I believe that teaching well is all about having actual relationships with students, where we, as teachers, figure out what the students’ starting points are and then we take them somewhere new.  In particular, I love teaching about storytelling, whether it’s reading literature together, interviewing strangers, writing original stories, or analyzing a period of history.  I’ve been at Hawken for six years now, and before that I taught in New York City and Boston schools – this Fall will be the beginning of my sixteenth year of teaching.  I’ve learned a bit about how to build classroom communities where students feel safe to share their thoughts, and I put a lot of time into that, because it’s important that students feel they can be open and honest at school.  When I was in high school, I developed so much of my sense of humor, my sense of self, and my friendships (I still talk to two of my best friends from high school every week!) so I know that it’s important for us to make this into a place where students can really grow.