音乐. 我真的很喜欢旅行, 和 my husb和 Steve 和 I are both 'foodies' who love to check out new restaurants. But probably my favorite thing to do is spend time with our dogs, Boo 和 Bacchus.

 

 

KW: I played volleyball at Fenwick for four years, was a Friar Mentor, 和 was the senior editor of the 试金石 文学杂志.

 

 

KW: I am the head varsity coach for the boys' volleyball team. 我也是大一女生排球的教练, 校际会议的助理主持人, 以及盾牌计划的成人导师.

 

 

KW: Fenwick students are extremely intelligent 和 highly motivated. They set a high bar for themselves 和 work hard to achieve their goals. 他们好奇、体贴、善良.

 

 

KW: 我一直很喜欢读书, 和 it was in my early teenage years that I started thinking about teaching. 我六年级到八年级的老师. Trapani, was extremely influential in that; he was someone who always seemed to truly love his work. 然而，那是我大三的英语课 Mr. O’rourke 这真的激励了我. The class was so engaging 和 the literature we studied was so fascinating, that I knew then exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

 

 

KW: I think that my passion for the content is probably my greatest strength. Students seem to respond with interest when they see how interested I am in what we are reading, 和 in what they think about what we are reading. I also think I have a pretty good sense of humor (although my sarcasm is sometimes lost on the freshmen), 希望这能让我的讨论更有吸引力. 

 

 

KW: Without question my favorite class is junior year American Literature. I open the year with the essential questions, 'Who or what is American?以及“什么是美国梦”?“美国人的身份是如此复杂, 和 I love exploring how it has evolved throughout history as reflected in the literature we study. I also love how the students are able to connect to what we read because, 试图回答这些问题, they are actually attempting to define part of their own identities. Teaching American Lit also means I get to teach some of my all-time favorite texts, like 了不起的盖茨比, 弗雷德里克·道格拉斯的一生和《esball世博》. 阿尔弗雷德《esball世博》."

 

 

KW: I think that all of the little successes I’ve had actually make up my greatest success. I know that many teachers like to watch their students have that “啊哈!' moment, but I love when my students leave my class with more questions. When a student wants to search out the answer for "why?" or considers a new perspective after a discussion in my class, 我觉得我成功了. When watching my junior honors students go from being frustrated with the fact that I don’t give them a topic for their research paper, basically making them create their direction from scratch, to being so passionate about the research they are finding 和 proud of their final paper in the end, 我觉得我成功了.

 

 

KW: 当今学生面临的最大挑战, 在我看来, 他们是否承受着巨大的压力. 学业成功的压力, financially 和 socially can really drain people 和 force them into living lives that aren’t completely true to who they really are or what they really want.