天堂鸟先生

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Winter 2019 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine

How to Live, Be, & Lead

Melinda Tsapatsaris, BSED 鈥�98, applies progressive pedagogy learned from OHIO鈥檚 Creating Active and Reflective Educators (CARE) program as the head of school at Westland School in Los Angeles, emphasizing inquiry-based, experiential learning and collaborative teacher-student partnerships in the democratic act of learning.

Mary Reed, BSJ 鈥�90, MA 鈥�93 | March 5, 2019

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Educator and leader Melinda Tsapatsaris puts progressive pedagogy into practice at Westland School in Los Angeles, California, where students and teachers are partners in the democratic act of learning.

Twenty years into her career as an educator, alumna Melinda Tsapatsaris still finds practice a key to her, well, practice.

鈥淚 like that we never think we have it down, that practice means repetition and reflection and revising for the next time鈥攈ow to meet children鈥檚 needs in the most reflective way,鈥� she says.

It鈥檚 no wonder Tsapatsaris, BSED 鈥�98, uses the words 鈥渞eflection鈥� and 鈥渞eflective.鈥� As a member of a student cohort in The Patton College of Education鈥檚 award-winning Creating Active and Reflective Educators (CARE) program, she uses its principles as head of school (akin to superintendent) at the independent K-12 school she leads.

鈥淭he CARE program was totally authentic in that it modeled how its students should live, be, and lead in schools,鈥� Tsapatsaris says. 鈥淭he program emphasized project-based learning, reflection, grappling, Socratic methods, democratic practices, critical and creative thinking, multicultural practice, and relationship building.鈥�

students in a classroom around a teacher

Melinda Tsapatsaris learned the impact of practicing democracy in the K-12 classroom through OHIO鈥檚 Patton College of Education鈥檚 Creating Active and Reflective Educators (CARE) program. Photo by Kyle Grillot, BSVC 鈥�12

While at OHIO, Tsapatsaris recalls a time when an instructor demonstrated what it means to practice democracy in the classroom. The instructor asked the class to share the grade they felt they deserved on an assignment.

鈥淭his self-reflection, this idea of empowering the student, takes out that hierarchical model,鈥� Tsapatsaris says.

Putting knowledge into practice

Students call teachers by their first names at Westland School, a school that champions inquiry-based, experiential learning. When she observes a classroom at Westland, Tsapatsaris says, she鈥檚 looking to see that the students are the ones working hardest, not the teacher, who is 鈥渢here giving them counsel,鈥� she says.

Tsapatsaris says CARE taught her the importance of continuously cultivating a sense of community in schools, a lesson she learned as a member of a three-year-long OHIO student cohort placed in Athens County鈥檚 rural Federal Hocking School District.

鈥淵ou have to build a really connected community to get to the place where you鈥檙e taking big intellectual risks,鈥� she says. 鈥淟earning is a social act.鈥�

 

Feature photo: Westland School鈥檚 teachers and head of school Melinda Tsapatsaris [LEFT] practice progressive pedagogy at the Los Angeles, California, school, where students and teachers are united in the democratic act of learning. Photo by Kyle Grillot, BSVC 鈥�12