Talia Stewart

Talia loves the natural world and helping children understand how they are a part of it. Her experiential education at Blue Rock helped form her way of thinking about the world and encouraged her curiosity and excitement about learning. Talia holds a masters degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street Graduate School of Education. She received her bachelor's degree at Skidmore College. Throughout her studies and student teaching work she has been creating a nurturing environment for children, engaging them in cooperative learning while also seeing each child uniquely.

BRS: Tell us why you decided to become an educator.

TS: I have always loved spending time with children and enjoyed taking care of the younger ones even when I was a child myself. I am an imaginative and creative person and love being outside and tuning into nature. I loved all of the opportunities to explore and learn about myself and to feel like I belonged to a larger community as well. I had teachers at Blue Rock who made school meaningful and exciting. Each day was so much fun. Once I entered the Masters program at The Bank Street School I realized that most of my peers had decided to become educators as they had not had a fulfilling experience as students themselves and they wanted to make a difference for future students. I decided to become a teacher because my own experience of education was such a positive and special one.

BRS: What was student teaching like for you?

TS: I chose Bank Street as it has many great priorities that are similar to Blue Rock. The school values social emotional growth and experimental/experiential learning. Bank Street is an alternative and progressive school and I felt like a part of the community. The environment is quite urban when compared to Blue Rock, but there is still a lot of hands-on learning in the classroom environment. I enjoyed the attitude of letting go of negatives and embracing the positive, as well as having rules to help the little ones understand expectations, but to still give them room to make mistakes and learn from them with support from the teachers.

BRS: How did your years at Blue Rock influence the person you are today?

TS: Attending Blue Rock helped me develop independence and critical thinking. I was given the freedom and boundaries necessary to grow as an individual. I felt like my ideas were valued and that I was heard and understood. One example that comes to mind is how we were allowed to transition from one classroom to another with classmates without having a teacher with us. We were trusted to go from our classroom to the Annex or the Barn, to get to music or art by ourselves. I also loved running errands for the teacher, taking a message from one teacher to another and being allowed to walk across campus alone-on my own-even when I was younger. I felt self-sufficient, capable of making a good decision. At city schools and most other schools in general, children have little or no autonomy. A teacher is always with them, watching them. Although my Blue Rock teachers always had an eye on the children, they also made us, the students, feel that we had freedom to move through the campus on our own and to learn how to be responsible for ourselves and others. I am a strong decision maker in part because I was given choices and control over decisions.

BRS: Tell us about a favorite Blue Rock project.

TS: I enjoy challenges and love the adventure of trying new things. I am also good at working with others and finding a way to come to an agreement. One project that truly honed in on these aspects of who I am was our fifth grade boat building project. The theme for the year was Sustainability. Our teacher thought it would be a super project to build something useful out of recycled materials. My class came up with the idea of building a boat out of plastic bottles and plastic jugs. It was an exciting undertaking and became more involved with more problem-solving necessary as we went along. We had to figure out how to actually put the boat together. How would we tie the bottles? Make the boat float? How big should it be to hold all of us? We used our math skills, learned about making diagrams to build something, researched the best recycled materials to use, etc. We worked on the project throughout the semester and at the end of the term we were actually able to sail our boat on a nearby lake. It was thrilling and I learned so much throughout the process. It continues to be a favorite memory and bonded our class together in a deep and meaningful way.

BRS: As an educator now, what do you feel are some of the biggest challenges facing children today and what are you excited to implement to support students in those areas?

TS: Overall there is a rising trend of testing and academic pressure for children, especially in younger grade levels. There is a big difference between standardization and having standards. I believe children should be held to appropriately high expectations based on their development and engagement, rather than burdened by overwhelming standardized curriculum and assessment focusing almost completely on cognitive (academic) achievement. These expectations go directly against what we know is best for children’s holistic growth as human beings. I hope to forever see and approach children as whole people and help them keep their natural curiosities alive by engaging with their interests through multi-modal and creative methods. This includes paying just as much attention to the social-emotional and creative development of the next generation as other domains.