Crane School Blog: Focus on Learning

Featuring articles written by Crane Staffulty

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Teaching Fellow Maddie
Maddie Davidian

Being a second-year teaching fellow at Crane, my time here is coming to an end. For the past two years, I have been given the opportunity to challenge, change, and create a vision for an educational philosophy to be applied in my future classrooms, and I am excited to see where it leads me.

I dream about my future classroom--what it will look like, who my students will be, the kind of learning they will love, and the way the desks will be arranged...

Being a second-year teaching fellow at Crane, my time here is coming to an end. For the past two years, I have been given the opportunity to challenge, change, and create a vision for an educational philosophy to be applied in my future classrooms, and I am excited to see where it leads me.

I dream about my future classroom--what it will look like, who my students will be, the kind of learning they will love, and the way the desks will be arranged. I hope to be able to build a classroom community as flawlessly as my mentor teachers have in their Crane classrooms.

Reflecting on my experience here, I have fallen in love: in love with teaching, in love with learning, in love with school, in love with my colleagues, in love with the Crane community! With the foundation Crane has provided me, I feel more than ready to take on a classroom of my own. I have taken the motto of rigor and joy to heart: rigorously researching new pedagogy to be the best teacher I can be, and joyously implementing best practices in my classrooms.

I know that I want to be part of a school community grounded in kindness, integrity, and experiential education. I love being a part of this community where others are so willing to help, willing to share ideas, willing to jump into projects with others and share their creativity, intelligence, drive, and sense of humor.

Being a teaching fellow at Crane has allowed me to study valuable teaching styles, teaching tools, and teaching lessons that I plan to take with me to my next classroom. I have sought opportunities to help my students find joy in learning, value in making mistakes, and to explore the relationship between creativity and advanced academics over the course of my fellowship.

While at Crane, I have learned about all of the things I want in a school. While I look for my next classroom, I am searching for a place that incorporates all that I celebrate at Crane: project-based learning, character building, freedom of exploration, the celebration of the authentic self, social-emotional learning, and a beautiful place to embrace academics.

I will always cherish my time at Crane as a Teaching Fellow. I will always remember the students I have worked with and the people I have met.

Maddie Davidian
Teaching Fellow, Fifth Grade

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