Founding Head of Lower School; transitioned to Director of Lower School Pedagogy & Program
2023-2025

We do not always get the opportunity to launch a brand new school aligned wholly to our beliefs, values, experience, knowledge and understanding. In 2023, I was trusted with this responsibility; I was given the chance to sell and enact a vision for a program founded on the principles of Concept-Based Curriculum & Instruction with the pedagogy of Play-Based and Playful Learning. Additionally, I was able to organize an approach to Language & Literacy based on context, that balanced Structured Literacy with an inquiry cycle of Systemic Functional Linguistics allowing learners to inquire into how language works. Not to mention, the full participation in the the CBI Mathematics Project pilot while integrating the works of Pam Harris (Math-is-figureout-able) and Jo Boaler (Mathematical Mindsets).

AND then to build such a collaborative, constructive curious team who willingly took the risks while supporting one another for full implementation from day one! Through transparent data sharing, we leveraged our team's expertise to challenge every learner appropriately. The many bumps along the way reflected a natural learning process. Learning is messy; it is not about the setbacks, it is about our response to challenges, our resilience - the ability to bounce back and try again; reflective practice in action.

After 2 years of implementation, our team saw significant measurable growth for ALL learners in language development, literacy skill development for decoding, fluency and comprehension, mathematical reasoning & understanding.

We reflected together on all the observable skills for lifelong learning that we saw begin to blossom: self-management (resilience, executive function), collaboration and community building skills for building norms and respecting agreements, the ability to generalize understandings, and to pose thoughtful questions.

Our masterstroke, the 2025 spring performance filled me with pride and emotion. Our learners demonstrated tremendous growth in performance skills; the stage presence & ability to follow protocols, to participate in choral harmonies and rounds, the dramatic with dance and props, and the confident oratory skills. Wow! 

Enrollment grew by 225%! Happy families spread the word...

NEASC recognized and congratulated us on our Lower School program as a beautifully holistic, relevant program that seamlessly embeds the ACE Principles throughout.

This chapter of my career has unexpectedly come to a close due to institutional reorganization and other significant challenges. I am now looking for a new learning community to inspire, encourage, and support on their learning journey in 2026. Onwards and upwards to new adventures in learning!

Program of CBI

CBI became the driver for inquiry-based learning at Brewster. We embedded additional understandings into our units of inquiry. For both campuses, we generated a complete thoroughly standards-based transdisplinary POI under my leadership.

Play-based Learning

When we opened Brewster Madrid, our team was introduced to play and to concept-based curriculum and instruction. Our Early Years team dove enthusiastically into developing their capacity to facilitate concept-based inquiry through play-based learning. Our early learners now participate in driving and in documenting their learning and understanding. This image represents a CBI approach to How the world works: construction, so much risk-taking enriched with teacher and learner curiosity, supported by a caring persistent learning environment. Together we learn and grow!

Inclusive Responsive Teaching & Learning

At Brewster, we prioritized transparency and teamwork for the benefit of our learners. We used cycles of teaching and learning to track the data for decisions about next steps. Embedded in these cycles were systems for communicating with learners and their families. Conferences supported learning conversations about goals, assessment data and next steps. Through these conversations we were able to support students building self-regulation and agency over their learning journey. This created a shared ownership for the learning journey between the teacher, the student and the family.