In a school career, how many of those teachers that are life changing do you get? The ones you remember twenty and thirty years later with your siblings because you were lucky enough to get them.
At Kalexedy, one of the things that makes us great is that kids get to be with the same teacher for years. That means when we are hiring, we are looking for that elusive life changing teacher. So introducing... Ms. Lea Shell.
I am currently watching her deliver Halloween candy through a homemade Little Shop of Horrors plant. And while that is impressive, more so is that she is known for her contagious joy and creativity by the neighborhood kids. From tiny tots to teens eking out one more year, they queue up from her front stairs to the sidewalk for their moment with her.
During the day, she brings that same joy to everything from epic story writing for NaNoWriMo to struggles with fractions. I have had the pleasure to see her draw out the most shy and withdrawn of teens. She sets the example in how to regulate for the over-excited. She is a confidant and the relief to stress. And if the image in your head is of small kids, replace that with teens navigating angst and academics. She is their beacon in the storm of daily life.
So while I emphasize how much that extra something matters, it is backed up by real teaching skills and qualifications. After graduating from the University of California at Davis, she started her career teaching high school math in Mississippi while getting her Masters. She later moved to North Carolina to be the Curator of Digital Media at North Carolina State University for the Public Science Lab; bridging the communication gap between public participants in science, scientists developing participatory research projects, and teachers developing curriculum for those projects. While there, Ms. Lea was a faculty member at the Mississippi Governor's School (a residential summer program for gifted kids) and a coordinator for Humans Vs. Zombies for both the North Carolina Governor's School and the Mississippi Governor's School. Then she became the Education Director for a science non-profit, SciStarter, and continued her work with scientists to bring authentic scientific research into the classroom. And 7 years ago, she transplanted to Massachusetts where she runs her business hand making Montessori materials and homeschooling her children. And while she was perfectly happy, the Kalexedy mission to build a special kind of school where class sizes are small, education is personalized, and neurodiversity is supported, brought her back into a classroom. In her own words, she "couldn't be happier."
So come for the amazing facility or the personal touch to academics, but stay because of Ms. Lea.
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