Helen Weeks ‘07
Teacher, Astor Montessori School
Beaver Reflections:
I graduated in 2007, and I loved Beaver. I’m still close to my friends from high school and although I haven’t visited Beaver in a while, I have been following the construction updates online! Beaver looks so different from when I was a student and it’s been fun seeing the new additions on the Beaver website and Instagram. Mr. Adjout was my advisor and favorite teacher; it’s great to see he’s in a new role leading the upper-school!
What is #happeningnow in your life:
I previously worked at a public school teaching students aged 5-10 for the past six years, and now work as a Montessori teacher and work with kids aged 3-6. The pandemic has been difficult because one of Montessori education’s main principles is that kids choose their own path; during an activity, they can choose to revisit it once or one hundred times. To return to the classic classroom setting where everyone is doing the same thing at the same time is a big adjustment for the kids. Another challenge is that we are used to no screens as a Montessori teacher, and now we are entirely virtual. I am trying to be creative and develop projects that kids can pick up and do on their own. Last year was my first year at this school, so I am learning as I go!
“I do environmental education—so much of my teaching is go outside, be away from your screen!—and now, I have to figure out how to do that virtually.” – Helen Weeks ’07
Advice to Beaver students:
Beaver teaches you to become a critical thinker and question the norm- I think I really underestimated that until after graduation. Once I got to college, I realized how much Beaver cares about their students as people and understand that there is so much more to education than grades. Now that I work in education, I try to find lessons to teach to the whole person as Beaver does. Be analytical. Keep doing that!