A Lifetime of Professionalism
Kristin Tarnas didn’t attend HPA as a student. But she has a pretty good idea of what it would have been like. She spent her high school years in boarding school on the East Coast. She lived in a dorm while attending Bennington College, a liberal arts college in Vermont with an enrollment not much larger than that of HPA. And she went on to receive her master’s degree from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City, one of the country’s most respected and progressive institutions of higher learning for educators.
She understands teaching, the role of a teacher, and the importance of having access to resources needed to ensure that the classroom is a place of learning. She also appreciates that others at HPA value these same things.
“I like the professionalism,” she said. “Your role as a teacher is taken seriously. We have the resources we need to do our job.” As an example, she points to a cart containing 22 laptop computers that are shared by the Lower School’s fourth and fifth graders. “They’re using them to learn word processing, technology publishing, and multi-media,” she said.
Kids in the Lower School interact with teachers who have different styles of teaching, she said. That helps to prepare them for the many different teachers they’ll encounter in Middle School, Upper School, during their college years, and careers. “Learning at an early age how to work with different adults gives them the confidence and personal strength they’ll need to apply themselves and make the most of their abilities,” she said.
She enjoys taking her fifth grade technology club to the new HPA Energy Lab on the Upper Campus, where she teaches a unit on electricity called Circuits and Pathways. “It’s an inspiring facility to teach and learn in,” she said. “To go to a special place to work is important, because the environment makes a difference.”
At the fifth grade level, Kristin says academics are only part of the learning process. “They’re also learning to have self-discipline and take personal responsibility,” she said. “They’re responsible for many of the routine activities that occur daily in the classroom.
“It is important that this is a small school,” she said. “As a teacher, I can be aware of and interact with students as individuals, and enjoy seeing their progress on their way to fifth grade and then through high school. After all, when it come to supporting the positive development of youth, it takes a village!"
