Q&A with our Academic Mentor, Leonora Shell

What is most attractive about working here? 

The most attractive thing about working at Kalexedy Learning Center is that all of my favorite parts of teaching are at the forefront of each day: connecting with students’ interests outside of school, tutoring, planning fun group enrichment activities, maintaining a comfortable learning environment, and spending time outdoors. 

Can you expand on that? 

• Connecting with students on their extracurricular activities, like coding, silks or public speaking, because these activities are part of their everyday learning. 

• There is ample space in their day to learn their special interests through their personal curriculums, especially with our homeschooled students.

• If a student is having trouble with their assignment they can ask a question and I am available to help – by either doing a quick example problem on the board or by sourcing a tutorial video – every day is different and I love learning alongside the students and digging through the backlog of lessons I have developed and taught in the last decade and a half. 

• As soon as kids walk in the front door they head for the shoe rack, it contains their slippers which they wear during the day here. They’re kicking up on bean bag chairs, relaxing on the couch, sprawling out on the floor, and sometimes even sitting at tables in chairs. It’s comforting in multiple ways that they feel so comfortable in the environment, as if it has become a second home to them, while they learn. 

• The enrichment activities were a huge draw to work here – especially since over my career my favorite days when I was developing reading hours when I worked in a library, doing educational outreach for entomology departments, developing and running Humans Vs. Zombies LARPs for Governor’s Schools in North Carolina and Mississippi and creating fun activities for my own children. 

• Our location has a beautiful outdoor area and we are near the reservoir, so there are a lot of opportunities to see wildlife in our urban environment. 

What about this opportunity pulled you away from the direction you had gone in your career? 

I have been running an educational business for eleven years and have been homeschooling my own kids for the last three of those years. It’s been the most rewarding and fun adventure with them at home, but I know that they were missing out on some social elements of traditional school. My daughters have become best friends while simultaneously being classmates, but I know they wanted to have more peers in their lives. They have no problems talking to adults and even called fellow students in their OutSchool classes “collaborators” – which told my husband and me that they have been overhearing our conversations about academia for far too long. I’m grateful that they now have classmates that are so encouraging and have brought cartwheel lessons, Semantle, and new drawing techniques into our lives. I can’t wait to see what else the school year brings as more students join us at Kalexedy!

Why change directions? What value are you getting? 

I still work for myself on nights and weekends, and continue to love what I do; my business is different from what I do every day in the classroom. So, to go from working for myself to the autonomy I have in the classroom has been an easy transition. I’m able to model and support students to work independently is a huge value add for me. As a parent I have raised my children by incorporating the Montessori philosophy from birth, so I have raised them to be independent, self-sufficient and community supporting adults. To be able to bring that parenting, business and homeschooling experience into the classroom, to prepare the environment for student success and exploration, has been such a gift. I truly feel valued as a teaching professional. 

What is your favorite part about working at Kalexedy Learning Center? 

The flexibility. I’m not speaking in the traditional sense of vacation time or remote work (but those options are great, too!), but in the pedagogical sense. Every Friday a different student is responsible for selecting and leading an hour lesson on whatever topic or activity they choose. This week one of our seventh graders chose henna art. So, as we sat around the table in our collaborative classroom, I was able to draw some beetles (my favorite animal) on a few of our arms and give an impromptu science lesson while the student leading the lesson showed off her ability to render perfect sea creatures and bunny rabbits on my daughters’ arms and legs. It was a wonderful way to spend an hour in the morning, learning about each other, trying something new and being creative while bonding before our second academic period! I could have never imagined the strong trust and camaraderie we’ve already built in our second week of class in a traditional classroom.